La Maison Victor Solange and Some Thoughts on Sewing Magazines

Hello! These aren't the greatest photos and this isn't the greatest look for me to be honest, but I felt I needed to get this dress blogged so here we are!

A few weeks ago I made the Solange Dress from the first edition of La Maison Victor to be published in the UK (back in July 2017 I believe?). I was quite excited about making this dress; I even took an instagram snap of my project materials artfully gathered together ready for sewing, but the end result is decidedly 'meh' for me.

© La Maison Victor

I decided to copy to look of the sample garment and cut into some stripy ponte bought in Japan (I also squeezed out a Burda top with the remnants here). However, what I decided to ignore at the time but can see plainly now is that even on the model the pockets add unwanted bulk around the middle, and on my less-than-lithe midsection that unflattering effect is even more pronounced. I've barely worn the dress since I made it because I feel so self-conscious in it.

I don't think it's a very flattering cut, but I'm sure I didn't get the fit quite right either. My measurements put me in body size 14, with my upper bust at 12 and full bust at 16. I did a bit of blending between sizes at the front but made the back 14 all over, but decided to do a bit of finangling with the sleeves so that they would fit into the armscye after the alterations. I’m not sure this worked too well as the sleeves like to crease when wearing, and the bust darts sit too high for me (although this does seem to be where they’re designed to sit from the line drawings, but it just looks a bit silly on me).

The pattern has a gently shaped back seam which I nearly missed when cutting out, but I could have used this to get a closer fit for my sway back.  The centre back seam is to allow you to insert an exposed zip, which ended up being a fussy process because I couldn't quite work out the instructions so just guessed it and left off the ribbon facing step.

To be honest I wish I hadn't bothered with it at all, as it creates wobbles in my seam and back neckline, but I have a habit of doggedly following the instructions sometimes even if I don't really want the finished result. Maybe it feels like cheating not to do it? I also feel that sometimes you have to face your fears in sewing and conquer tricky steps, or you'll spend all your time avoiding certain processes. That said, this didn't turn out great and I wish I'd practised on a sample instead!

You can't see in these photos but one small gripe about my cutting out of this dress is that I didn't think about stripe-matching the pockets, and I easily could have with the amount of fabric I had. I just thought they'd never be seen, so wanted to conserve as much leftover fabric for another project as possible. But actually the pockets do gape when sitting down so lack of matching is really obvious.

Again, as with the zip, realistically the pockets probably take away more than they add to the look of the garment so the easiest option would be to leave them off altogether! I have my hands in them in most of these pictures as that's the only way to keep them under control - otherwise you're forever smoothing them down to prevent your hips looking even lumpier than normal!

This was one of those projects that ends up being a lot more complex than it might seem at first glance. For starters I had a few headscratching moments where I couldn’t quite tell what the instructions were asking me to do. I guess something got lost in translation sewing-speak wise but I finally realised that ‘add a stitch next to the seam’ meant ‘add a line of stitching’ which meant ‘understitch’. Got there in the end!

I didn’t find it very fun to make either as I was expecting an easy palate-cleanser of a make but the instructions had a lot of fussy treatments and markings, more like what you’d expect from a woven garment than a simple semi-fitted t-shirt dress. Some of the processes really went awry - for example I found sewing the recommended woven neck binding around the ponte neckline made my twin needle skip stitches right where the topstitching is most visible! 

I've only worn this dress a couple of times since I made it, and I'm not sure if I'll keep it as it doesn't make me feel good. It's a shame to waste nice fabric that I bought on holiday, but it wasn't expensive and it's not unique so at least I have that consolation. I have more Japanese fabric in lovely traditional prints, but I'll take this as a lesson that I need to match them more carefully with the garment patterns and make a toile first to avoid disappointment!

If you've read this far through my rant, thank you! I'm sure we've all been there with projects that just don't work out. There were some other patterns I quite liked in that issue of La Maison Victor but I'll take a break before going back to see if they're worth toile-ing through. I haven't bought any subsequent issues.

I used to love sewing magazines, but nowadays I'm a lot more selective and only buy if there are at least two patterns I'd consider making, and usually this means going straight for Burda. There isn't much in the way of written editorial in Burda (usually just one article, giving context for a special pattern) which is a shame as I do love to read about sewing - that's why I still blog and enjoy reading others' blogs!

However I prefer it to buying the other sewing magazines like Love Sewing or Simply Sewing which have fewer patterns (that are less to my taste) as a lot of their editorial seems to be repurposed from other sewists' blogs that I'd have read for free online anyway! La Maison Victor seems to combine the weak spots of both magazines - as few patterns as Love Sewing et al plus the lack of written content that Burda has. I'm not saying I wouldn't buy it again, but it'd only be if the patterns were truly inspiring.

What are your thoughts on sewing magazines? Do you subscribe or pick and choose? Or avoid altogether?

NorseOtter xx