Two-colour dresses

Hey there, how are you? I've been experimenting with dresses recently, I'm trying to figure out a design that would allow me to wear them more often without feeling too dressed up. Indeed I've realised that I feel awkward wearing the same print or colour from head to toe, and so I had a revelation^^: how about using TWO different fabrics? I gave it a try using the bodice part of a Burda mag pattern (March 2011) and a simple gathered skirt with a sewn-on belt and remnants from my stash. I'm pretty satisfied with the result, the fit is great even though the armholes are a bit tight and the dress is actually cute:

I love the V shape at the back!

The green fabric is a remnant from another dress project which turned out perfect, I have yet to take pics of it but it's really cool, a simple gathered sundress with an early 80's feel, I hope I can show it to you soon! Back to the 2-tone dress, I got carried away and thought I had found the best project for some striped silk I had been hoarding for a looooong time: bad idea. The silk was far too thin and the bodice rippled and just didn't work well. Sigh, I took a photograph before ripping it:


I tell you this dress is doomed, I spent my free time sewing another bodice out of white cotton, this time with sleeves because I wanted to add a little something and the damn thing turned out too small -I suspect that it shrinked when I washed it even though I had steamed it beforehand :( I'm going to rip this one too and leave the skirt to rest a little while, maybe I'll have an idea and finish it eventually. That's it, have a nice week people, see you!

Miaou

Hello! A quick post to show you a top I made this weekend still using the latest SDB:


In the book design N has two layers -a cotton shell and an organza outer top- but I only needed one, so I chose to trace the shell part since it has much less gathers than the other part. I'm not even going to comment on the fabric, those who follow this blog regularly must know by now that I cannot resist a Japanese kitty print and the collar part is made of plain black cotton. The design is quite loose, which I adore, but strangely I felt like wearing it with a belt today.



Lol and yes I heard a song when I finished it, it was Sade's "Is it a criiiiiime?" that I completed with "... that a grown a** woman wears a top with kittens in bathing suits on iiiiiiiit"! See ya!

Lucky chance top

Hiya! I've recently bought this book and it has such sweet designs that I was eager to try them all. My favourite however was this one, the R dress:


I love the sweetheart detail, contrast upper bodice and the slightly loose fit which make the dress feminine yet easy to wear and accessorise. I wanted to make sure my usual alterations on the size and position of the bust darts (they are often too high for us westerners) were correct so I decided to cut a short version out of leftovers, but when tracing the changes I felt like no gathers would work better on a top. Moreover I have enough gathered tops to last me a lifetime! So, a few modifications later I ended with this:

Edit:

A somewhat decent picture of the top worn!

The pinkish/apricot fabric is a remnant from some very soft polysomething found in the dollar bin and with which I had tried to make trousers that ended the worst garment on earth and the upper part is plain white cotton. The neckline and armholes are bound with bias tape and even though I forgot the back slit I can pull it over my head without any problems.
On a side note and trying not to sound too creepy^^, I've noticed that when I'm satisfied with something I've sewn I often think about a song that matches the garment. For example when I finished this one I thought about an old French song by Sacha Distel called "La belle vie" -Tony Bennett sang it in English with "The good life". It's such a lovely song!

Have a nice week, see you!

Kitty fabric Burda top

Hello there! Today's garment is my second version of this Burda top, I just narrowed the shoulders by 1.5 cm because they seemed a bit boxy and reduced the length and width of the original ties because I didn't have enough fabric. Talking about the fabric, if I tell you that it's Japanese, cotton and that it has tiny kitties on it can you guess how much I love it or what^^? Look:


Cuuuuute!!!! Now for the top (I've given up taking pics myself so this one is courtesy of my mum):

So maybe my only complaint would be that the fabric is a bit stiff for this design; since it has no darts and therefore no definition whatsoever the crepe I used the first time is probably better suited. I do love my top though and I even had compliments from two little ladies about it, it had never happened with my other garments so imagine how glad I was!
Also one last thing I want to show you, the biggest tomato I've ever found in my garden:

It weighed about 150 gr and it was yummy! That's it, see you soon!

It's me again^^

Hello friends, how are you?! I'm so sorry I went MIA for a few weeks but I had a big case of laziness and I couldn't be bothered with taking pictures of what I had done, editing them -I'm so bad at taking photographs so this is something I always have to do- trying to find stuff to write that won't sound too boring or silly etc. Plus I had loads of work, my baby came back after his 9 months in France :) and finally I went on holiday. Anyway I want to apologize to the amazing Zoe for stopping Me-Made-June so suddenly and dear Hillary -my sewing idol!- and Ophelia thanks for your kind concern, it meant a lot to me!
I overcame my aversion to taking pics today and therefore have a garment to show you:

This is a shirt I made back in May, I used a slightly modified version of the knock-off shirt and black baby gingham. I was obsessed with daisy chains back then but couldn't find the correct embellishment so I bought white flower trim and coloured the center with a yellow fabric felt tip:

Lol to finish here's the only pic I could salvage of me in the shirt:

I have a lot of blog reading to catch up with, some new fabrics to wash and iron and plenty of new sewing books so I'm not sure when I can post again, until then see you!