After the challenge

Hello, everyone! It's been a while and actually, this post was supposed to be up on Monday, but... well, life got in the way. I spent most of my time either studying, with my boyfriend or with my doggie.

Next week I have the last two exams of this session, so cross your fingers for me but don't expect much content from this poor neglected blog, especially sewing related posts.

Anyway, I can't wait to get back to sewing. It's one of my most frequent thoughts, after all, and I'm sure I'm in good company. :)

My next projects will be a pair of shorts and another dress, but this time I want to take it slow and make a muslin for both. The time limit of the June challenge forced me to cut some corners and, being a perfectionst, I wasn't always happy of the outcome.

I sure was very happy with dress number one and four, and I want to thank you all for your sweet comments. Dresses one, two and four were also featured on Burdastyle front page, and I was very very flattered since I'm a big fan of the community.

For the moment I wish you all a great weekend. I'll spend it to the seaside and I won't have Internet access, so if you have any question or comment, I'll only be able to respond on Monday.

Bye!

p.s. If you want to see how the other participants of the challenge did, you can take a look at the Flickr group!

June challenge dress 4 - The Alice dress

Two days late, but I made it! And I'm really satisfied with my last dress.

As I've already told you, I had a change of plan with the patterns I chose.

I used pattern 104 from Burda 02/2011, but since it was a little plain for me, I added a huge bow on the front. It might not be for everyone, but I'm a sucker for bows!

The fit was spot on this time, although I made the panels for the skirt smaller than required by the Burda instructions, because it didn't want too much volume. Actually, I didn't follow the instructions at all, since they were a bit ridiculous (for example, they make you sew just one pocket to the skirt!).

The fabric I used is a baby blue linen I had in my stash and I love both the color (which reminds me a lot of Alice in Wonderland) and the slightly crinckled texture. I lined the dress with a flowery material that I find very sweet (my mom and I were given a whole bolt of it as a gift).

These are also my first photos with my new SLR camera and I've already fallen in love with it, though we still need to get properly acquainted.
Oh, and if you're wandering why I'm wearing a cardigan on July 2nd, it' because it's 17°C today. :(

So... the challenge is finished, what's next? Stay tuned!

June challenge dress 3 - Fail?

There was a change of plan and I didn't tell you. Do you remember the dresses I chose for the challenge? Turns out I wasn't completely sold on the last two: the shirtdress, I was afraid I wouldn't have  worn it and the one with the peter pan collar needed some adjustements which I hadn't time to make (but maybe I'll still try that pattern in the future). So, after seeing Mathilde's beautiful version of this very simple dress from Burda 05/2010, I decided I could try and make it myself. It's not a silhouette I usually wear (and I still don't know how much I will wear it).

I used a cotton lawn I had in my stash and when I noticed it was going to be too similar to a nightgown, I decided to use grey for the back piece, to create some interest (I love the combination of grey and pink). I modified the button placket on the front piece just sewing the two parts together and putting the buttons as decoration. I was afraid buttonholes would get too stressed over time, since it's a quite snug on the breast area.

The back is very flattering (even on a not-so-fit-looking back like mine). Do you remember I told you I had a very bad sunburn? Here it is:

It would seem that 30+ sunscreen is not enough when hiking. Lesson learnt.

Anyway, I still think it looks too much like a nightgown, although it's much cuter with a cardigan. Please, give me your imput!

Now, just one more dress to go! I hope I'll be able to finish it tomorrow and post photos on Friday. I'll be one day late, but I'm sure you will forgive me. :)

P.s. Isn't that Macaron necklace cute? It' made by the lovely Merylu of Petite Fraise, you can find links to her shops on her blog.

June challenge dress 2 - Burda 101

It's the last week of June and I miss two more dresses! Don't worry, one is done and the last one is already cut and ready to be sewn.
This, instead, is dress number 2, for which I used pattern 101 from Burda 02/2011. This pattern was quite successful among bloggers, so you probably might have already seen it.

I modified the front bust part by pivoting the darts (I used Gertie's tutorial). I wanted to create a chevron effect and I am satisfied with the result, although the subtle stripes of the fabric I used did not give the dramatic effect I would have preferred. So I used piping on the neckline and arm openings and I sewed a band on the hem with the stripes going in the opposite direction.
I like this dress, although not nearly as my previous one. The fit is good, but not excellent: when I lean forward there's a BIG gap between my bust and the dress, which is something I also really hate in RTW garments. I guess I should start to make FBA on my patterns... Do you have any suggestions?
It looks better belted, but of course I forgot to take a photo with a belt on.

Speaking of photos, I really care about the quality of the images on my blog and that's why I'm really disappointed with this photoshoot. My brother kindly borrowed my camera without asking, so I had to shoot with my old crappy point-and-shoot camera. Plus, I went hiking on the Alps yesterday, so you can see from my weitd facial expressions that I was pretty exhausted, but it was so worth it, since I got to see places like this one:

I also got a very ugly sunburn on my shoulders, which you'll see on Wednesday, when I'll show you my third dress. Bye, for now!

June challenge dress 1 - The "Parfait" Sundress

The "parfait" sundress, you know, because "parfait" means perfect in French... That was quite a lame play on words, uh? Hey, it's not easy to be funny in another language!

Anyway, let me introduce you one of the creations I'm most proud of: the Parfait dress from Colette. It's also my first finished garment for the June challenge.

I really think this is the perfect sundress: it's comfy while very flattering, I love the stripes and the  seersucker has a great consistency. It even has cute pockets!

It's actually not my first attempt at this pattern: I had tried it maybe two years ago but I made a terrible fabric choice (a silky material) and it ended up looking too much like a slip. Since then, the pattern rested in my box until I decided I had to give it another go... and it was a success!

I didn't make ANY modifications to the pattern and it fits like a glove. Don't you love when that happens? And I added soft pink buttons for extra cuteness.

I'm going to add the photos of this garment to the Flickr group of the June challenge. Check it out if you haven't already, there's some beautiful stuff there.

The second dress is almost ready, so hopefully you will see it by the end of this week.

The June challenge

Hello everyone! No, I'm not dead nor I disappeared on a tropical island... I'm just undergoing a stressful time with my university exams and sometimes blogging feels like too much distraction, so I took a little break from it. I'm looking forward to the half of July, when my exams will be over.

Anyway, a BIG thank you to everyone that commented on my Ginger skirt, you were all so kind! You also helped me figure out that I should shorten the skirt a couple cms to make it more wearable (although I haven't done this yet, ahem).

Today I have a little announcement, something exciting for this blog: I decided to participate to Stephanie's June Challenge which consists in creating four dresses in June. Yes, I'm VERY late (as usual, I might add), so to be realistic I might not make it and finish the last dress in the first week of July. I hope the other participants will forgive me, if that happens. I decided to take part to the challenge in order to keep myself productive: when I'm stressed, I tend to procrastinate a lot and to waste a bunch of time basically doing nothing. This is going to be a nice incentive to spend my free time more wisely and to do some sewing, which usually relaxes me a lot.

These are the dresses I chose:

♥ Dress 101 from Burda 02/2011
♥ Colette's Parfait
♥ Dress 128 from Burda 05/2011
♥ Dress 117 from Burda 05/2011

And these are the fabric choices I've already made:

A blue/greyish lightweight cotton for the first dress. I want to play a little bit with the stripes (you'll see).

More stripes! This is seersucker, I love its texture and the colour gives me a bit of nautical feel (yes please!).

That's it for now, but expect more soon; after all, I have quite a bit of catching up to do!