Instagram Friday

So excited, bought my first real vintage pattern, and amazingly it's for my measurements exactly! Super rare to find vintage patterns in my size, can't wait to make it up! :-)

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on May 29, 2015 at 9:19pm PDT

Pinspiration Monday - Populaire

So I just finished watching the adorable French movie Populaire about the makings of a typewriter champion, and the wardrobe was just scrumptious the whole movie. So many great mid century details!! I ran right away to start pinning all my favorites. ;-)

 

 

The bow!! The buttons!! Perfection.

 

 

Aaahhh, the neckline and bow! Love!

 

 

And then there was the final pink dress, gorgeous from every angle...

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're looking for a sweet story with delicious eye candy, check it out!



Instagram Friday

Latest design, based on some vintage pattern art for a housedress/wrap dress. It can be an apron, dress, beach cover-up, anything you want...excited to make more, I'll be listing some for sale in the shop soon!

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on May 22, 2015 at 8:34pm PDT

Sunshine Yellow Quinceañera Court Dresses - New Look 6223

My latest big project was making 6 court dresses for a quince! I imagine this might not be a thing in other parts of the country, but here in Texas it's a big deal for young Hispanic ladies turning 15! It's kind of like a Sweet 16 meets a wedding without a groom. ;-)

I made the dresses for the girls (kind of like bridesmaids) from a lovely yellow and white striped shirting. The birthday girl's mom did a great job picking the pattern which was flattering for lots of different shapes and sizes, it was New Look 6223.

We chose the gathered bodice with cap sleeves. I also added some small white buttons along the pleats on the sides.

The dresses went together really easily, I'd definitely recommend the pattern!

I was pretty busy making sure the dresses got done on time, so I didn't get a chance to take any really nice close-up pics of the dresses, just snapped some with my phone!

Fortunately, the talented Arlen Nydam was there and able to get some great pics!

I had mentioned possibly getting a pic with the girls' hands in their pockets, as they were all pretty excited to have pockets in a dress (girls after my own heart!) Love these!

It was a fun project and all the girls looked great, especially next to the stunning birthday girl!

Pinspiration Monday

Just a short one today, saw this vintage pattern and thought it was so cool!

It's an apron, but it could just as easily be a dress. I love how the button tabs around the waist slip through the front to button. And it looks like the shoulders have buttons and loops to attach? And once again, there's a flat front on the gathered skirt. I'd love to recreate this!

Instagram Friday

Birthday pincurl set! :-) #vintagehair

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on May 15, 2015 at 12:21pm PDT

French Macarons Table Décor

So a few weeks ago I was invited to a ladies' brunch, at which there would be a contest for best table décor. I thought that sounded like fun, and was excited to be able to decorate one of the tables. I looked around on Pinterest, and decided on a kind of hybrid between Coco Chanel and Macarons! I love the black and white stripes with blush pink accents of Chanel, and the lovely colors of macarons.

At first I had an idea for a centerpiece to use a little mini dress form/pin cushion I have, and make a dress for it out of my leftover pink silk! Something like this...

But I ended up kind of deciding against it as it was a bit too tall and would end up more as a visual obstruction than anything.

I decided on a fun little plate setting with a napkin bow! (All of this was from Dollar Tree!) I saw some adorable striped placemats at Ikea, but then figured out I could just use striped scrapbook paper for the placemat as a cheaper option. Worked perfectly!

Each place setting got its own wrapped maracon. :-)

In addition to the macarons, I picked up some French style pink lemonade from Trader Joe's, meringues, salt water taffy, mints, and just happened upon a lovely shade of pink marshmallows, lol.

I lucked out the day before and found some gorgeous daisies, hydrangeas, and carnations in just the shades of pink I was looking for.

I did my arrangements the night before, used more stripey scrapbooking paper for some of the containers...

I was really pleased with the overall outcome!

Unfortunately I didn't win best table, but I did get to enjoy the lovely flowers for the next week or so! They stayed in my sewing room where they brought a smile to my face. :-)

Pinspiration Tuesday - New Patterns

Bit late with my Monday post, oops! I took a bit of time off from blogging last week as I was busy finishing up 6 dresses which I'll be blogging about soon.

Since I pinned most of them, I thought I'd take a look at some of the new repro patterns released for Summer in my pinspiration post! I love seeing the new patterns, especially when there is retro pattern art, although sometimes I question their styling for the models.

Here are some of the new offerings!

McCalls has just recently jumped on the repro pattern bandwagon with their Archive collection, and so far it is promising! Their latest couple are inspired by the 1930s, a decade which I've been appreciating more lately.

I love that this is different than any of the other patterns. It's not something I would ever make or wear, lol, because I don't do slinky, but it is beautiful!

McCalls 7154

 

The other one, though, is definitely on my wish list! I think it's just adorable.

McCalls 7153

Vogue's new offerings are interesting, if a bit similar. The first has a very cool asymmetrical button front going on.



Vogue 9105

The other has some fun gathers in the sides of the skirt, this one is already in my stash!

Vogue 9106

Then there's Butterick.

Love the high waist on this one.


Butterick 6212 - Front

Butterick 6212 - Back

Butterick 6211

Cute, right? They chose two similar styles, both wrap around/button styles, and while they're nice (and I love the sketches), their styling is just awful! Take a look...

Why hello, gaping armhole

Edges are looking a bit wobbly!

Is that the full skirt from the sketch?

The first dress just does not fit the model, it's way too big, and there's no fullness in the skirt (no petticoat clearly, which I know is difficult with the wrap around dresses, but I almost wonder if they took out some of the fullness in the 6211 pattern?)

I'll be curious to see how some real life make-ups of these go if anyone tries them out. I do think the placement and number of buttons could make it a bit less shifty than the first Walkaway dress pattern. I also wonder if they did these because The Great British Sewing Bee caused a bit of a resurgence of interest in the first Walkaway dress, and these are both similar. I do wish there would be a bit more of a range of offerings, though!

Even when they fail to live up to my highest expectations, though, I get so excited when new repro patterns come out!! I hope they keep it up for a long time to come.

Instagram Friday

My Trader Joe's daisies have lasted quite a long time (for me, lol), in love with these colors. :-)

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on May 8, 2015 at 8:24am PDT