May 6th Merci Suzanne

Il y a quelques années de ça, alors que je paradais une de mes tenues, mon patron de l'époque a mentionné que sa belle-mère était une excellente couturière et qu'elle avait plein de tissus dans son grenier dont elle voulait se débarrasser. J'ai dit "amène!". Des 2 sacs poubelle pleins que j'ai reçu, j'ai gardé les plus beaux et les autres ont servi à faire des essais. Le polyester est parti au recyclage.
Voici un des tissus qu'elle m'a laissé, un magnifique voile paisley en laine avec des couleurs d'une richesse incroyable. Le Java de l'Oscar de La Renta vient d'elle aussi.
Merci Suzanne!

May 5th, Claire Shaeffer and Burda

The free Burda 1 piece Kimono T's are finished and I was wearing one yesterday, with my pink double-knit Claire Shaeffer Vogue 7467 jacket, part of my ongoing self-taught sewing education. There is a detail on the t-shirt refashion which you don't see. When I lay the the original shirt on the pattern, I was missing some fabric on the shoulder, so I worked around it by adding some bits from the bottom and used a double needle and contrasting thread. 

Here is the original, 27 pattern pieces!

May 4th, Teal Traina

I have a closetful of stuff that never see the light of day. 

This Teal Traina pattern coatdress in stretch silk is one of them. It was made when I got a real kick out of making complicated stuff with couture details. I have since sobered up and sew stuff I can wear everyday.  When I look at them, I am saddened by all the hard work that no one ever sees, but if you look on the bright side, this is how I got my sewing education. 

I should do a post about little tricks for wearing silk in your day to day life. You know tell you to wear gloves for doing the dishes and an apron being mandatory and avoid cooking with oil or frying anything! 

I couldn't get a good picture of myself today, I look like a stewardess from the 70's, except that at that time, there were no stewardesses my age so it's not pretty. Also I lost about 5kg since I made it and it's huge. So for now, I'll show you my crummy bound buttonhole, my first, and one more example of how much I like a bias finish.

But beleive you me, I am wearing it today, Me-Made-May makes you do the darnest things!

Update : you can see here, it's way too big.

May 3rd : Another T-Shirt

It's way too cold to bother wearing anything else than pants and a t-shirt!

It was 26° C last week and now it's 5°. I may get my sweaters out!

I look like a flasher, but really, I am not that perverted unless you say : Sewing!

(Merci Marianne!)