Yesterday, I have read a post about aprons on Mrs B's blog.

I love aprons too, as I am sometimes a bit messy  when I do my housework, and as I wear most of time long and flowing dresses, I need to protect my clothes if I don't want to ruin them.

Last year, for Christmas I sewn aprons for both my mum and my sister :

I also made an apron for me and one for my youngest daughter with the same pattern, but I don't have pics of them yet...

I'll be off blogging until next sunday, I leave tomorrow morning to spend the "Ascencion day" long WE with my parents in Normandie.

Next sunday is also Mother'sday in France, and I want to celebrate it with my mum.

Yes I know, we are always having vacations in France, this one is a religious legal holiday.

I'll bring my camera to share pics of the beautiful countryside cottage of my parents.

I wish a nice week-end in advance to all of you !

Last week, I have sewn spring nightgowns for my 2 daughters.

I use a nice cotton fabric printed with big strawberries. For my older daughter I used a Simplicity pattern, for the young one I created it myself with a nightgown she already have.

In my area (semi-rural area, about 20 miles from Paris), I can't find well-stocked fabric stores. I use to go to Paris about twice a year to buy a lot of fabric.

In Paris, near a place well-known by tourists called "Sacré-coeur", on the "Butte Monmartre", there is the most famous fabric store of Paris. It is called "Le marché Saint Pierre".

In this place you can find everything you want, from very cheap cottons to beautiful silk and embroidery.

I love to go there, even if I have to take a nearly 2 hours train trip to reach it (I never take my car to go to Paris, to much traffic, and no places to park).

I went there last october, and I still have some fabric left !

I use to sew most of the nightgowns and pajamas for my family, they are easy to sew, I can use very pretty printed fabric. In stores, night wear is often very poor quality with ugly cartoons characters on it .

I had a lot of wonderful comments about my dress, I want to tell you that it is not at all difficult to sew this kind of dress. I like very much to use Simplicity's patterns because they are easy to follow, the most important thing is to be very careful when you cut the fabric and to do everything step by step, don't cut corners to go faster !

I learned to sew as a child with my beloved grand-mother , she even gave me my first sewing machine when I was 12, it was an old Elna, and I kept it until 18, then I was able to buy a brand new Singer, with money I earned at a summer job.

This wonderful machine did a great job during 18 years, she "died" last summer and I bought an electronic Brother. I have a lot of fun with this one, there is embroidery stitches and I like very much to use them, I also have completly automatic button-holes on it . My old Singer was a mechanical one, with just basic stitches, so this is new to me.

However, my old Singer is being repaired and I'll give it to my older daughter, she's 10 and she likes to sew simple things like skirts or aprons.

Here it is , this morning I wear my brand new home sewn dress, I'm happy it turned well because I had some issues with the neckline, I had to do it twice, because it was not exactly symetric...

This afternoon I have cut the fabric

After, I have oversewn all the pieces, the fabric is a kind of viscose, and I don't want it to fray

Above you can see the front and both front sides

 Here, you can see the bottom and both bottom sides with the belt

And last, the sleeves and the collar facing

I don't think I'll finish tomorrow, but I hope it 'll be done by monday or tuesday...

Yesterday, I have read a post by Natalija from Sarah'sdaughter blog, she is a very good seamstress and often post about sewing project for her kids.

This time she sew for herself, and that make me think it's been a while since I sew something for myself .

I often sew simple projects for my daughters, like nightgowns, dolls clothes or aprons, but not so often for me.

I have a wonderful Simplicity dress pattern, that I have already use twice, and I have a nice fabric perfect for the spring season.

I'm dress and skirts only, for many reasons:

1- I like to be modest and feminin

2- I'm not overweight but I have feminin curves and I really think I look far more gracious in a nice flowing dress, so does think my hubby...

3- I fell much more comfy in skirt or dress than in pants.

There is only one exception for me to wear pants, it's for skiing  

Well, now I'm going to show you a pic of the pattern, I have put it on the fabric, so you can see it too.

I have choosen the dress with elbow lenght sleeves.

I'll try to post about it as I progress...

Just a few words about spring cleaning, the kitchen is almost finished, I just have to clean the china cupboard now, I'll do it tomorrow morning