Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: Ce n'est pas bon de faire du lèche-vitrines avec de l'argent en poche

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between. Feel free to join in

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Favoured Parisian addresses:

Second Hand Shops

Outlets

Favoured London addresses:

Charity Shops, Dress Agencies, and Outlets

Favoured NYC addresses:

Consignment shops, Vintage, and Restaurants

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Previous threads:

Un

Deux

Trois

Quatre

Cinq

Six

Sept

Huit

Neuf

Dix

Merch in celebration of our tenth (previous) thread:

Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet shop

Pressed too soon ...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjJ3O2DS5o
Link of video above.
A meet up in November could be great
👋🏼 Elle
I have also struggled in lockdown... stupidly busy on all fronts ...

Hey Elle good to see you. And welcome orange and Loelia!

I was in a Community Clothing popup shop around Christmas time and then bought some jeans early this year, before lockdown. I also saw a great peacoat and a beautiful heavyweight jumper. It's all pretty plain and functional, which I like. They're a decent company making decent clothes.

bo behave - I love your sewing posts I managed some work on the Merchant and Mills Camber top yesterday - very frustrating as none of the instructions were making sense and it took all afternoon to figure out that I'd only cut out one of the pieces when I needed two.

I can’t believe the thread I started many moons ago under a different name is still going and has merch !

Incroyable!

Hey Luna too! I wonder who else we can get back if we concentrate really, really hard...

Red just going back to Community Clothing, they have an interesting business model where, if I recall correctly, the clothes are all made locally around Lancashire / Yorkshire in factory 'downtime'. Patrick (Sewing Bee) Grant started it (I think he's still there though not 100% sure). I don't know loads about him but he seems like a pretty astute guy whose other business interests include bespoke tailoring, so he knows a thing or two about well made clothes. I'm very much hoping they survive.

I'm mainly lurking since I have nothing to contribute just now, but waves hello Currently living in camper van since a house purchase fell through just in time for lockdown, and working 70 hour weeks; that said I feel lucky and thankful to have a job and a safe place to be right now.

I did buy a couple of plain linen shirt dresses from the dreaded M&S last year which got pulled out during the recent heatwave. That said I haven't seen anything remotely nice there for ages.

Flo I do hope you're aware of this video already: vimeo.com/401178863

Hello Catherine oof that sounds like a lot on your plate. Hope you manage to find yourself a home soon.

Red I'm not sure I'd call that sewing, more like hacking (nothing wrong with that). I wouldn't expect it to have a very long life though. You can just get new ribbing, Merchant & Mills has all sorts and a few more original colourways and/or patterns, should be doable by hand, I think. Most fabric shops will sell some too. Because I don't like t-shirts I'd probably slash that t-shirt into a raceback top or something ✂️✂️✂️

Hello again Luna still eating croissants in an Isabel Marant jumper (at least I think that was your original OP)?

Ha! Been diagnosed blooming coeliac so pas de croissants pour moi, but I may still be seen in the odd bit of French knitwear, yes

Pas de croissants Quelle horreur! I was about to ask if there's such a thing as GF croissants but that must be the saddest thing ever...

Belgian rather than French but Joost Tricot has some nice knits these days and Sezane is good for them too. IM has been a bit hit and miss for me these last few years when it comes to knitwear.

Luna, how charmante to see you encore. As-tu the lipstick rouge still?

Well well well it looks like Loelia bought the dress I’ve been looking for! Wouldn’t mind tat in olive. Looking forward to a review on the fit!

Elle, I adore that ensemble in your photo there. 😍

Red do you remember that fella who did classic couture techniques on plain T-shirt’s? I went and saw his stuff at the exhibit at Sven-Harry‘s just before corona? That sort of thing would be fun to try, I suspect some of it might be the same as the stitching videos on Pinterest you know where they make a few stitches and pull the thread and hey presto smocking.

Slapdash sewing ... The story of the pyjama trousers follows! Aka “The Botemp Opposite”. I cut apart an old broken pair of trousers and put them on paper and drew around the shapes. All shapes slightly wonky. Decide it can’t matter too much anyway don’t have a large ruler to straighten things out. Cut out trouser legs on folded fabric 2 front 2 back. Cut out two self drafted pockets too. (All of this is preceded by two days of reading instructions on pyjama trousers and side seam pockets online.)

Instructions say to sew inner leg seams together first. Try to pin first leg together but they don’t match. Throw everything down in disgust thinking I’ve made an error in cutting so the back pieces are cut the wrong way with wrong side fabric showing. After emptying the dishwasher realise that I should have used the other back leg piece because bla bla mirror images bla bla hey it works. Realise wonky legs might be problem as attempt to ease wonky bits together. Sew inner leg seams. What was that bit about finishing seams when am I supposed to do that? Maybe after next bit? Sew the two halves together along crotch seam. Try on and realise I didn’t make legs wide enough. Cut long strips of fabric and attach to back legs to widen them. Pin pockets in place. Pockets are wonky. Doesn’t matter. Sew pockets on. Sew outer leg seams including pockets. Bloody pleased with myself! Remember I forgot to finish seams. Attempt to zig zag seam allowances on finished garment.

Insides look like the sweepings off a tailor’s workshop. Try on trousers. Too low. Have to draft and fit some sort of waistband so they can be worn... this is where I left it yesterday and I’m eyeing the fabric up now wondering if I should get started ...

Thanks for the welcome

I think Community Clothing is based in Blackburn (or at least, that’s where my dress is labelled as being made) - their M.O. is to come up with the designs and then contract them out to known firms when they have capacity. I am impressed with the quality - the fabric is lovely and thick. It’s well cut too - I can always feel if pockets aren’t exactly evenly placed (Modern Rarity, I‘m looking at you), whereas I can’t always tell just by looking.

I have the 8 and whilst I have always worn it belted, the cut is such that you could just about wear it unbelted and not look like a circus tent. It was a lockdown hit amongst lots of misses - I sent back a Kin tie waisted dress and the Cos knot back blue dress because of poor fit.

I may also buy a CC sweatshirt but don’t really need one in summer - ditto for the submariner jumper.

Wow Catherine my hat off to you. That sounds a very busy few months to say the least. I hope all improves for you .

Nice to hear that CC has good quality, I will keep them in mind for when I need to replace some stuff.

Yep .... I might turn that T-shirt into a race back ...

Hello to orange, loelia and welcome back elle, luna and CatherineMaitland.

Love the linen shirt dress and bo, I thought those Mie dresses were absolutely gorgeous too.

I'm actually wearing two items of M&S clothes today - it's probably all I own . A pair of straight leg jeans I bought in the charity shop that actually fit like a dream and an old, pale green cashmere cardigan. The sleeves are a bit short on the cardigan and I find their jumper are generally not for those of orang utan arms.

That video doesn't play for me bo so I hope it's not warning me off the Camber set?? I'm hoping to get another crack at it today. bani I think we may be sewing spiritual twins or something.

Catherine that doesn't sound lucky to me.... hope things start looking up for you soon.

Today I'm wearing a charity shop Levi denim shirt and what a piece of crap it is. The label's worn off so I don't know the fabric composition but it fluffed off in the wash and now it's itching a bit too. I was definitely suckered by the brand name.

Bani I need to see your sewing product!!!

Oh I don’t remember that fella doing classic couture on T-shirts ... maybe via because it was before covid... I lost all sense of space and time since the pandemic stroke.

I don’t think I even want to tell you what I am wearing today ... imagine the total opposite of Parisian chic. Yes that is me today

Red google Olivier Saillard Moda Povera!

Despite it all I am quite pleased with my pyjama trousers so will def share a pic later. Even of the insides.

I love community clothing am very keen to try it but as usual bla bla is it worth buying online etc.

My pyjama trousers are finished! I forewent the opportunity to learn more about how to insert a half elastic waist. Fuck it I couldn’t take any more learning.

They are too big, the fabric is inappropriate (too stiff) and I put the pockets too low down. They are however wearable and I’ve learnt a fair bit putting them together. Including, as promised, the innards.

I forgot to say I really liked the Mie clothes but I don’t think they are for me.

Thank you for the link to Kim Davey bo, she has some really interesting tutorials. I have found it really helpful to follow sewers from an African background as they are really good at cutting in the round - measuring the body and then confidently creating the pattern around it.

I made a maxi dress by mashing up 2 Youtube tutorials ( and ) , which was ridiculously satisfying - you folded the (wide) material twice lengthways (selvedge to selvedge then edge to edge), then laid down the bodice block/a favourite top on the fold, extended the pattern to dress length and pretty much just cut around it. You end up with a front and a back, a little bit like cutting paper dolls. I finished the neck and armholes with bias binding - miraculously ended up with quite a nice dress!

I started off in lockdown by hacking apart some clothes that were originally going to charity on account of terrible fit, but which were made from nice material. That was quite helpful. I peaked when I shortened a Cos asymmetric sleeveless top and used the spare material to make sleeves.

I would really like to make a coat at some point - either a M&M oilskin, or something in tweed. At this point, I'm just dreaming :)

Oh and following on from the Tshirt hack Redandblue, I have done a couple of these, mostly remaking a men's t-shirt into a women's fit. This got me over my fear of getting things wrong, mostly because everything went wrong, but it didn't matter.

However, to lower the neckline, I have found that you can get very good results by cutting off the original crew neck, just neatly snipping around it, and then using spare material from the bottom of the t-shirt to make a new bound jersey neckline. Lauren Guthrie of Guthrie and Ghani on Youtube has a really clear tutorial on how to fit a jersey neckline.

I go in fits and starts with this sewing lark. My next task is make a shirt with what will be a very full bust adjustment. These are so complicated to begin with, but I so much want to make something that fits.

Loving those trousers Bani, I do love those colours.

You're such a drama llama Bani, they look great and I like that dropped crotch look for pyjamas.

Orange, yeah it's like the rest of YouTube, WOC have the better content as to put it crudely advertisers aren't interested in sponsoring them so they do their own (very informative) thing with a side hustle of in person classes rather than mindlessly churning out gifted shit. There's so much more to learn when you understand the fundamentals of pattern design vs. slavishly following one.

I really appreciate Diane Deziel she's French Canadian (French sewing YouTubers are great too but they assume a lot of base knowledge but one has a tutorial on Meghan Markles' wedding dress and it looks almost the same, somewhat better fitted 🙈) and a proper professional and she shows how to make any block you can think of and has loads of free pdfs to help you figure it pit. I've also found a Japanese man living in New York who examines iconic design pieces by recreating parts of them and a lot of basics but it's all rapid speed. I'd have to look up the name of that one again. Something modelist studio.

I've also started reading Nathalie Bray's books on block patterns (apparently they're easily picked up in UK charity shops, I get mine on Scribd which is like a Netflix for books, it has loads of sewing books/pdfs and also all the American cookbooks I always lust for but refuse to buy on account of ridiculously high prices. If you want I can share a referral link then it's free for 60 days).

*and also audio books, whose appeal I never got but they're great when you're sewing. I've just finished Andre Leon Talley's chiffon trenches which I thought would be much more interesting in his voice than just reading, which was very much the case. V. Interesting, had no idea he and Karl Lagerfeld were such close friends and his life in vintage Paris was a great bit of escapism in these lockdown times.

Bani are you a comedy writer? I can even imagine all these in an easy to watch series Netflix script , trousers look great or are you fishing for compliments

Thank you orange, for T-shirt tip. You can call me Red
I need to wash it and then I will have my first try at hacking it. I am feeling now like the second act amongst the pros. I need to step up and show you I can hold a needle.

On an unrelated topic, I am binge watching Suits. Bo mentioned Meghan hence reminded me. I had never watched it before and I am enjoying it, also enjoying the cut of certain very formal and classic tops and jackets of the female characters. But makes me think if I will ever wear again all my work clothes... I can see in the future going occasionally to the office, but not regularly. It is weird not having worn any of that for this long.

Ah thanks bo - looks like it'll play on my phone so I'll check it out. So far one of the shoulders is slightly wonky but hopefully I can press the hell out of it. More worrying is the neckline's looking quite narrow (no ribbing) and I'm wondering if I'll even get it over my head once the sleeves are in, especially as I want to make the sleeves longer.... If that video tells me I have to start again I won't be happy.

Splendid pyjamas bani!

Red I'm wondering that too, plus the way things are going I may end up never going back at all and, to be honest, I'd probably miss the clothes more than the job. I need to figure out how to wear tailoring at at home without feeling like an arse.

Not the neckline, the neck opening - the bit where your head goes.

bani the pajamas sound exactly like an episode of sewing bee, you should apply! I think the finished product looks pretty good too. Pajamas would be the only item that could tip me over into home sewing as my quest for the perfect pair continues…

Luna welcome back, I feel like you should have honorary lifetime founding member status.

I like the look of community clothing, must bear it in mind.

The mie dresses are indeed gorgeous.

Catherine that sounds tough, what rotten timing on the house purchase and those are some long working hours.

At the moment the only thing I’m coveting is this Cuyana top – to risk it or not?

I’m also enjoying the Fashion in Gangs of London. I can’t stand the violence so I watch those bits through my fingers or not at all. I can’t find any good stills though or interviews about the wardrobe.