Trying to draw sewing patterns...

Remember my previous post about my daughter's birthday present: dolls and their wardrobe.

I plan to give a try in drawing sewing patterns.This project give me the opportunity to do it without using to much fabric and paper!

I use this video about draping a blouse block pattern as a strating point.

Off course, the doll isn't pinable, so I use tape instead of pins. Due to the small scale doll, I use kitchen paper instead of muslin fabric.

The photos above show you my first test on the doll. I simplify the pattern: only one dart in the front, one in the back and one on the shoulder front.

I remove the tape and the kitchen paper from the doll. I copy the resulting half front and half back pattern on paper. Then I use tape again to try it on the doll. Some photos above show you all of the process.

Then I check the fitting problem : the darts are too short on the shoulder front and the pattern is too long on the back.

Now I have to follow the same process for the sleeves, the skirt and the pants. After that, I will have to use slide and pivot technique to draw the patterns...

More important to me. What I have learn from this little try:

• Draping techniques are no so complex but need correct tools to be done: pinable dressform isn't an option!
• Using doll size is nice, but this doll is too tiny to really make a good try.
• I don't really need to follow all the process to draw simple tiny doll patterns: draping kitchen papper is OK for me.

To be continued...

• for my DD birthday present.
• for another try with a larger doll: I guess my doll from Japan will be a nice compromise.
• for drawing sewing patterns that fit for me, huby, DD.

The sound of silence

This post as nothing to do with the folk song The Sounds of Silence created by the wellknown duo Simon and Garfunkel.

This post as neither to do with some zen paradox proposed by the master to their disciples.

In this post I want only share something very unusual : no plane in the sky around Paris from thuesday evening due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland (the CNN new here) no plane from or to northern Europe!

I never throuth the planes make such a noise! Nothing very big but a continuous small noise... When there are no planes : what unusual silence! We can ear very well the songs of the birds....

I will update this post with some other photos when the planes will be back.

Planing a birthday present for DD

What a bad photo! I should stop taking photo with my Iphone.

I make the sofa and the little table with my daughter few month ago for another doll.

I find these four dolls on ebay at a bargain price few weeks ago.

They are percfect for a five years old girl:

• Big enought (approx 14 cm, 5.5 inch, tall) to play with, smal enought to go on a adult pocket or in the mother's bag.
• Articulated enought to be nice to play with but not to much to be strong enought for a five years old child and a two years old baby not so far away.

So, perfect but they need a more complete wardrobe to play with: my daughter allays complain about the lack of clothes for her dolls. Considering the mess in my DD's room, perhaps a box to store all the set will be a nice idea to.

A little more planing about the box.

First, I don't have enought time to make and decorate a wood box. And my daughter could see it before her birthday. I guess a carton box will not be strong enought for her. In the end, a plastic box or perhaps a fabric bag will have less chance to be damaged.

A little more planing about the doll's wardrobe.

Each doll will have:

• A beach ensemble, a summer dress or summer ensemble and a summer hat.
• A coat or a cape, a winter suit or coordinate items and a winter hat.
• A cotton kimono or a bathrobe, a nightgrown and slippers.
• Some additionnal item such as dress, pant, skirt, top... Only if I have time to sew them!
• A suitcase to store all the set.

I am pretty sure I can find scrap or leftover fabrics in my stash to sew all of this. Considering the size of the dolls, I guess sewing all the clothes by hand will the best thing to do.

To be continued with few sketchs and fabrics ...

Sewing machine hiatus

Yesterday, my sewing machine went for a check-up.

It went not by itself, I carried it to the Singer shop in Paris with the help of my two children... Allays an expedition! A child, a baby in a stroller, a sewing machine and too much stairs in the Parisian "métro": forgott the chic parisian mother and think of a donkey instead and you will have the pict ;-)

No sewing machine: now it's time to plan and to be inspired ;-)

Some little projects that don't require a sewing machine can beging to.

First thing to do: writte down a list:

• Up-size the Burda pattern for my husband coat
• Design and realize the embroidery for my Marfy pink Spring coat
• Plan a birthday present for my DD
• Design a logo and define a concept for my etsy shop (too much planed and nothing done yet)
• Design and realize (when my sewing machine will be back) a complet project for my etsy shop
• Select coordinated fabrics and patterns (from my stash) for my summer wardrobe
• Determine what to modify and to add in the children (children grow to fast for me) summer wardrobe

As usual, too much than can be done, but who knows? So, stay tuned!

Somewhere over the rainbow

What we can see from my window last week: it was cloudy over the rainbow ;-)

DH took this photo just after showing the rainbow to the children. So the rainbow started to disappear and you can see only a little part of it...

It was just after one of those Spring showers we currently enjoy. I wonder when the Spring will come!

Another Easter thing

I needed something to put all that have to go in the trash when I sew: all those little threads and fabrics I cut during the sewing process. Something that I can put on the table when I sew.

With all the Easter things surrounding me, I decided a thread-trash hen can be what I was looking for (my husband has not yet decided if I am definitly mad or just a little ;-).

The image above shows my drawing and the final pattern.

Right now, I am not able to remember why I decided to add a secret pocket at the base of my thread-trash hen... But I did it (the two images above show the secret pocket before and after I finished the hen).

Then, the result.

I am not sure if I can keep this thread-trash hen for myself: my children claim it. They love the secret pocket (little fingers are perfect to go in) and the two sides of the hen -asleep or not- look hilarious to them...

Perhaps I will have to sew something else for me.

I am thinking of a tropical fish (you know these approx round-shaped fish), without a secret pocket if I want to keep it for me!

A not-so-quick vintage shirt for everydaywear

From this...

To this!

Meeting in Paris near The Opéra

Let us say you need to meet a friend in Paris near The Opéra. There are a lot of people in this area, where to meet and to be sure not to miss?

I will share with you a nice "point de rendez-vous".

I have been told about it by my grandmother and my mother, but it was my great grand mother who used this trick for the first time...

In front of the Opéra house (Palais Garnier or the wikipedia page) in Paris, there are a lot of statues. In particular a group on the right, made by the famous French sculptor Carpeau: La Danse (a better photo than mine on the wikipedia page).

In 1867, these naked women dancing around the Spirit of Dance, caused a big scandal, as you can imagine...

Actually, in front of the Opéra house is not the original masterpiece, but a copy. Anyway, it remains a nice place to meet people: large area to meet, and a precise spot to avoid missing your friend if it is crowded, which happens almost all the time!

Last, be careful to avoid a oh-so-common mistake: do not go to Opéra Bastille, which is located approximately on the other side of Paris!

A silly story about sewing an egg, part II

After seeing a lot of similar egg patterns on the web, I tried my own. I am not exactly happy with it (my second try is on the left)!

I think I'd better to go to bed and make another try tomorow, perhaps with more pattern pieces (six or eight)...

To be continued... I am sure I can make an egg that looks like an egg!

A silly story: how to sew an egg?

Well, it's time to ask: how to sew an egg?

Making an egg sewing pattern is a mathematical impossibility, isn't it?

How to:

• Just take an egg.
• Look at it, and think I am silly, as usual.
• Try to wrap it in a paper.
• Unwrap it without breaking the egg.
• Look at the result and try to mimic this as a simple pattern.
• Make pattern with a paper and test it: this doesn't look like an egg, does it?
• In the end, break the eggs and bake a cake!

Some pictures of this silly story below:

To be continued... when the children are asleep!

April Fool

Have a look at what I saw today, while going to see my Etsy shop... Look more precisely at the Etsy logo, don't you see something funny?

The End-of-roll collection, part II

My previous post about this story ended with two questions and two answers.

This part will deal with the answers to the questions more precisely.

First, the pattern for the small jacket made from End-of-roll fabric have to be chosen. The images below show some possibilities for the jacket pattern.

In the end, most of the pattern needs more fabric than I have with this end-of-roll...

Eventually, I extracted this vintage one from my stash and was surprised to discover that I can do something with it.

I just folded the fabric in half and put the patterns pieces on it. Looks OK, doesn't it?

Well, the pattern for the jacket is chosen. Of course, I made a more precise test, with the pattern pieces but I didn't take any photo of it. And the label is not on the pieces!

Then, the other fabrics and of course patterns, to do something to go with, which still have to be decided.

About fabric (see image above with the head of my youngest one in the way):

• I bought 2 meters of coordinated wool (on the right of the photo) to make pants and a skirt to go with the jacket.
• I pulled out of my stash a caramel bemberg lining(on the top of the photo) to go with the wool and the end-of-roll fabric.
• I am happy to remember where my nice silk fabric (on the right of the photo) is hidden, and happier to see that this fabric can complement the other. A shirt, or two, can be nice from this fabric to complete the collection!

About patterns:

• I need pants and a skirt.
• Due to the very short jacket, I decided to select patterns with a high waist.

So I chose a Marfy skirt pattern and pants from one of my old Burda issues (see images above from Burda website and Marfy website).

What do you think of them?

Now a few things have to be done for the next step:

• Buttons have to be selected.
• The jacket has to be traced, cut, assembled and sewn.
• Pattern(s) have to be chosen for the shirt, or the top, to complete the collection.
• Pants and skirt have to be started. I have to persuade myself that I can start this project before all these little gym exercises (that I never have -take- time to make) will give me again my incredible classical ballet dancer tight waist... This incredibly fine waist went away after 2 pregnancies and caesarian births...

To be continued.