Pastille | LLADYBIRD

Tag Archives: Pastille

Me Made May – Week 5 Roundup

Well, Me-Made-May is finally over – 5 weeks/31 days of handmade with daily photographs. I’m not even going to pretend I wasn’t relived to NOT take a photo of myself this morning 🙂

Since I was on vacation pretty much the entire week, I tried to be creative with my photos (mostly because I didn’t want to drag the tripod, camera *and* laptop with me to Florida lol). It was a bit of a struggle on a couple of the days, mostly because I spent lots and lots of time in my bathing suit… but I managed!

5-26
Shirt: Sewaholic Renfrew – modified some more since it’s original inception; you can’t see it too well but I cut the ribbing off the bottom & replaced it with wide lace (just like my Taffy blouse)
Pants: Colette Clovers
Necklace: Vintage bracelet I turned into a necklace
Shoes: Rugged Warehouse
Shades: Pangea
After a long day of driving (nearly 8 hours in the car! Plus 2 hours at some rando gas station after a belt in Landon’s car snapped & we had to wait for my dad to fix it. Which was preferable to towing it to some shop & paying them assloads of money to fix it, by the way!), we made it to Santa Rosa Beach! This is the view/balcony via our condo.

Uh huh.

5-27
Top: Giant men’s Hawaiian shirt resized by me
Skirt: Vintage, dyed by me
Shoes: Rugged Warehouse
Couldn’t get anyone to take a picture of me, so I settled for one of those awful mirror shots in the fitting room at Goodwill haha.

5-28
Top: thrifted – from the aforementioned Goodwill, no less!
Shorts: Simplicity 5110
Shoes: Walmart
Hat: Not mine, just trying on the goods
This was taken in a cute little town called Seaside, just a few miles from Santa Rosa Beach. We rode our bikes there, and I spent the entire time dying over the bike paths-

Totally flat, totally separate from the main road (which is on the left). It was SO NICE! I wish we had commuter/non-greenway bike paths like this in Nashville.

Seaside was really cute – there were tons of bikes

And shopping

And food trucks

And pretty things to look at

And a bonus outfit shot from Monday, 5/28:

Birthday dinner with Landon (and the rest of the family). I wore Vogue 1174. I knowwww I should have worn my birthday dress (I even brought it!) but everyone else was pretty casual so I decided on the blue dress at the last minute. SORRY.

5-29
Dress (worn as a swimsuit coverup): Hawaiian Sundress
Hell yeah I spent the whole day at a waterpark. And then Fudpuckers (where my little brother lost his debit card & the kind man at the bank verified the last transaction was from “pudfuckers” lol), and then some chintzy tourist shop called Alvin’s.
From left to right – Maddie (Matt’s girlfriend), my mom, Caroline (my niece), Matt (little brother!), me, my dad, & Landon.

5-30
Top: Jalie 2921
Skirt: Vintage, dyed by me
Party Hat: YEP
Last time at the beach! I gave up on trying to wear cute outfits & just put on something comfortable for the drive home 🙂

5-31
Dress: Colette Parfait
Shoes: Target
Purse: Thrifted
Scarf (tied on purse): Flea Market
Last day of Me-Made-May! I celebrated by going to my favorite fabric store for their 50% off sale 🙂

So yeah! I consider this may a total success – albeit not nearly long enough, as I still have masses of handmade clothing yet to be worn. Oh well! Since wearing my stuff wasn’t really much of a challenge, I tried to mix up how I wore it, and I think I did pretty good! I can’t think of anything this challenge made me realize I had gaping, except maybe some summer jeans – which I bought fabric for yesterday, btw! I also used this challenge as a kick the butt to get me into my mending/fit-fixin’ pile, for certain things I never wanted to wear (I’m looking at you, Swiss Dot Violet!)

The only thing that I didn’t like was the daily photos… it got old pretty fast, and felt pretty narcissistic the entire time. I did find myself getting more comfortable in front of the camera, until I got to the point where I didn’t feel like I needed to take 40+ pictures to get that ~one perfect shot~.

Here are the rest of MMM’12 posts, if you missed them the first go-round!
Me Made May, Week 1
Me Made May, Week 2
Me Made May, Week 3
Me Made May, Week 4

And a big big BIG thanks to Zoe for pulling the whole thing together! Apparently, this was the biggest Me-Made-Month yet; I hope we made you proud 😀

So today is June 1st, and here I am wearing all handmade anyway hahaha

Top: Leotard reconstructed by me into a tank top
Trousers: Vogue 2925
Cardigan: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Thrifted

Tags: clover, Jalie, Me Made May '12, pants, Pastille, reconstructions, renfrew, Scarf neck top, shorts, skirt, top, vacation, vogue

Comments 16 Comments
Categories Me Made May

Completed: Colette Pastille

12 Mar

Well you guys, I defeated the Pastille pattern! Wheeeee me!

I actually feel pretty good about this dress – I wasn’t totally crazy about it when I saw the pictures in the book (I think the coral color of the fabric – while lovely, just looks waay too much like the model’s skin. It would have been better suited for a lady with a darker complexion), but I think that the overall shape, if properly fitted, is actually quite flattering. And while it really lends itself well to a print, I think it would make a sweet little basic black dress, since the shape is unique enough in itself 🙂

Fitting… fitting this thing was weird. I already glossed over the process in my last Pastille post, but to summarize – while I pretty much *always* need a FBA, this pattern did not require one (didn’t figure that out until after I’d cut & taped all over the tissue though, arhghhghh!!). Actually, the finished measurements were just wrong – I cut a size 2 and the bust measurement was much closer to 36″, not the 34.5″ the book says. Consider yourselves warned!
The next fitting problem I had was with that damn back… I didn’t take any pictures of my muslin, but it billowed out all over the place across the upper back. I mean, it plain made me look like I had a hunchback. I eventually concluded that the upper back was longer than the front, so I did a 3/4″ swayback adjustment at the lengthen line that tapered to nothing at the side seams. That pretty much fixed it!

The rest of the dress fit fine with no other adjustments.

I actually tried to make this dress without the facings for my first go-round, but those sleeves are way too curved to handle bias tape. So back to facings (although mine are interfaced with cotton muslin, not fusible interfacing). I tacked them down as best I could since they like to pop out; sewing the trim at the neckline also helped. Rather than do fancy finishing work on the inside, I opted to finish the raw edges with a simple serged seam. I wanted the making of this dress to be quick & painless!

There *are* pleats at the bottom of the dress… I think doing those took the longest! I followed the handbook directions & thread traced all the lines, using different colors of thread for the various fold lines. It worked beautifully, but pulling out aaaaaall those threads was a pain in the ASS. No tips for making it go smoother (I don’t regret thread-tracing; it really did make lining up those pleats a breeze), just be prepared to spend some quality time with your seam ripper 🙂

You can’t tell due to my super duper busy printed fabric, but all the darts & seams actually line up perfectly. Just trust me on this one 🙂

I also would like to point out that my hair needs a dye job something fierce (I actually had a hairstylist examine my roots the other day & declare that I’m naturally dishwater blonde – which blew my fucking mind. I’ve always been a brunette, wtf?!). If you’re thinking, “Whatever, your roots don’t look bad!” that’s because I ‘shopped the shit out of them teehee 🙂

The dress looks best with a belt, in my opinion. Wish I had a yellow belt, but the one I have on hand is too neon yellow for this print & the thrift gods have been ignoring me lately in the belt department.

The hem ended up being way too long for me, and I’d already sewn in the pleats, so I just flipped up the bottom of the hem & sewed it to the inside. This is why my pleats are at the very bottom of my dress. I think it worked out fine!

I am really proud of how my zipper turned out! Basically perfect!

This whole dress was a great/cheap stash bust. Feels good to cull that shit down! I didn’t have *quite* a long enough zipper (I think mine was 20″ instead of 24″ or something), so I have to pull the dress over my head to get it on hahaha. Oh well!

So what do you think? Pastille – yay or nay?

Tags: colette sewing handbook, completed, dress, Pastille

Comments 76 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Planning Ahead: Spring/Summer 2012

9 Mar

I actually was not planning on making one of these posts – considering I have a sweet swatch/planning board – but I’ve been admiring all the pretty planning posts across the web (I’m looking at you specifically, Sallieoh!) and what can I say, I got inspired.

I’ve already started pushing out some Spring/Summer pieces – here’s a collage I made for visual demonstration:

(lol like those jeans are gonna be worn at ALL come the heat/humidity. I can pretend!)

I need more, though!

So I scored my fabric and patterns – and may I point out here that it is lovely to have all this stuff uploaded into one place! – and spent an embarrassingly long time putting together pretty little collages. Because Sallieoh can’t have all the pretty, dammit.

Fancy dresses:

I bought the course, I have (most of) the materials – I need a Bombshell dress! I’m thinking birthday dress 🙂 I originally planned on making this with that beautiful silk Shantung you see in the corner, but I am also really inspired at the idea of it in this pretty tropical cotton.
Side question: my local fabric store doesn’t carry spiral steel boning 😦 Where do y’all source yours? Specifically, where can I buy this stuff and NOT pay $6+ shipping? Shipping ripper-offers! BLECH.

Don’t look at her arm; I know it’s creepy but I didn’t know what else to do with it.

Bottoms:

Plaid high-waisted capris – I think I have enough of this plaid (I hope!). Mine will be shorter, more like pedal pushers. I want to put welt pockets in the back as well.

Plaid shorts! Mine will be shorter than this, I just liked the pose of the leg-person-thing.

Tops:

I plan on making quite a few of these! I love this pattern, it uses very little fabric & it’s so flattering on 🙂

Sundresses:

(this one will need to be underlined; it is pretty sheer)

A shirtdress in southwestern cotton (everyone I’ve shown this fabric to thinks it is fug. Too bad!)

I got caught up in the spirit of the post & made a little image for my upcoming Pastille too 🙂
Oh, and speaking of the Pastille – I got the zipper in last night, and the fit is surprisingly awesome. I think it looks pretty flattering (so far – I still need to hem it!) and would translate nicely as a simple black dress. Something to ponder. Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon!

Looking at these pictures really makes me pumped for my next season of sewing! I know this is a lot to take on, and I’m not going to worry if they aren’t all completed by the time the weather turns cool again. This is also going to kill most of my stash – which is awesome, because I need to cull it down a lot 🙂

What do y’all have planned for your upcoming seasonal sewing?

Tags: Pastille, planning, spring/summer 2012

Comments 34 Comments
Categories work in progress

Creative Mush

8 Mar

It would seem that I am not the only one in the massive sewing blogosphere who has had a serious drop in sewing mojo recently. This happens to me from time to time, and I can’t help but get angry when I realize I’ve spent the past 3 nights vegging out on my couch instead of working on awesome crafty things. Not even knitting! MEH!

Part of what caused this standstill is my current work on the Pastille dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook. I swear this stupid dress has given me nothing but a headache (and thinning hair from where I pulled the rest of it out in total frustration). For starters, I cut my pattern out in a size 2 and added my normal FBA since the bust size for the 2 is only 34.5″, and my measurements are a couple inches bigger than that. Lo & behind, when I made up my first muslin… the bust was too big. I ended up not needing a FBA at all! WTF? I actually did recheck my measurements, and indeed my bust has not shrank down to a 34.5″ so I’m assuming there is a misprint with the finished measurements. By the way, do you know how hard it is to correct a FBA back to flat when you’ve already hacked & taped the pattern pieces (no, I don’t trace – but maybe I should start! It’s a SIGN)? I mean, assuming you’re one of those weirdos (aka: me) who would rather pull the tape off & try to smush everything back together instead of just putting the scissors to it again.

Anyway, muslin #2 revealed that this pattern gives me a swayback. WTF v2.0? I don’t have a swayback and I feel like I would have noticed this prior – especially considering the Quasimodo-proportions I got in my muslin. Unfgh. Upon lurking the site forum, this is not unusual for this pattern (before anyone gets terrified & swears off sewing the Pastille, let me point out that I’ve seen many of these dresses made up and most people did not seem to experience the weird swayback – I think it’s just the way some women’s bodies are shaped. Boo that it had to be mine!). My adjustment was very simple – I cut horizontal line through the back piece, at the ‘lengthen or shorten here’ line, and overlapped the pieces at an angle so they were 3/4″ at the center back, tapering to nothing at the side seams. I made one more muslin and the problem appears to be fixed. Fingers crossed.

I am making the dress up in this sweet little printed fabric – it’s a lovely cotton/rayon blend, and the print reminds me of a feedsack. Not entirely my style, but hey, I’m open to branching out! I like the tiny yellow flowers. I’m really into yellow right now, if you can’t tell.

I made a big mess of self-bias tape and initially planned on finishing the sleeves & neckline with that instead of facings. Folks… I don’t think this pattern can be faced with bias tape. There are too many curvy lines for the tape to lay properly flat. Believe me, I tried. But hey, on the bright side – I have lots of pretty bias tape for some other project! Haha!

So now we’re at the point where I haven’t touched the damn thing since Monday. To be frank, I haven’t even walked into my sewing room since Monday. When I get too frustrated, it’s better for me to dump everything in a pile & just ignore it for a few days until the steam lets off. That, or hide it in the UFO box 🙂 I kid, I kid!

On the knitting front, I had a bit of turmoil when I finally started my sweater sleeves. I think this is the part of the pattern that the writer was referring to when she called this an intermediate to advanced knit – that shit is hard! Talk about total concentration! Not only am I knitting in the round (which, despite a few cozies, is still a relatively new skill for me), I have to follow a lace pattern *and* I’m working a bunch of short rows. And then the instructions dropped and just told me to “continue working short rows until you reach the marker,” meaning I have to either count or actually recognize what a short row looks like. Nope, no ma’am!

It’s times like these when I’m glad I have Mika to save my desperate ass every time I reach a confusing point in the pattern & suddenly turn stupid. Poor girl has gotten a lot of frantic emails from me, but she’s been super super helpful & I definitely would not have made it past the swatch stage without her guidance.

Anyway, sewing & knitting frustrations aside, I made an apple cozy over the weekend:

It is completely unnecessary & ridiculous, so obviously I love it a lot.