Monthly Archives: F Y

Technical note: following the blog

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Hello ! I’d like to write a small technical note today on how to follow the blog. There are several ways to do so.

The one I use and prefer: using the rss feed. Blogs publish an rss feed that you can use to automaticaly get new updates. You just have to give the rss feed address to an rss feed reader, and the reader will check for new posts for you. I use Google Reader, but other softwares probably work the same. Usually you just have to copy the blog (or website) address, then go to Google Reader, click “Subscribe”, paste the address in the text box that appears and the reader will find the rss feed. If it doesn’t you have to find the rss feed address on the blog (it should be written somewhere) and give this to your reader. Then we you log on your reader you automaticaly see the new posts on the blogs you follow. Google Reader offers you nice options to organize your feeds and get the most out of them: group them in folders, star messages you want to find easily, add tags, email the post to someone… Of course you can also search the blogs you follow by typing a text query.

I know some people like to subscribe to blog posts by email. When I first moved to this hosting I installed a plugin so that people could subscribe and be notified of new posts and comments by email. I didn’t like the way that plugin worked, so I removed it and went looking for something else. I’m happy to say that posts subscription by email is now available again. When you post a comment there is a little checkbox that allows you to subscribe to the blog and be notified of new posts by email. You can also subscribe directly through the menu on the right (a the bottom). The email you will receive is writen both in English and in French, and will only show a snippet of the post. I have yet to found something that handles multilingual blogs and send the notification in the language you prefer. In the meantime just read the language you understand and ignore the rest.

Notifications of new comments is still not available at the moment.

Spotted: Little black dresses and Paris shops

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Those are two new books that I spotted recently. Let’s start with “Ma petite robe noire”, or “My little black dress” in English.

It’s a translation of this book: “The Little Black Dress: How to make the perfect one for you”. Since there are plenty of reviews on Amazon I won’t go into to much details here, especially since I didn’t get the book but just looked at it in the store. The idea of this book is to give you enough explanations so that you can create a dress that fits you. I found it funny that the title is about little black dresses, since the book can be used for any dress. It starts with a little background on black dress though, and why they’re a basic item. The author then follows by explaining how to create a dress slopper, and then explains how to alter it based on three dress styles: one name after Audrey Hepburn, that is a classic shape, then a wrap dress pictured below (my favourite!) and another one that I don’t remember. Before the alterations part there is a chapter on fabrics and how to choose a dress design that suits you and your body type.

The book seems nice and beginner-friendly, with lots of step by step pictures. But for me it feels a little mixed-up (for lack of a better word). I find it’s somewhere between a pattern making book, but then it lacks variations, and it’s only about dresses, and a project book. I have what I feel are more thorough books on pattern making, so I’ll probably pass on this book. But others might (and surely do considering the Amazon reviews) find it interesting. One thing worth noting: it seems from what I read on the reviews that the author explains how to drape the dress on a body or a dressform, not how to draft paper pattern, and suggest you have a friend drape your dress on you.

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“Divines merceries pour créations de rêves” means “Divine notions shops for wonderful creations”. It talks about notion shops in Paris and shares projects made with materials bought in those shops. The history of this book amuses me: it’s a actually a translation of a japanese book! Which means that some japanese people decided to write a book about notion shops in Paris, contacted French creators, made the book, and some time later a French publisher decided to translate it. This is a weird journey. ^^ The book describes four shops (La Droguerie, Entrée des Fournisseurs, Ultramod and Le bonheur des dames) and four creators (Céline Dupuy/Mlle Kou, Hélène Deslais, Hélène Le Berre and Anne Loiseau). A section is devoted to each shop. Each section first describes the shop and what you can find there, with pictures. Then there is an introduction about the artist and finally a few projects made with materials from the shop. The instructions and patterns for the projects (accessories and jewelry if I remember well) can be found at the end of the book. It is not the kind of books I’m looking for, but for those interested it is very nicely made. And I was happy to discover Le Bonheur des dames, which seems to be a very interesting shop that I will try to visit.

Surprise: fabric book cover tutorial!

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Hello!

I’ve been working on this for a while, and now it’s ready: a tutorial to create a fabric book cover similar to the one I made for Giveaway Day! At first I was planning to have a “book cover” themed event for the blog’s three years anniversary with a book cover giveaway and this tutorial. In the end the giveaway was done a week before my blog turned three and the tutorial is up almost a week after. There is a kind of symetry to it…

This cover is quite simple as far as sewing goes, which makes it perfect for beginners and perfect for playing with cute fabrics and embellishments. Experienced people can have fun using more complex techniques for creating lots of different “tops”. It also makes a good gift for friends and family members. The one you see pictured here is the first one I made, to test the concept. I used it almost every day since.

I did my best to write a tutorial that would be nice to read and detailed enough so that beginners would be able to follow it. I also included variations and embellishments suggestions at the end. Because of that it’s a little on the long side, so I prefered making a downloadable pdf file rather than writing it directly on the blog. I tend to like pdf files over blog post tutorials anyway, they’re easier to access to when you need them at home.

download Book-cover-tutorial.pdf

If you use this tutorial I’d be more than happy to know what you think about it and to see your finished products! Please leave a comment here with a link to a post or a picture, or send me an email. :)