It's a dress pattern book and I chose the gorgeous M dress for my project:
It had been a loooong time since I had last made a garment with a square neckline and I LOVE the ruffles on the sleeves so I turned the dress into this top:
Look at this amazing fabric! The print is beautiful animals in toile de Jouy style, it's cotton, it's 6€ a metre at a local shop that's 50 metres from my den and it's allowed me to live my Marie Antoinette opulent gown fantasy while still being able to walk / work / go shopping etc. since I can wear the top with jeans.
Yummy sleeves ruffles
I hemmed the top with seam binding ribbon, I'm using this technique more and more because it's easy, quick, it gives a clean finish and it's very practical when you don't have much allowance.
Now for top 2, I found the pattern in an old Pochée magazine:
It's a raglan sleeve peasant blouse with a slit in the front and a gathered neckline that's sewn in place with a ribbon that ties in the front:
I was quite sure this would turn out nice but I still added 2 cm to heighten the pattern pieces because they looked fairly small to me and I didn' t want my back and arms to be squashed in. I also cut the front in two pieces so I wouldn't have to make a slit -that's how lazy I've become- and I actually used elastic that I threaded in the piece of ribbon sewn around to gather the neckline. I sewed each end of the elastic so it wouldn't move and added mock ties. And I didn't change the sleeves' hem, except I gathered them maybe tighter than per instructions before finishing them with bias.
And yes this print is called "Ouistiti", it's so cute with those little monkeys holding on colourful palms! It's from the same local shop as the previous fabric, it's also cotton and 6€ a metre. Mine has an orange background but my mum bought some in white and I'm already envious of it, she wants me to make something with it for her but I may pretend I didn't understand and thought she wanted me to have it...;)
