FINISHED! Iris shorts in giveaway denim

It feels like it's been a while since some selfish sewing, so I'm happy to introduce you to my Iris shorts in giveaway denim.

Giveaway denim? Well, a couple of weeks ago I was the lucky winner of some fabric from Gabrielle which she was giving away to celebrate 3 great years of blogging.  I was ecstatic!  I had been searching for denim like the one offered for ages and here it was. Only  0.6 x 1.3 m of it, but just perfect.  A heavy light blue denim. Oh and how about that fantastic YSL colouring book that came with it!!

So I didn't have much denim to work with, but I was convinced that I could get a pair of shorts out of the fabric.  Enter the Colette Patterns Iris shorts.   I had just enough to make the size 6.  I had to do the waistband facing and the pocket lining in Liberty. You can imagine how much I hated that!!?  I got to use up some of Tom's Jets fabric which was great.

So here they are! I love them. I know this pattern has been around for a while and it's not really news, but the pockets are too cute in that front seam.  The denim provides a great retro feel to them. I'm wearing it here with Pattern W from Les Couleurs Francaise made up in  Liberty of London, Wiltshire.

In the end the 6 was a bit baggy around the waist so ended up taking them in on the sides. Next time I'll make the 4 up in maybe a slightly lighter weight fabric as the invisible zipper doesn't really like going over the waistband seam. It was a straightforward make, although like all my easy makes I did rush them a bit. I could probably make some further adjustments but for a first attempt I think the fit is pretty good. 

FINISHED! Laurel Fall

It's been a little while between sewing finishes, but today, I finished my Colette Laurel in the fabric (Liberty and pinwheel corduroy) I bought at La Droguerie in France just before coming home.  The pattern itself is easy and the instructions are superb.  Unfortunately this dress took way longer for me to complete than it should have.

I had a bit of stage fright with this.  Firstly I had been away from my machine for a little while and secondly during the construction I kept questioning my fabric choices, with Ben at one point stating that the dress looked like something from the middle ages - or worse.

I had a bit of trouble with the fitting as well.  I made up a size 4 but had to take in at least an inch from each side.  The bust darts.... well you can see from the photos that they aren't exactly right..... although strangely they were fine in my final fitting after I dropped the shoulder seams down to 1/4 inch.  Just goes to show that I wasn't careful enough to check all positions - or else I hold myself strangely in photos.  I think I've read elsewhere that the armscye is small and I agree with this.  I had to chop about 1/2 inch into it to make it bigger and possible for my arm to get in and move!  

My 'bib' is also a bit out - which is annoying but I'm hoping isn't too obvious when wearing it.

You'll notice also that I changed the sleeves as well.  I'm not a fan of a tight fitting sleeves so adopted the sleeve from Tilly's Mathilde blouse to fit.  

All in all, it's an odd sort of interpretation by me of the pattern, which one minute I like and the next not so much.  I had decided to make an autumn Laurel for the contest and so tried to make something that had a real Autumn feel about it.  I definitely think it has that, so feel I met my personal brief.  I hemmed it by an inch to make it really mini (I'm really short so beware if you aren't as it is short - and shorter in the back than the front).

I'm not sure how much wear I'll get out of it but it is fun and with the right attitude might be of  'a fashion' enough for me to wear to fashfest next week.