La Trop Facile

This project is a definite departure for me, style-wise, and another pattern by my current sewing-pattern-designer-crush, Delphine et Morissette (designer of La Brune). It took me a couple of weeks after finishing it to actually start to wear it, as the look and the volume feel quite different to the rest of my wardrobe. But now that I've broken the seal, it is the garment I'm most excited to put on at the moment and I wear it every day. 

Pattern:

This is La Trop Facile (the 'Too Easy') pattern by Delphine et Morissette, a casual outerwear garment that can be made in a variety of fabrics. If you google this pattern, you'll find a surprising lack of other people's versions out there compared to some of her other patterns, and I'm not sure why this is. I love the no-frills utility of this garment, and, for me, it hits the sweet spot between 'cardigan' and 'jacket' that I didn't know I was missing. 

To buy any of her patterns, you have to make a request via a contact box; it's not an instant download like most PDFs. That may be frustrating if you want to get cracking immediately, but I found it quite charming to have some direct contact with the pattern designer herself. You can then pay via Paypal or bank transfer. Be warned: the PDFs are pretty basic. The patterns tile together like most PDFs, but the look a bit different as they aren't digitised, and the construction step-by-step page/s are in French with no illustrations or photographs. That said, some of her patterns have additional photographic step-by-step assistance through links on her blog but you need to go find the original blog post about each garment pattern to find them. I think. 

But once all that was dealt with and the pattern was cut out and Pat had been bribed into translating the instructions, it really was very easy to make. I veered away from the instructions a few times: once to add interfacing to the neckband (which, annoyingly, I decided to do after I had already attached it and had to carefully unpick the damn thing), another to attach the neckband slightly differently than instructed, by finishing it by hand to get a neater look with my bulky fabric. I also added rectangles of bias binding to the underarm to strengthen the areas where I had to snip into the seam allowance at the curve (see above), plus, I used some ribbon for a back-neck hanging loop instead of making a self-fabric one which I feared would be too thick (see below)

Fabric:

I bought this navy/black matelasse from Fabric Godmother, but I'm sad to say that they sold out of it some time ago. It's basically a stable knit with a slightly spongy quality, plus it's cosy and doesn't crease. The deep, inky-blue colour seems to work relatively well when worn with both the navy and black items in my wardrobe. The pattern designer suggests that this pattern works in a wide range of fabrics. I'm tempted to try this pattern again in a loosely woven fabric for the warmer months (something like this).

Thoughts:

As I've already said above, I'm super into this garment. It feels to nice to wear, and has upped my daywear game by helping me look a bit more put-together than if I'd chucked on a cardigan to leave the house. It's also incredibly useful for when I'm wearing Frankie in the baby carrier. I'm hoping I can wear it for as possible layered and with scarves as the weather gets chillier.