DIY: Christmas gift, a Liberty notebook

Bonjour tout le monde !

Today I am giving you a grate idea for a Christmas present, or just a cool present for yourself, that's the option I chose...

A beautiful notebook covered with liberty fabric.

But first let me talk of my little trip in Germany. I have been living there for a year now, and it's the first time that I go out of my city. Shameful I know, but for my defence, I don't know of any French person who has already been on vacation there. Apart from high-school trips... And last year, well, I visited other places :-)

As you can see my trip was beautiful, lots of mediaval and renaissance houses and castels, and lost and lost of sausages!!! this is NOT a cliché, Germans really love theirs wurts, and bear, and wine. Did you know that? Germany produces wine, you can even find viniards inside the walls of small cities, very lovely.

Anyway, now that everybody knows that Germany is beautiful, let's dive in this week post: a gorgeous and inexpensive Liberty notebook for Christmas.

Ah, Liberty... Love those fabrics. Last year during a trip to London I bought a notebook for my mom at the Liberty shop.

But I found that although it was a nice gift it was still a bit expensive, and didn't buy one for myself. What a sad story, I know.

Then, looking at my stash of fabric the other day, I noticed some Liberty remaining from previous projects. The pieces left are really too small to make anything other from them than pockets OR: a splendid notebook! And it's so easy to make!!

First of all, excuse me for the blurry pictures, sometimes my camera just doesn't feel it, you know: "Blah, tired of taking pictures."

What you need: 

 

a note book

cissors

glue

fabric(not to light so that the pattern of the notebook won't see through)

Cut a piece of fabric large enough to cover your book, adding 1,5 cm around to fold it to the exact size of the book.Iron it like in the blurry picture.

 

Then glue like a mad person, all over the first outside cover. Do not leave a piece of it without glue, or the fabric will rinkle. Then put some glue on the inside edge and fold the fabric over it.

For the bidding part: cut your fabric up to notebook, on each side of the bidding. fold inside, and glue like a mad person...

 And again, glue the other cover, remember that there shouldn't be any wrinkle anywhere. Arrange the corners as you wish. My notebook has round corner, but I made them square. It's just easier.

Now you should have a beautiful on the outside notebook. But your work is not finished. Seamstresses know this: your work has to be as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

So, you have to glue the first page of the notebook to the inside cover, to hide the fabric that you glued on it

In my case I had to cut the first pages who were partially glued (not by me but by the manufacturer) to the cover. And then glue a page over this mess.

See, does it make more sense in picture?

Et voilà!! It's so easy I don't understand why I never made that before!!

You can even add some ribbons. Just place them between the inside cover and the first page, and you know the rest: GLUE LIKE A MAD PERSON!!!

 I am so in love with it I want to carry it above my head in the street so that people can worship it! What can I do? I have a thing for Great Britain and Liberty fabrics is just it for me.

I hope I find some time to show what I am currently working on, maybe a photo-shoot in France would make up for the lack of posts this month. What do you think? 

Cheers!

DIY: a fake bow

Bonjour tout le monde !

Today I have decided to share with you a little tutorial on how to add a cute bow to your garment.

I have a trip planned ahead, and of course I need new clothes. I had a nice stretch wool in my stash and some viscose. Those fabrics are comfortable and make a nice ensemble for a diner out after a day visiting.

    

Actually the pants are a copy of an old favourite from ZARA. I was able to find almost the same fabric, but in another colour of course!

For the pictures I wore heels, but until I get back to work I will wear my pants with flats more probably, it's why the pants appear a bit too short in the pictures. Didn't realise that before...

Man, the weather was really crappy for taking pictures, sorry!

Let's get to the bow now:

This is a nice feature, romantic and most important: it's fun to make!

I also made bows on my sleeves, so cute!

See why I call them fake bows? It's technically a dart.

As usual you need to take your basic pattern.

For my top I decided to move the bust dart to the side. For that, trace on your pattern the new bust dart (in red). Close the "old" dart  by folding the line on top of one another and pin them in place.

Then slash the new dart.

Draw your bow, slash those darts open. Then the tricky part: you have to decide the depf of your darts, mine are 4 cm wide. It's just a question of taste, there is no way of knowing how many centimetres you need. You can play around with you fabric to estimate the final look of you bow.

When you have decided of the size of your darts take a piece of paper to tape under to maintain your darts in position, like below.

 

This is my final paper pattern. I used a ruler to  show you that your center front should be placed en the fold. Mark precisely your darts and then stitch the sort of V created buy the creation of your darts. Do you follow?

Then to create the illusion of a bow, take a small piece of fabric that you have prepared before ( fold it in 2, stitch the big side, turn it around). Then place it in the crease of one of the darts (above). Fold your dart, stitch it (blue line). Repeat on your second dart.

 

 Then you should stitch buy and on three centimetres your darts so that you bust dart isn’t too low. It happened to me, I was quite surprised because I thought my pattern was perfect.

 

There you go, you should have a nice and fake bow!!

Picture of the inside because I know you love it, I know I do.

 I used self made bias to finish the collar and sleeves. Stitched the first side with my machine and the second by hand so that it would be invisible.

The rest of the seams are French seams because the fabric is rather light, and I find it give a nice finish.

Oh and look, it even goes with my Chanel jacket that I made a few months ago, isn't it perfect? what you don't see my top, well yeah! It's the point, it goes perfectly with it's neck line.

This is what is really cool when you are drawn to certain colour, you find yourself having a real wardrobe with pieces that go well together (or a least I hope they go well together :-)).

That's all for today. See you in few weeks, when I get back from my trip.

Cheers!