La Maison Victor – world blog tour

I was recently asked to join the La Maison Victor blog tour to celebrate the launch of the English language version. For those of you who don’t know, La Maison Victor is a Belgian sewing magazine.  It’s a cute magazine filled with lovely sewing patterns for women, men and children.

It will be launched in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday 21st September.  A stockists list will be available by clicking this link from Thursday.

I was sent an advanced copy of the Summer 2017 edition. It includes nine patterns, three for children, five for women and a pair of mens chinos.  The pattern sheets are included within the magazine, printed on paper and not tissue (hooray) and I have to say, a damn sight easier to read than Burda.  It also includes some really lovely craft projects, my favourite being the world map wall stickers, you have to check this out.

I was asked to choose something to sew from this edition, so I opted for the Malia top.

The Malia top will be great for the Sydney summer, which I can only hope is on it’s way! It’s a loose vest with gathering under the bust dart.  It’s an interesting feature, certainly something I have never seen before.

I decided to toile it, mainly out of habit, but there was really no need.  I cut a size 10 and it fit me perfectly.

Choosing the fabric was the next issue, I just couldn’t figure out what to use, until I stumbled across this charity shop piece. It’s a lightweight royal blue cotton with stripes of gold running through it. I always find it hard to identify a fabric when it’s from the charity shop so please excuse my ignorance here.

I could visualise 70’s disco, something I really can’t resist, so I went for it.

The instructions were easy to navigate, although I didn’t refer to them much as it’s a pretty straightforward sew. I made an error somewhere though with the binding. I cut the binding way too short for my actual top.  I read on Handmade Jane’s blog that her binding fit exactly and that she would add a couple of centimetres next time.  Mine was way off, I think I may have cut the wrong length.  Anyway, no issue, I just recut and inserted the binding.

Here it is.

It has some real sparkle in the sunshine!

The dart gives it some volume in the body which is perfect for hiding my tum

You can see the gathered dart here

The binding works well here and sits very flat, especially around the armholes.

But, I didn’t stop there…. I couldn’t resist trying the Lulu Pants. The description reads, ‘perfect pants for girly tomboys’.  Well, I don’t have a ‘girly tomboy’ but I do have an actual boy so thought I would give them a go.

The boy & me

Bertie is constantly nagging me for comfy pants and so I decide to make a pair in a bright green, vampire smiley face, jersey fabric.  Oh yes, there is such a thing!  Thank you lovely Sarah for gifting this to me.

I had to make a couple of tweeks to the pattern, mainly because he has clothing ‘issues’. He has an aversion to a waist tie, so, farewell waist tie. He also struggles with anything that goes past the knee, yes, that is correct, he will only ever wear shorts.  Of course, these pants work perfectly as shorts, so, farewell long trousers.

I initially cut a size 5, but they were a little snug for him.  I went up a couple of sizes and cut the 6X-7.  He’s tall but quite slim so I just reduced the amount of elastic by 5cm and that worked a treat. I should note that I then completed the hems with a twin needle to give a nice neat finish.

You can see that I used a contrast fabric for the waistband, a medium-weight black jersey.  I also used the black jersey for the pockets to add a little interest.  There is no pattern matching at all, completely random placement, he doesn’t care and neither do I!

Instead of abandoning the snug size 5 shorts, I decided to finish them off and pass them to Bertie’s bestie, Otto.  He’s a little smaller than Bertie and I knew they would fit him.  He’s also a kid who enjoys summer clothes all year round.  It’s clearly an Australian thing!

Time for a stress test!  Nothing like a good run around and a massive trampoline to put these shorts through there paces.  The front pleats are a good idea, it gives them room to move.  The shorts passed with flying colours and the shear joy on their faces is brilliant!

I’m looking forward to the next issue….