Making a Retro Dress – Butterick B6318

In February, my mom and I made a (retro) dress for the first time. (ﾉ^∇^)ﾉ

Friday

My workplace had closed because of a snowstorm (on a Friday!) so I was able to return home for the weekend in the morning instead of after work. This unexpected day off gave us half of a day more to work on the dress. In the afternoon, my mom and I went to the fabric store to buy the fabric and the notions (my mom had already bought the pattern). I wanted to take a picture of all the material together, but I forgot.

Here's a closeup of the pattern I chose:

It's very light cotton with little purple flowers. I wanted a light fabric for the pleats to fall nicely. I was advised to choose a pattern that was very cheap (on sale) since I had never sewn before (as for my mom, although she regularly repairs clothing in our household and even sewed a bit when I was younger, she had never made a dress). I followed the advice not without feeling some disappointment, but I ended up not regretting my decision. I can always make this dress again with better quality fabric anyway.

Back at home, I started to cut each piece of the pattern. For info, we chose to make a size 8 of the dress. Cutting the pattern was longer than I thought. Definitely not my favourite part in making a dress!

Saturday

In the morning, I cut the fabric. We had some difficulties figuring out how to place the pattern pieces on the fabric correctly, but my mom eventually recalled the meaning of "Cut 1" and "Cut 2" pieces, and so I was able to cut each piece successfully.

Some patterns had little "triangles" or "zigzags" that I didn't cut in the fabric because I didn't know their use (yet). We eventually learned that they serve as references when you patch pieces together (eg. sewing the two tie ends at the right places on the bodice).

And then the more concrete, sewing-related stuff arrived, at last. I had been patiently waiting for this moment during all the previous steps. There's definitely more preparation "pre-sewing" than I expected.
I sewed the bodice, made the two tie ends, made the collar and sewed it onto the bodice. This all seems quick and simple, but it took a while because you need to stick needles in the fabric to ensure you sew nice lines, iron the fabric pre or post-sewing, and refer to the instructions and try to understand what they say (let's not forget my mom and I had never made a dress before.)

This was my first time sewing since 2011 where I had toyed with the sewing machine to make an oversized tee smaller. I found that sewing in itself is pretty mechanical. Not that this is a bad thing, I just noticed I was very focused when sewing and I felt my mind empty of thoughts. The hard part is pretty much before sewing, so as to say when you're struggling to put the pieces together the right way.

I was pretty satisfied with the progress we had made by noon, but then I was struck by a (TOTM) stomach ache and didn't feel well enough to continue. I felt quite sad to have lost a whole afternoon.

Sunday

Because I wanted to make up for the lost time, we resumed our work early in the morning. If I remember well, that day, we sewed the two tie ends on the bodice, I hemmed the sleeves (I found that long and tedious), I sewed the skirt and we created the pleats on the skirt. The last one was a real challenge... but my mom looked up videos on YouTube and found a technique that really helped us.

After a failed attempt at sewing the pleats, I let my mom take my place...

My mom also sewed the skirt with the bodice.

Unfortunately, our project had to be paused since I had to return to Montreal, but I was really satisfied with that productive day.

Next Saturday

Our progress last weekend, and especially last Sunday, had been such that there were few things left to do at that moment. Only the zip, the skirt hem and other finishing touches.

Sewing the lace ribbon at the bottom of the skirt to make the hem

We tackled the zip afterwards. Putting on the zip was a challenge, just like the pleats... Again, my mom went on YouTube and found a useful video to help us positioning the zip and finish the dress.

The sleeves were a bit bell-shaped and we didn't really like it, so my mom changed it a little.

I'm still mad at myself for this, but I managed to make a hole in the sleeve

when cutting off the extra thread after sewing.

Luckily for me, my mom arranged this.

This is one of the reasons I'm glad I opted for a cheaper fabric.

Final result

I love the dress. The length is perfect and the pleats fall beautifully.

I'm very happy with how the dress turned out. If I had to reflect on this first serious sewing experience, I'd first say that reading a pattern is hard. The words and the illustrations were hard to comprehend for the newbie that I am. I was lucky that my mom was there to help me because I couldn't decipher most of the instructions.

Additionally, there's so much to think of when making a dress. This pattern was labelled for beginners, but there were still lots of details to consider. I wrongly thought that making a dress was about the top and the skirt and other visible stuff or accessories, but there's also a lot of work that goes unseen (making the inside-collar and finishing it, hemming the sleeves, folding 2x each of the two tie ends' edges, etc...). The amount of material needed also surprised me, as sewing doesn't only ask for a sewing machine, but also lots of needles, a steam iron and enough space in the room.

In short, I supposed sewing required work, but not to this extent. The great thing is that my mom and I weren't rushed into making the dress, so we enjoyed taking our time through each step (hence why it took us a couple of days). And I really liked that every piece sewn brought us closer to the dress in one complete piece. This first sewing project makes me optimistic for future ones. ✨

Trying Garnier Fructis 1 Minute Hair Mask (Damage Reparing)

Last weekend, I got to try Garnier Fructis' 1 Minute hair mask in papaya. I had mentioned it for the first time in my post on trying the mask in banana and coconut. Since I already talked a bit about these masks in my first post (see aforementioned link), I'm gonna jump right into using the mask.

As with the other two masks, I applied roughly half of the jar after the shampoo and rinsed out the mask after washing my body. My hair didn't feel tangled at that point, so there was no need to add conditioner, although it didn't feel smooth either. This may be because of the Tresemme shampoo I'm using right now. It's the Clean & Replenish one (blue bottle) and it gives my hair a strange texture. My fingers don't glide easily on my hair following the shampoo and even conditioner can't fix this. Thankfully, this weird feeling disappears after the shower, once I unwrap my wet hair from my cotton shirt. I don't really understand it because I've bought this shampoo before and I don't recall having this problem. Anyway, I'll make sure to not buy it again.

Following the shower, I wrapped my hair in my cotton shirt and waited a while before unwrapping it. Then I applied Moroccanoil on my roots and my ends. I normally wouldn't apply Moroccanoil after a hair mask to avoid greasiness, but my hair didn't feel fully detangled and I didn't want to risk breakage and snaps.
I felt a bit sad to suppress some of the papaya scent with the Moroccanoil because it smells wonderful. I don't usually buy hair products with a "fruit" aroma, but this one has just enough sweetness.

..

My hair fully dried after having been brushed

I love the state of my hair in the pictures above. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the thickness and fluffiness doesn't stay for long and using this mask made no exception.

This was my hair in the evening (day mostly spent doing errands and cooking):

Hair strands gathering together giving the appearance of oily ends

Digressing briefly since it's been a while I've made an update on my hair. When I wrote the review about Garnier's 1 Minute hair masks in October, I mentioned I had been recovering from an important hair shed. Around the time I posted the review, the hair shed resurfaced and thinned mostly the ends of my hair. You can actually notice the difference in thickness with the pictures taken in October vs the picture above here. I'm thinking causes might be stress from work, no trimming and hair knots (I had tried to part myself from using Moroccanoil at that time, and I remember my hair being more tangled after showering.) This relapse made me go back to using Moroccanoil again and I'm still using it today. I think the hair shed is not so bad right now...

Back to the hair mask. At the end of the day, I did notice my hair being a little oilier than usual, but that was expected since I applied the mask from my roots to my ends. I'd imagine you need to use this mask regularly to see any results, and since this is only my first time using it, I can't say much about it in terms of repair. But overall, I'm not impressed by this papaya hair mask. Although I wasn't expecting a repair miracle, it would have been great for it to at least make my hair smooth and silky, especially after that shampoo. I really don't know whether this mask has a positive impact on my hair (other than the smell), but to me, it's not worth buying it again to gauge the effects long-term.

My Christmas Holidays

Last year, my family and I spent Christmas in New York and I shared some bits of my trip here. Looking back, these were great memories for my blog, so I decided to do the same this year even though we didn't go anywhere and relaxed at home.

P.S. Some pictures were taken with my phone that has a crappy camera, so I apologize in advance for the quality of some.

December 22nd

My sister and I went to Magog to walk and do some window-shopping downtown. On our way, we stopped at La Fabrique de Bagels Café Noir since my sister wanted to buy sesame bagels. Other than bagels, there's a cute little bakery inside. The atmosphere was quite festive for the holidays.

Downtown, the sidewalks were really slippery which we didn't expect. 

We stopped at Alessa Trattoria to eat a pizza and enjoy some warmth. We chose the Capricciosa which has cheese, tomatoes, olives, artichokes, basil and, I believe, ham. It was okay, but the crust is probably one of the best I've eaten in my life. It has a "grilled" taste to it and the texture is very light.

December 24th

On Christmas Eve, my family and I went to church in the late afternoon.

I was a bit hesitant to take pictures inside of the church, but the church service had not yet started and I wanted to show its architecture. We basically never go to church except on Christmas Eve, so I took the opportunity to snap a few pics discretely at that moment. The reason why I wanted to post pictures of the church here is that I've always liked the inside of it, the colours and especially the work on the ceiling. I don't know anything about castles, but the interior reminds me of one or another major monuments.

We can only see one on the wall in the above picture, but if I remember well, each "wall sculpture" depicts the crucifixion of Jesus. There are also on the other side of the wall, but I really can't remember if they illustrate the same event or a new story.

After church, time to eat... or so we thought. I had a dish I wanted to make, but because I wasn't advanced enough in the preparation, I made everything last minute which delayed the time we actually sat down to eat. Oops.

I made smoked salmon, cream cheese & beets tortilla rollups by Marilou (Trois fois par jour). In my hastiness, I forgot to look at the recipe picture and ended up making very thin layers of cream cheese and beets with not-so-thin slices of smoked salmon. This made the rollups taste mostly smoked salmon and nothing else. It was alright, but nothing amazing.

The following morning, the juice (of the beets/smoked salmon?) had started to impregnate the tortillas which gave them a very particular texture. It was like chewing something wet and juicy. It wasn't nice, but the taste was still okay. IMO, this dish should be eaten on the same day that it is prepared. I'm still happy to have given it a try, though.

The rollups the following day, with better lighting and cut in smaller bites

That evening, there was also cheese fondue, sausage rolls and cold meats. I mostly ate sausage rolls and my rollups. I found there was too much kirsch in the cheese fondue for my taste.

My sister had bought a yule log from Les Vraies Richesses.

It is so good. The white part is like milk and vanilla mousse with berries and soft chocolate cake inside. It's probably the best yule log I've ever eaten. It's very light, not overly sweet and goes down well after a heavier meal.

December 25th

Chicken, stuffing and mashed potatoes: Our Christmas meal.

There were also carrots and cranberry jelly (we call it atocas here), but I'm not a fan of these...

The stuffing was incredibly good. There wasn't any celery because my mom didn't have any, but it was still savoury.

I had a stuffing crave a few weeks ago and bought two boxes of Stove Top stuffing after watching videos of it on YouTube. Both flavours were chicken, one being lower in sodium.

I was, however, disappointed. I don't like the dehydrated vegetables (reminds me I always throw them out when I cook instant noodles) and the food tastes too much like chemicals and has too many spices (there are boxed foods that don't taste too chemical to me, such as mashed potatoes).

So when I ate my mom's homemade stuffing, it tasted like heaven compared to Stove Top. Just my personal opinion. I asked my mother the recipe so I can make it at my apartment.

December 29th

Delicious onion soup. I think it's the second time I've posted a picture of onion soup on my blog, but it's probably my favourite soup and meals. I always eat yummy and comforting homemade food when I return home.

December 31st

My sister had invited us for supper for New Year's Eve (she had also invited us last year and I had planned on blogging about it but didn't which I regret now.)

Our main dish was filet mignon with oven-baked carrots. The meat had been covered in salty spices (I forgot the flavour) and it had made a sort of grilled crust on the surface. It tasted amazing.
For dessert, we ate a Chocolat Favoris yule log my mother had bought. It tasted good, but it was way too rich and heavy after our meal.

January 1st

My father helps a friend with his sugar shack and brought us to visit it (it's a small sugar shack where they collect, produce and sell maple syrup, but it isn't "opened" to visitors.)

I absolutely love this picture. It looks like a painting.

On our way to the shack where the maple syrup is collected and produced

I don't know if it's clear in the picture above, but the snow was quite deep and there was no proper "path". It was thus tough to walk in such deep snow and after five minutes, I was already a bit fed up. Normally, the walk to the shack takes about an hour, but in these conditions, you could reasonably add 30 minutes. Fortunately, we walked like this for about 30 minutes; it was planned that my father would join us in the Argo to take us faster to the place.

Sadly, my Motorola froze during the walk due to the cold. I had to turn to my Huawei which takes pictures of lesser quality (but doesn't do that bad outside, at least).

We can hear the water flows when we come across these small streams.

It's really soothing.

Very generally, to my understanding, the maple water is collected through a hole in the tree and circulates in these small tubes connected to other trees (also with holes), and eventually to a bigger tube, everything going down a slope (gravity is necessary for the water to flow down). The big tube heads to a big container (shaped in a tunnel) that can be connected to another container to begin the transformation into maple syrup.

I had only seen maple syrup being collected in a metal bucket through a hole in the tree before, so it was interesting to see another method. However, the process wasn't clear at times, especially since the sugar season (saison des sucres) comes in a while, so the tubes weren't "in work" yet and some things still needed to be added.

It would've been a good picture had my hand not been in front of the camera.

I like how it goes darker in the middle and the contrast with the white snow.

Between those moments shared here, I also went to thrift shops with my mom, drove around town to see the Christmas decorations, played card games, watched movies, did nothing in particular, and other things.
I'm now back in Montreal and my Christmas holidays are pretty much over. It was pleasant and I really liked spending time with my family, although I didn't fully regain the sleep I had wished to retrieve during the holidays. Stress is pretty much the reason why, but anyway. For this year 2020, some of my personal goals are to develop my style and my interests, pursue my hair growth and set aside more money than in 2019, notably but not exclusively by being more reasonable in my purchases.

Tops from Fi.n.t

I've been wearing midi skirts almost every day now (except when it's been raining or snowing—the rain/winter boots really don't look good with my skirts). This has allowed me to make some learnings as well as to define more the style I wanted to go for.

In terms of "discoveries", I found wearing a skirt is overall much more comfortable than pants, especially when you're sitting for long periods of time (eg. at work). Although that seems like silly evidence, I hadn't realized it (or had forgotten it since I had rarely worn skirts for repeated and long periods of time since high school).

I also recognized that blouses, in particular, do not stay well tucked in skirts (I guess their light and soft fabric makes them easily slip out.) That's unfortunate because blouses more than any other kinds of tops look better when neatly tucked in. So when I'm wearing a blouse with a skirt, I just know that I'll end up constantly having to fix it throughout the day, even if I raised my arms just a little. Not practical.

Finally, because I'm a short person (156 cm) wearing midi skirts, I need a rather tight-fitting top to avoid the skirt look unflattering and the outfit making me look shorter. I like 3/4 sleeves top the best. That doesn't mean I'm ruling out shirts that don't fit these criteria. Shorter ones that cut a little above the waist (instead of the hips) can look good even if they're a bit loose.

Btw, don't take these last remarks as genuine fashion advice, cuz I really don't know if they are legit. They're just deductions I've made for my body personally by trying on and wearing clothes.

Around the same time these realizations were sprouting, I was casually looking for tops to wear with my skirts. I thought that it would be fairly easy to find nice and simple tight-fitting tops in stores near me. However, since my purchase of the 3/4 sleeve blue top at Mia Mix, I hadn't found any other similar tops. Maybe it didn't help that winter was coming, thus prompting the release of fall and winter apparel (it was thick wool sweaters mania in every store). I got tired of this dryness one day of November and made an order with Japonica Market. I bought tops on Mercari and Fi.n.t's outlet store. The tops in the outlet were 50% off.

Mercari

Lavender Embroidered Blouse | ラベンダー刺繍シャツブラウス/an another angelus

I know I just mentioned that I thought blouses were not practical for their habit to elope from the skirt waistband, but I've always wanted this blouse since its release this summer. I briefly mentioned it in August, but I was mostly interested in getting it in purple. But with time, I came to like the white one almost as much as the purple one... I would have still bought the blouse in purple first been given the occasion, but the first one I bumped into at a reasonable price was the white one.

Closeup of the pretty embroidery

I believe that the fabric is polyester, though definitely not chiffon. This makes the blouse less sheer, so I appreciate it. 

I found two little stains (they were hard to capture on camera, it didn't really focus on the stains):

If you can't spot the stain in the picture above,

look at the picture below and try to relocate it in the pic above...

I admit that the stains look very small, but they do become more visible depending on the lighting. Also, they were hard to capture with the camera. I think and hope that these will go away in the washing machine. It's quite annoying since this is a white/ivory blouse which makes these little stains stick out more.

Apart from that, the condition of the blouse is excellent. The previous owner stated she had only worn the blouse one time. I'm happy with this purchase.

Beige sweater | F&A ヨーク刺繍ボウタイニットプルオーバー

I'm not sure which collection of Fi.n.t this sweater is from. I liked its bow the minute I saw it (thicker sweaters with bow collars are pretty uncommon.) I also thought the flower pattern around the collar was a nice detail. The sweater also exists with blue flowers, but I preferred purple coloured flowers and thought they would look better with the rest of my clothes.

There's a little thread snag inside the sweater

What the snag looks like from the exterior (it's in the back).

Not really bothered by it, just hoping it won't get worse...

The condition of the sweater is really good. This kind of fabric seems fragile and inclined to snags, but I was surprised to see that it was almost perfect.

Fi.n.t Outlet

Scarf-collar top | タイ付きカットトップス/an another angelus

I was tempted by this top more because it was on sale, although I did like its collar and sleeves. I would've liked to buy the one in white with black polka dots—I don't have this pattern in my wardrobe and I feel it would look cute with any solid coloured skirt—but it was sold out. Therefore I went for this ivory cream colourway.

This isn't the kind of piece I like to go out of my way to buy online, but I'm still somewhat pleased to have gotten it (the odds of finding it in a physical store were pretty much zero.)

The collar is different from the other shirts I own and the loose ends are sewn to the top. I didn't expect that last thing but was pretty happy about it because I won't have to worry about the wind and replacing them every now and then during the day.

Sailor top | レーススカーフ衿テレコT/F i.n.t

(Clothing tags aren't there cuz I had already worn the top before taking this pic)

This top reunites some of my favourites clothing features: rib-knit fabric, shorter sleeves and a (sailor) knot tying at the front. The back also isn't a typical sailor "square" shaped collar which I prefer.

I had been thinking about buying this top since August, but I thought it was a bit expensive. It eventually went on sale, but I still waited a couple of months before buying it.

Other than the price, I also had hesitations about the sailor knot. I had seen lots of staff modelling the top and it wasn't rare for the knot to not look good at all. It looked small, poorly knotted, and we could easily see the collar under the lace. I came to think that this was the kind of knot/bow that only looks nice in stock pictures and is impossible to recreate in real life.

However, now that I've worn it, I find it extremely quick and easy to make a nice-looking knot that stays perfect for the whole day. I thought I'd have to fix it continuously. Definitely happy to have given this top a shot despite my initial doubts.

The lace is really pretty

I also LOVE this top in black, but I've been trying to avoid dark and black colours since they so easily attract lint... I've had a lot of black shirts in the past and they always got really linty. Not only it became an annoying chore having to use the lint-roller on them after each wash, but some lint would just never really go away.

Lace collar top | オフショルレーステレコT/an another angelus

I've had a soft spot for this top when I first saw it paired with the fruit skirt released in the S2019 collection:

source

Such beautiful skirts, amazing colours and prints... I want them both... I've been waiting for their prices to go down on online flea markets, though nothing is really moving and they're quite rare to come by... But anyway, to get back to what I was saying, I liked the plum colour of the top and the lace V-shape collar. Plus, the sleeves obviously. While waiting to pair it with the fruit skirt, I knew it was possible to pair it with skirts I already own.

The lace isn't completely see-through which I like

I've worn it one time and it fits well! But I noticed that the clothing label inside the shirt rubs against my skin (on the left side of my waist/hip) and makes it itchy. It's not the washing label (which is usually satin-like), it's a woven tag, the one that usually goes at the top of the back. I have no idea why they decided to put it there, but if I don't get used to it, I might have to cut it (and I don't really like cutting woven labels.)

Also, I unfortunately stretched the left side of the lace collar a bit. I have this habit of wrapping my hair as a scarf around my neck (I can do one "complete" wrap.) Throughout the day, I noticed that the loose end (that was on the left) was always sliding in the collar to get inside my top (what a perv). Now, this side of the collar won't stay as flat as the other side, although thank God it's not that apparent. Still, I've had my lesson and I'll be careful when wearing this top next time.

***

All in all, I'm really satisfied with the tops I purchased. Now that I've bought more stuff from Fi.n.t (and wore some of their stuff for some months now), I can confidently say that the quality of their clothing is excellent. The fabric doesn't feel thin and cheap. I was particularly impressed by the "thickness" of the blouse because I thought it would be more transparent and chiffon-like, such as the usual blouses sold in physical stores. Regarding the tops from the outlet, I'm aware that outlets are known for selling generally lower quality items, but I can't really see how the pieces I got are of inferior quality.

Fi.n.t also gave me this tote bag ("Jules" is the name of their F2019 collection):

It's cute, but the handles are a bit too short for me (I like to wear a tote bag over my shoulder and I think it looks a bit tight under the armpit?) It's not a big deal... but then someone at work is named Jule and he's a man, so I do feel a bit uncomfortable if he sees me with that tote bag at work... or anyone... because frankly, "Jules" is solely a guy's name here, at least when pronounced in French. There may be a few girls named Jules, but I've yet to meet one.

HOWEVER, after making a quick search to check if Fi.n.t's official collection name was called "Jules" or "A Girl Called Jules", I found out that there's actually a movie "A Girl Called Jules". And by reading again Fi.n.t's Fall 2019 collection description, the pieces are inspired by the outfits in this movie. Ah. I understand the description much better now (I blame my lack of curiosity then.) I guess that the name "Jules" is pronounced in English rather than in French (I've been pronouncing it in French since the beginning.) It seems more plausible that a girl is called Jules (pronounced in English). Well that's great news, because it means I won't have to feel embarrassed to strut my tote bag to work and in public.