chardon (m. thistle)

PATTERN THROWBACK. To ye olden days of 2013, when it seemed like we were in the midst of an indie pattern boom but were in fact only on the cusp.

Last week I was feeling nostalgic for simpler times, so I bypassed my PDF pattern collection and turned to my paper pattern stash. Remember thems? They arrive in your mailbox like a pretty little present amongst the health insurance invoices and jury duty summons. Then you unfold a large sheet of paper and all the pattern pieces are just laying there looking up at you, and you actually hold the physical instruction pages and flip them left to right like you're some kinda scholar. The last paper pattern I bought was Deer & Doe's Jupe Chardon, or Chardon Skirt, or Thistle Skirt, or however this French-to-English sewing pattern language thing works. It seemed like a fun basic garment to sew so I cracked her open.

Yuck photos.

Chardon is a simple unlined A-line skirt with in-seam pockets and stitched box pleats for shaping at the waist. I liked the no-waistband look and forgiving fit. You can add belt loops or a tie or a contrasting band but I skipped that noise this time. The skirt is finished with a waist facing and a regular zipper in the center back. 

It's a quick sew as long as you choose your waist size properly. I dunno what was wrong with me but I had the completely WRONG waist measurement in my head when I picked the size to cut, so the skirt was basically two sizes too small when I went to try it on after stitching down all those pleats. Luckily with this style, you can adjust all the pleats to size the waist up or down. Just make sure you do your math correctly when altering each pleat so you don't over- or under-compensate. And remember to cut a new facing to fit your fattened skirt. Yeah, this skirt took me far longer than it should have because I have a pea brain.

I made this in a gray striped home decor linen because I apparently enjoy dressing up like a sofa. It was easy fabric to work with and it holds the shape of the pleats nicely. It is pretty poofy, so I tapered the skirt slightly from its original A shape so I wouldn't be mistaken by Philly tourists as the Liberty Bell. Wow, stellar joke, right? If you want to see TRUE POOF, check out what swallowed me whole at work yesterday.

I serged all seams before pressing them open. The bottom of the waist facing is also serged. I'd recommend understitching the facing and tacking it down at the side seams as well so it stays put.

The navy top I'm wearing is a new Archer Shirt, another homage to 2013. Though let's be real; I'm still addicted to this pattern. I modified it by making it sleeveless, curving the front placket into a V-shape at the neck so it lays flat, and omitting the collar but leaving the stand. You can see another version of this variation on my Instagram here. I may blog about that one day because I wear it like twice a week and the fabric was a gift from Internet pen pal and fellow Grainline addict, Ash M. Higgs. 

I like my new outfit but this photoshoot just made me realize the dire situation of my bangs. In half my photos, my bangs are either in my eyes all Grudge girl style, or I'm in the middle of swinging them out of my eyes, which does not at all look sexy beach bombshell like I imagine in my head:

So, are any of you still trying to catch up with 2013's (or earlier) patterns or are you always ready for the next great thing?

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P.S. Reminder! I'm leading a three-week workshop on Sewing Knits at Butcher's Sew Shop in south Philly on Monday nights starting June 30th. If you wanna join up, you can use coupon code 4SQUAREWALLS at checkout to get 20% off the registration fee ! ! ! ! There are a few spots left, so sign up here. Scroll down to Special Workshops.

la veste pavot

I studied French in school, which seemed cool at the time, but it turns out that's not the language you want to know if you're an American like me working in non-profit social services. "Does anyone here speak Spanish?! There's someone on the phone who..." But hey, it is the language you want to know if you're a home sewer determined to make pretty clothes. "Does anyone here speak French?! I have to attach this peter pan collar..." 

Thanks to Anna of Paunnet, we're all aware by now (right?) of Deer & Doe Patterns, a pattern line recently launched by French designer Eléonore Klein. It's all so frickin' adorable. I recently made a silent oath to never sew a rounded collar again, but then I saw the Veste Pavot (translation: Poppy Jacket) and I was completely taken by it, collar and covered buttons and all. The construction looked simple enough so I thought I'd take the plunge and see if I could do it.

As one of the first technically monolingual Americans (sob) to blog about one of these patterns, I feel like should try to give a decent overview of what these patterns are like, what the sewing experience was like, and whether or not I'm satisfied with the end result.

As with all the independent patterns I've sewn before, the graphic design aesthetics and packaging are lovely. The patterns come in large envelopes and are printed on sturdy paper (which--call me crazy--I actually don't like as much as tissue paper because they don't iron out or lay as flat). The instructions are written in a little booklet with simple drawings, like Megan Nielsen's patterns.

Ignore wrinkles.

Now let's talk about my language skillz and how this affected my ability to sew a French pattern. I may have studied French for a number of years, but every time I graduated to the next phase of schooling (middle school, then high school) I had to start over at French 101. Not a good system. So really the highest I studied was French 4 as a senior in high school. Seven years have passed since then, and in the meantime my brain has been muddled with studying Japanese and drinking beer, so mostly what I remember about French are these three key phrases: zut alors! (darn!), hyper chouette! (super cool!), and discotheque (dance club). Please note that our textbooks were published in the early 1990s.

So, with a very elementary understanding of French sentence structure and words like "right" and "front" and "sleeve," I was able to construct this jacket with some side help from the Internet. If you have made a button-up shirt and understand basic garment construction, you probably don't even need the instructions. The booklet includes technical illustrations, but they are not fully inclusive of every single step (which is of course fine for an intermediate sewer). The instructions tell you when to do things like attach the shoulders and sides, when to hem, and when to finish seams with bias binding, but those steps aren't illustrated. I think you can figure it out, though! Y'all are smart.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on some of these, but here's a little reference guide I created for myself so it was easier to spot what I needed to do during construction of the Veste Pavot:

les marges de couture :: seam allowances 

thermocollant ::  interfacing 

la parementure :: facing 

l'ourlet :: hem 

le bord :: edge 

surpiquez :: topstitch 

le fer :: iron 

epinglez :: pin 

I am pretty satisfied with the end result. I guessed at my size (in centimeters, oy!) and  it seemed to work out okay with zero alterations, except it's a little roomy in the bust area with the princess seams and the sleeves are kind of baggy. Of course, this could be a good thing if I want to wear this over thick sweaters and such. The changes I made were shortening the hem overall, making it a little less flared, not gathering the sleeve caps, and using interfacing on the collar to give it more structure.

The jacket is unlined, so I paid a teeny bit more attention to seam finishing than usual. I did a "clean finish," on all seams, which essentially means to hem the seam allowance 1/8" after stitching. If I make it again, I will want to fully line it, though. Jen of Grainline has a great tutorial on how to draft a lining for an unlined blazer/jacket pattern here.

I'm disappointed that I was too impatient to order/go out and buy matching thread. I settled for dark brown and I think the garment suffers somewhat from it. LIVE AND SEW AND BE BUMMED AND LEARN. As I always say. Here's how I feel about my mismatching thread:

Voila. Hyper chouette. Merci beaucoup. Allons-y. Bibliothèque. Bon Iver.  All in all, I'm happy with my jacket and hope I find ways to wear it regularly. Are you proud, French teachers of my past? Non?

Have you sewn a pattern in a foreign language before? Deer & Doe seems like a good place to start! Her other cutie patterns are here. Bonne chance, mes amis.