Some MAJOR shopping

Well, I start with the challenges. I of course needed to find a suitable fabric for both of them. Even though the patterns haven't arrived yet... I thought I would go to Paris on Thursday or Friday to do this, but decided that it was ok to do it at home on Wednesday when everything is closed due to 1st of May. Well yes, I actually found something I liked. Then finding the fringe for the flapper dress was another matter. I still didn't quite find long enough (or wide enough) fringe, but at least it's 4" which in my head translates to about ~10cm. Which is not too bad, but I really wanted something along the lines of 30cm. And I still have the option of doing my own fringe (which I will need to do, if the color is wrong, we'll see).

But so, what did I choose... For my Great Gatsby challenge I found a lovely turquoise satin. I'm very into turquoise at the moment. Especially when it comes to satin. And I finally, after looking for a long time, found some turquoise fringe at fabric.com! I could've taken silver as well, but somehow the fringe seems more likely to come in gold. Well, this might still change, but I will have to see the fabric and fringe together before making any decisions.

Satin for the Great Gatsby dress

Fringe for the Great Gatsby dress

If this dress becomes anything like I imagine, I will totally love it. And with less fringe I just have to make the dress a bit longer (which might not be a bad idea).

The fabric for Réglisse was also fairly easy. I was not really happy with anything, until I saw this:

Fabric for Réglisse

I can't help it, I love chocolate brown. I hope the real color is as good as in the picture. I got both of the fabrics at Hall du Tissu which seem to have a nice selection. Well for this anyway, I'm having a whole lot of trouble with fabric in general, every time I find something I really like, it's completely wrong type of fabric. Well, so far I've always managed to find something I like in the end, so I just need to look around a bit.

Lady Valet by Adjustoform

Well, my shopping spree didn't really stop here... I recently found out that I'm getting a major tax refund (well, the money will come in december) and in addition to a trip to Doha to visit my cousin, I decided I could buy a dress form. Well, I took a bit of a head start with it and ordered one today... I ordered a Lady Valet from Mercerie Durand. I did a bit of research in the net and I actually would've liked Uniquely You dress form (mostly because this video by Shona: she has a scoliosis too and it showed on the form!), but I could only find it at US Amazon and they didn't deliver to Europe. This seems like a good option as well, they had it on sale at Mercerie Durand, and my budget was ~200 €, so this was ok concerning that as well. This one has 12 buttons to fit the form to one's measurements, you can pin on it and it has a hem adjuster. And people who have it seem to like it a lot.

My Sewaholic patterns + the Pavlova

This is totally my guilt trip post, because my shopping doesn't end here either... I bought some patterns... Well, that was about a week ago, but I kind of splurged there. Well, they do ship from Canada, so I decided to buy the ones I wanted with one sitting. So, I got the Renfrew Top everyone seems to love, as well as the Cambie Dress (there are some amazing Cambies around like Scruffy Badger's, I especially like the polka dotted version, Miss Crayola Creepy's Yellow version, Karen's fruity one, and Amanda's Muddy Waters: I just love that color!), and then I need more pants, so Thurlow Trousers were an obvious choice, Alma Blouse is just so cute, Karen convinced me of Hollyburn Skirt, and who wouldn't love the Robson Coat? And then I blame it on Gillian: I also bought the Pavlova by Cake Patterns. It looks kind of vintage-y so it would be perfect for dancing. The wrap shirt would probably flatter my figure and even though Gillian didn't like hers I think it looks good on her! And I also got the two books I've been drooling on for the longest time: Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing and Couture Sewing Techniques.

And then I have some other plans, but at least I didn't buy any more patterns... I'd love to make the Abbey Coat for winter. Can you think of a more perfect coat? Well, maybe Robson ties the race, but this is completely different style, so they are in a different race. And I can't help: I love that blue! Although I think mine would be some other color... like chocolate brown or mustard (70s) yellow... And then there are the Colette patterns. I haven't forgotten the idea to make the whole book, although I think I will leave the Pastille until my fitting skills improve a bit (or I get the dress form!), and then there are some that I'd love to get: Ceylon, which I didn't think much of until I saw Lauren's version, I've always wanted to do Macaron, and Chantilly looks like my cup of tea. Also Beignet, Sencha, Jasmine, Iris, and Ginger look fun. Just when do I have the time for all this...? We'll see. At least now I'm having fun with planning. And the next projects to be completed are the two challenges. And I do have some plans for other Deer and Doe patterns, like Chardon, Belladone, Airelle, and Bleuet... And I think I should prefer French patterns, since I am in France after all ;)