I have auto
delivery for Louis Cutting's patterns which means that patterns magically
appear at my doorstep every so often. I have quite the collection of them now.
Since I had this wonderful linen fabric, I perusing the patterns, deciding on the top from "Relax a
Little".
From experience I know that for a top like this one, I need to
add an inch to the length so that the top falls at a more flattering part of my
body.
Making the shirt
went well, except for the sewing of the sleeve area to the wrong side, but I
digress... Shirt was finished awaiting buttons, I tried it on.
It was... it was....well,
boring. I tried out on it all of the usual suspects for buttons, mother of
pearl, brown, wood, nothing worked and certainly, nothing made the shirt pop. This was
supposed to be an simple top, something for this summer. I put it away where it
hung in my sewing room for a couple of days.
Last year I found
this old glass milk jug with attached lid with raised lettering "La
Lorraine" at a second hand store in Alsace. It was love at first site and
the price made it a bargain. I washed the inside and over time have started
filling it with buttons. As I find them in my sewing space I pop them into the
jug so that they are all in one place and easier to find. While cleaning my
sewing area, I found the perfect buttons.
Last year I
was at a flea market in a small town nearby and there was a woman selling all sorts of brass
buttons and lots of fun lace bits. I bought 3 sets of buttons from her and a stack of pieces of lace and embroidered pieces. As she tallied everything up, she grabbed a bag of brass buttons, one that I had passed over from buying, "with my complements" she said as she tossed them in with the rest of my purchases. Later I took them out , looking at them made me smile. I decided I needed to find someone from Canada to give them to.
-Just a little brief history -
In 1959, France
under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, withdrew its Mediterranean Fleet
from NATO command. Over the next few years, NATO military aircraft were removed
from France so that by 1967, France had taken back control of all air force
bases.
Here is a map from Wikipedia showing the locations of the NATO Airbases in France prior to 1967:
It is lovely, Jean and again your creativity astounds me. I'm not very whimsical in my thinking.
ReplyDeleteoh yes, the lace really makes it!
ReplyDeleteA blouse with provenance all of its own! Its lovely : )
ReplyDeletetrès jolie réalisation,
ReplyDeleteIsa
You truly did turn this into a unique and lovely blouse!
ReplyDeleteyour shirt turned out adorable. Isn't it nice that we can set things aside for a bit and when we come back with a fresh look, it isn't as hard as we made it?
ReplyDeleteLOVE your shirt.... I'm here for the GYB party and my eye was drawn to this post because... I'm Canadian.
ReplyDeleteI have those very buttons on a winter coat that a friend ... refurbished... for me. It's a big, long, Russian looking winter coat that was in rather rough shape (lining shredded, buttons gone). She found the buttons somewhere and created a whole new lovely purple lining. It is one of my treasures.
Hope you are enjoying the party!
My ramblings about ... writing, meditation, life and sometimes gardening or ...whatever... are over on my blog ...Ramblings of a renegade scribbler @ http://pambustin.com/blog/
What a great little shirt! For certain, it is no longer boring. I can just picture that with a sweet gathered skirt and a pretty pair of flats, like Leslie Caron would have worn in an American in Paris!
ReplyDelete