Colette Peony - aka Stashbusting Flamingoes

I have had this pattern lying around for 3 months now, along with the fabric I bought especially for this.

A gorgeous yellow-pistachio silk jacquard.
I love yellow fabrics, there is just something about the bright vibrance that cheers me up instantly (not that I need a lot of cheering up, I am a pretty cheery person by nature).
But somehow, the foresight of letting my scissors have a go at this fabric left me with a feeling of gloom.

After reading a lot of reviews of this pattern (here, here and here amongst others) and the fitting issues, I felt even worse about starting this project.

When I finally did decide to go for it, I left ALL precaution behind and cut in the original pattern right away...

Yes I do!

While I was cutting away my pattern, I had an epiphany.

I still had this in my stash. A soft yellow, Michael Miller quilt cotton sporting crazy flamingoes.  Doesn't this just SCREAM summer?

Once I made the decision to change my fabric, I felt a huge weight being lifted of my shoulders and I was feeling enthusiastic about this project again.

I really wanted sleeves and pockets in this dress, I don't know exactly why, just an irrational desire I guess, so I omitted the belt part because I only had 2 yards of this fabric (don't know how much that is in metric, just that you can just, just, just fit a size 8 Peony without belt out of it). I can always add a belt later if I really want to, but I don't think that's likely as I'm not a belt-person. (Do those even exist?)

 I am really self-conscious when my picture is taken, I guess I have to get used to these photoshoots... This time we went to one of the twelve beaches of Santander to snap some photos, it was the first time in over a month that the sun was out, it was still pretty cold, 17º, and my legs are still awfully white, I haven't been to the beach yet this year to get a tan...

While perusing through my pattern-instructions (I always do that before starting, I think it's half the fun) I saw the suggestion of adding piping to the waist- and neckline. Lucky for me I had some white piping sitting in my stash so I could add that. I also added piping to the sleeves. I thought about adding piping to the hem as well, but I didn't have enough piping left (I'm on a very tight budget so buying piping wasn't going to happen) so I just did an invisible hem with bias-tape and using the special foot that came with my machine.

I love the effect of the piping, it gives such a retro-girly feeling to the dress.

I thought about inserting an exposed metalic zipper, but I really wanted this dress finished as soon as possible so I could pick up my husband from the airport in it (He went to the Canary Islands for work. How unfair is that?) so I used one from my huge zipper stash (last year I bought a surprise bag of 100 zippers on E-Bay). I found a really long, beige, invisible one, perfect for this dress.

I have one of those plastic feet for invisible zippers, but I don't like using it, so I use my regular-zipperfoot for inserting invisible zippers. I think they end up looking better (or looking more invisible, in this case) than with the plastic foot.

I forgot to add the piping to the neckline, and thought about leaving it so, but 'lucky' for me I sewed the pieces for the facing together the wrong way so I ended up with an odd-looking standing-straight-up neckline. This meant unpicking the staystitches, the seam and the bias tape I used to finish the raw edge of the facing. Lucky me, indeed...

So, I redid the entire facing, WITH the piping this time (silver lining people!), but the neckline still does something weird, especially in the back. This could be due to an excess of fabric that many of you already commented about.

I hope it will be allright when the dress gets some wear or maybe when it has been in the washing machine. We'll see, I won't lie awake worrying about it.

And then there are the pockets so many of you love so much.

I am somewhat impartial as to the pockets (in dresses in general). I'll probably use them, but wouldn't be heartbroken if there were no pockets in this dress either. I really don't care about them. At all.

So my dread about the Peony and all it's fitting issues, proved to be unnecessary after all. This is an out-of-the-envelope-size-8 (I was feeling lazy) and I am really really really satisfied with the fit and outcome.

This goes right to my top-3-favourite-makes of all-times, along with my purple knit dress and my blue polkadot dress, and my husband loves it too, he even noticed the piping...

HOORAY for Colette Peony... and flamingoes...  and using the stuff you have in your stash!

This is me, imitating the crazy flamingo that is on the fabric.

XO 

She's alive!

Let me introduce you to my sewing machine, also referred to as My precious (yes, with the Gollum-voice)... Her name is Aline and I consider her to be my best friend in Spain. Not in the world. I left some truly fabulous people behind!

Here we are being retro/vintage 8 years ago

Here we are being retro/vintage 2 years ago... Do I sense a theme?
And my friend is pregnant is both pictures, what a coincidence...

At the beginning of the weak on Tuesday I nearly had a heart attack. My most precious possession (I don't consider my family my possession, although they are more precious to me!) didn't function as she should anymore.

My stitches were all loose on the bottom... GASP! Did it have anything to do with the shirt for my husband I am finishing up? Did she not like the fabric, the design, or just the fact that I was not sewing for myself again? (Aline loves me very much...)

I don't know what was wrong with her, but I couldn't rush her to the sewing-machine doctor quite fast enough.

It was like when I got her, two years ago, my old Toyota (that I didn't particularly love and didn't have a name either) had just broken down at 4o'clock in the afternoon, so I quickly did a bit of searching on the internet and rushed out the door to get me a new sewing machine in the Netherlands (that sounds really crazy, going to another country to buy a machine, but I lived really close to the border, it was actually the nearest sewing-machine shop...). 

Now that I think of it, it was also on a Tuesday... (I remember because it was when I was still working and feeling miserable doing my job and it was my half-day off... HALF-day off, pff, can you believe that?!)

To my horror the machine-doctor (doctor of machines, not a machine being a doctor like in StarWars or StarTrek) told me she had to stay over in his little hospital and that it would be at least a week before he would call me to let me know how much this was going to cost me. A WEEK! Another GASP!

Fortunately, she wasn't alone... A whole bunch of other machines were there too.

So to my big surprise, the man called me yesterday morning (in Spain that means anything from 10.00 a.m. till 2.00 p.m.) to tell me he could fix her that same day for a price that was within my budget (buying a house really takes a huge slice out of a budget...)! Angels were singing - or maybe it was the sound of the rain falling - again/still!

So in the afternoon (in Spain the afternoon goes on untill like 8.00 p.m., got to love them, even if it was just for that) I went to pick her up. The man complemented me on her soft touch and excellent sewing. I knew she would do me proud!

So now she's back where she belongs, in the mess that I call my sewing space! HOORAY!

Colette Eclair

My Colette Eclair is done! Yay! 

Another pattern chosen by my man for my birthday!

I will show you a few close-up pictures because I won't show the dress on me before the wedding it is made for. My first idea was to make this a maxi-dress but maxi-dresses aren't really my thing. I love them, and I always try one on, but they're just not meant for me. Just like jumpsuits - oh, how I want a jump suit...

The dress came together like a dream! I made a muslin first out of a sheet that had been left here, made a few alterations that were easily transfered to the real dress.

The fabric is the most gorgeous silk-poly blend I have ever laid eyes upon. It's the Violet's fabric big sister, with (almost) the same background color and big bright pink birds flying around. Cutting this fabric wasn't really easy because it really shifted around all over the place. And this fabric had a lot less issues with threads running and leaving little white stripes all over the place!

The lining is a simple purple polyester fabric, to which I added black knit fusible interfacing and I used the sew-in boning for the first time, and I am sold! Way easier than making tunnels to pass the boning through. Won't be doing that again!

I did use a piece of sturdy cotton on each end of the boning to prevent the boning tearing through the fabric, or my skin - that happened to me once with my favourite dress ever, my wedding dress... By the end of the night I had scratch marks all over my belly...

 

 

To make the inside pretty again after sewing in the boning, I added a strap of ribbon I had lying around - I think I used it to put a bow on gifts - over the stitches of the boning. No-one will see it, but I will know it's there. I love that about self-made things, the details are not all on the outside, you can have a little secret on the inside too if you want.

Then there was the zipper - how I do not like putting in zippers. 

I once bought 100 zippers for 30€ from e-bay and they came in quite the rainbow of colors and an enormous variety of lengths. I chose an invisible pink zipper and put it in with my regular zipper-foot. I have one of those plastic feet for invisible zippers but I don't like using it and I have noticed that putting in an invisible zipper with my regular zipper-foot works just as well.

I had a bit of trouble lining everything up, so right where my armpit is, there is a very small irregularity, but no-one will notice as it is up my armpit and I don't expect someone taking an interest in that...

I think it would be best if the instructions for the Colette were the other way around when it comes to inserting the zipper. Next time (and there will be a next time, summer is around the corner after all) I will first close the side seam of the skirt, then put in the zipper and then sew the lining and the shell together. I think that will make closing the side seam easier... 

All that is left now is to sew the waistlines of lining and shell together - I will do that last minute so if I have to make changes to the dress I won't need to separate the pieces first - and the hems. I'm thinking about inserting fishing line in the hem(s) so that I get this nice curly effect.

Image from this page - I don't particularly like this dress but you get the idea...

When I first showed it to my husband he wasn't quite convinced that it was festive enough. Maybe because I was wearing leggings and sneakers. So I put my glitter-shoes on and that gave me his stamp of approval too. Yeay!

Only worn twice before, so still considered new shoes.

The wedding is July 5th, we are flying to Belgium on July 4th and are heading back home on the 7th. Very short trip, but it will be massive fun! Pictures of the dress in action will be posted fairly soon after that!

XOXO

Burda - a challenge

Don't let these pictures fool you, it is still supercold around here, and right after we took these pics I put my sweater and winter coat back on...

There is a Burda challenge going on in blogland where you have to make an item from the previous issue of BurdaStyle magazine before you can buy a new one. I admire the ladies that enter this challenge because I am a hoarder when it comes to patterns. I download, print, buy, pin them but then easily forget about them and go for a new one before even making the patterns I got earlier...

Anyway, last month I was in Bilbao again, shopping for fabric for my husband's wedding shirt. The fabric we wanted wasn't in stock but we did find a nice piece of fun summer fabric in the remnants bin with my name written all over it:

You can' t really tell from this picture, but this is neon-green!

 I wanted a quick win after the struggling I had with my Violet, so I thought I'd go with an easy top. I went through all my patterns and Burda magazines and settled on this one.Burda 07/2012 #116.

Never trust a pattern where the model is shown lying down...

I remeasured myself and went for the right size this time, but I still felt like the top was way to big. So I took in the raglansleeves and took a whole bunch from the side seams and then, just as I was about to enter the home stretch, or so I thought, I cut in my fabric. Not just a little cut close to a side, NO, a big gash in the middle of the fabric. I hate it when things go wrong... 
So, I put my peanut to work and came up with a solution, not a perfect solution, but a solution anyway... So that explains that little strap hanging from the front... It's just a cover-up... But shh, don't tell anyone please!

I'm still not satisfied with the neckline after adding a lot of pleats (1 in the center front, one on each sleeve and 2 in the back) and I think I know how to fix it (by adding 2 more pleats :-(  ) , but I'm a bit tired of removing and re-attaching bias-strips for a while, so I'll just leave it like this for now...
What was supposed to be a quick top took me several hours (days), and a lot of headaches and almost a heartbreak thinking I had ruined my great fabric...

So I guess there is more than one way to interpret a Burda-challenge...