Paris Sew Social Giveaway!

Back in April, our gathering of 14 bloggers in Paris was  wonderful way to meet  dear online friends in real life.
And now we're sharing the sewing love with a Mega Giveaway across all 14 blogs!
It's your chance to share some of the Paris fun, thanks to our generous sponsors!
All of the Paris Sew Social bloggers are running a giveaway, starting today, offering a bonanza of free patterns.
Hop across all the Paris Sew Social blogs today to discover a bucket-load of goodies...
And now back to my Paris memories....

 
And, apart from a lots of wonderful fabric, I have two lasting souvenirs...  

Firstly, I've discovered the colour mustard.
Secondly I've discovered the joys of sewing with knits. 

We left  Paris with heaps of fabric, and lots of sewing patterns, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.   I was full of ideas and plans - and sketched out this little outfit before I even started cutting - a rarity for me. 

My sewing is usually 'feet first'. 

But I had some gorgeous organic mustard  jersey, a gift from Nosh. 

Now mustard, or ANY yellow, is a new thing for me. I always think that  brunettes with olive toned skin can't wear yellow. 

But I spent three days in Paris with An of Straightgrain, and her love of gold must have rubbed off... And...What do you think? I love it! It looks like little Missy is wearing a ray of sunshine!

Now this little cardigan was a real 'first' for me. This is only the second time I've sewn knits - and it's my first ever blog post of a knit creation! And it's really not a perfect sew..Expert eyes, please don't look too closely - this is babysteps ok?

This is the Aster Cardigan by LBG Studio, and I have wanted this pattern for a long time, and it was Vanessa's of LBG's kind sponsorship that made me take the plunge and sew up knits.

The Nosh jersey and the Aster cardigan are a match made in heaven - in fact I've seen a few other mustard Aster cardigans around blogs recently. Mine has a teal blue contrast collar, cut from an old t-shirt. This is the Aster cardigan's clever trick - faux-piping. I love piping, but the idea of piping knits is terrifying - except Vanessa has devised this beautifully drawn pattern trick to create a 'piped' collar. And I think the teal blue really lifts the mustard gold.

For a novice knit-sewer, the Aster cardigan was straightforward.  It's a slim fit, this is size seven on my five-year-old. 

 I've paired it with a little blouse, made from this stunning double gauze, a sponsorship gift from Nutta. Missy adored this  fabric, and sketched out her own outfit vision

Missy  called it her Rainbow Blouse, and  wanted me to make a dress but I only had 50cm of this double gauze. 

But I just about managed to eek out a 'pin-tucked blouse' from Happy Homemade Sew Chic Kids, by Tuttle publishing, also a gift from our sponsor.

This was a fabric-cutting challenge!. I made the sleeves much shorter than the pattern, and one of the sleeves is actually pieced together with two pieces!

 I also love the subtle pleat detail on this blouse pattern.

It's the type of easy piece that Missy will wear a lot this summer - in fact I could only take one picture before she ran off - to play her favourite game, Hide and Seek,  (or hide and sneak as she calls it)...

 I was going to make a full outfit - I wanted to pair this with Compagnie M's Charles Pants. In fact they are cut out and ready to sew... but I've run out of spare hours...

And now, thanks to the generosity of LBG Studio , there's the chance to win the pattern of your choice from her lovely collection. There's the cute Aster cardigan - but also the Senna tote bag looks amazing!

Just Click on the raffle copter below to enter the LBG Studio giveaway (Thank you Vanessa). 

And look ! These are the stunning creations made by all the Paris Sew Social bloggers - and everyone has a different giveaway today. Click on the pix to discover the links, and some great prizes. Open until July 10

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Molly Makes magazine! And being transformed into a beautiful French woman

In my other life, I am a journalist and, while I love this whole blogging thing, I really, really love paper. 

You know, real paper and particularly newspapers and magazines.

Ever since I was little I have read newspapers. We would have The Scotsman delivered to our home in Edinburgh , and I loved it dropping through our letterbox.

I always wanted to know what was going on, and read stories, and look at beautiful pictures.

And now I work as a news reporter, and I still love newspapers, the proper printed paper version. I love seeing my stories transformed by designers, and photographers into pages of print.

And now my blogging/journalism/sewing worlds have collided thanks to beautiful magazine Molly Makes, and our Paris Sew Social.

The July issue of Molly Makes full of creative ideas is now on shelves, and online.

And I'm in it...or at least the slimmer, blonder, French version of me is...

I was thrilled that Molly Makes wanted to share a little bit of our wonderful Parisian get together with bloggers from across Europe.  So thrilled that when I wrote a few words and inundated them with photos, somehow the pictures got a little garbled, and look! There's lovely Sophie of C'est La Vie, pretending to me....

These things happen in busy, bustling newspaper and magazine offices, and I think it's rather funny, flattering even.... I  mean who wouldn't want to pretend to be Sophie...

Do  look out for me/Sophie in  Molly Makes magazines on shelves throughout the UK and flick through the rest of this lovely magazine!

The easiest excuse to sew Nani Iro: Sewing for Paris #3

Sometimes you just want to have some Nani Iro fabric, just want to touch it, gaze and possibly wear it. And what to sew is almost irrelevant. 

This is the solution to those moments;

My very easy Nani Iro scarf - which also doubles up as a subterfuge excuse to buy more Nani Iro. Be warned this scarf is dangerous - "I can always make a scarf" my sewing addict brain whispers as I scroll through Nani Iro prints.

In sewing terms, there's barely anything to say about this scarf. It's one metre of Nani Iro, cut in half lengthways, so that I had two strips 50cm x 1m. I stitched them end to end, then folded the whole long strip in half, and carefully stitched mini-pompom trim into the long seam and both ends, leaving one narrow end open to turn it right sides out, which I hand-stitched closed.

Et voila! One lovely summer scarf ! 

I sewed this in time for our wonderful Paris Sew Social trip as a little something to liven up my 'neutral' Paris dresses. And am blogging it now, in time for Nani Iro month hosted by purveyor of the finest Japanese fabrics, Miss Matatabi. The fabric is Nani Iro's Spectacle in shun, from Miss Matatabi.

It's a beautiful ethereal print a kind of dreamy landscape, in fresh spring colours of pink and green. 

I love the print but I have slight reservations about the colour on me. I'm used to stronger darker colours and this is perhaps a little pale on me.  I think perhaps it will look best later in the summer, with a floaty dress. I'd love to hear your thoughts? I'm trying to venture away from wearing blue all the time, but struggle to find step out of my comfort zone...

Now I apologise if I have just provided you with the easiest excuse to go shopping for Nani Iro double gauze. I know, I know, it's going to be hard to resist!

Japanese blouse, in a Cookie Book print good enough to eat

A little blouse. In a lovely print. Made from a Japanese pattern. With a touch of piping

This makes me happy.

Am I the only one who spent hours, nay days, gazing at the Cotton and Steel collections online trying to make decisions?

In the end I bought three prints, all very different, and this is the first to be sewn up - and I think it's my favourite. It's Kimberley Kight's Cookie Book collection, Drops in cinnamon. Bought from Miss Matatabi, who currently has this fabric on sale!

I mean, who could resist those spots, those blue buttons and that piped Peter Pan collar? Oh and that crazy, stubborn girl with the darkest gaze...

Missy wanted rainbow buttons - she wants rainbow everything - but I stuck with blue...The pattern is the button-backed puffed sleeve blouse from Akiko Mano's book Linen, Cotton, Wool Kids. Oh how  I love this book! I want to sew everything...sadly though I fear Missy will have outgrown the sizes by the time I manage that. 

This is my third 'sew' from the book, following on from the waistcoat and skirt.

It's two years since I started this blog, and although I've been sewing all my life - since I was Missy's age - it's only in the last couple of years that I have been sewing regularly.And in that time I can feel that my skill has developed. WIth this blouse I made a real effort to try to sew it carefully, not to rush, and it's constructed with French seams everywhere. I left the 'Cotton and Steel' selvedge in place, just behind the placket. Partly to eek out the fabric, and because I liked the look.

 I could do with some tips on making sure the collar sits nice and flat. It does have a slight tendency to pop up!

She wore it for a little bike ride on a beautiful spring day by the canals where we live. Spring flowers, boats, a bit of freedom.

I wouldn't have styled this blouse with the floral leggings, but hey, I won with the blue buttons, so I have to give way somewhere to my strong willed Missy.

Now. What's next in my Akiko Mano, Linen Cotton Kids journey? Hm... more decisions...

Is this the perfect dress? Sewing for Paris #2, (plus 'last call' for the big giveaway!)

So I think I've made the perfect dress!

I have 'smart-ish' clothes for work, and comfortable things for cleaning the house and looking after the children, but not much in between. 
And it was the much-talked about Paris Sew Social weekend that spurred me on to expand my wardrobe.

I've already blogged about one dress sewn for Paris, the Merchant and Mills linen 'petite robe' .

This is the 'wearable muslin' for that dress - and has turned out to be my favourite...

It's Vanessa Pouzet's La Petite Robe pattern again - made in cheap denim from my local shop, before cutting into the expensive Merchant and Mills linen.

Sometimes when I can't sleep I try to count how many dresses I own. And I actually don't want to reach the final total, because it will shock me. But it's A LOT.

I live in dresses. They allow me to dress without thinking. Somehow I just get confused when I try to think how to put a blouse and skirt together.  But I also wear jeans a lot - they allow me to feel a little anonymous, and ready for anything.

So a denim dress?! Mais oui! C'est parfait.

Halfway between 'dressed up' and 'dressed down'. Perfect for anywhere. And perfect for sight-seeing and shopping in Paris.

And one of the absolute joys in Paris was that I persuaded fellow blogger and dear friend Sophie, from C'est la Vie to take a few pictures of this dress 'in situ' in the beautiful Place du Vosges in Le Marais district of Paris.

Ah Sophie, Merci, merci! I felt a little silly, but it was a zillion times better than trying to get Mr As-it-seams to photograph me, or fiddling with the self-timer in my poorly lit house. How I wish I could do a 'fashion shoot' every week in the Place du Vosges with lovely Sophie...

Here we are checking out the pics, see I am actually a bit scruffy (trainers and tights - not a great look). And another of the Place du Vosge, enjoying a picnic with Sophie and Marta of Do Guincho, the day before, and I'm wearing my OTHER version of this dress. The Place du Vosges became a bit of a meeting point for us all on our Paris Sew Social weekend. It's near some of the best fabric shops, and is an elegant oasis of green in the city

Back to that dress. I stuck to the pattern except for two slight alterations.

I added in-seam pockets. Because I cannot have a dress without pockets. I think they spoil the line of the skirt a little, and they gape a bit, so I'm sure it would be more elegant without them.  

But still, I'd rather have a dress with pockets. 

And I actually made this dress a couple of months ago and wore it with tights and boots a lot. Then when the weather warmed up and I wore it for the first time with bare legs, it felt too short.

 I just don't want to bear that extra inch or two of leg. So I lengthened it with an extra panel of denim around the hem, and topstitched it and encased the seam allowance. I think it 'works' because it's denim, but you can probably see that the two sections are slightly different shades of blue - because the dress has been through the washing machine half a dozen times more than the panel! But that will even out.

This is my new favourite dress - and one of the best things I've sewn myself.

Random strangers comment, 'nice dress' and I know it's the kind of thing that would cost £50 or more in a shop and cost me a quarter that to make. Smug sewing is the best kind of sewing - right?

And the pattern is still my fave - I have actually made a third version in some gorgeous fabric, but another showing of this could be boring, and it's a winter dress, so I may wait a few months....

If you're quick there's still time to enter our big Paris Sew Social giveaway - there are three prizes on offer, and the chance to join us in out June Paris blog tour. We'd love you to take part too....!

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