Sunday, April 20, 2014

Curvy Colette Plus Size Blog Tour : Monochrome Mabel


I am already back with my second entry in our Curvy Colette Plus Size Blog Tour. This time is all about the Mabel!



The Mabel is a skirt pattern made for knits. The skirt will hug your curves. A few versions are available : short, longer with a vent, with or without a front pannel or placket.



When I recieved the picture of the pattern, my first reaction was to panick a little bit. As you may know, the area of my body that causes the most problems is my lower stomac area. I named it my kangaroo pouch. I usually try to hide it as much as possible. With the Mabel, this is the first occasion I had to embrace my morphology.



After reflexion, I decided to go for the version 1 : it is shorter and a simple front pattern piece. The coral version worn by the Colette model completely convinced me ! A shorter version would also work better with leggings in the summer. I also thought : « If I go for a figure hugging skirt, let's embrace it to the fullest and go for shorter !



I cut the size 2XL, grading half a size down around the waist. I also chose a fairly thick jersey I had purchased as part of my mini-capsule haul. The pattern makes the skirt very interesting. And I am not exagerating, within 2 hours (including drawing and cutting the paper pattern pieces), the Mabel was finished.



I learned a lot with this project. But what I learned was about myself ! For the first time, I am wearing a very tight fitting skirt. It leaves very little to the imagination. You can see the bits I usually try to hide. Wearing this skirt actually felt very liberating. I have a larger lower stomac, so what ? In the same time, I can show off my muscly legs and my waist. I am also very happy with the back view... So is Mister !



This is such a funky skirt ! I love the fabric and it can be paired with many tops. I am planning to make a peplum top in the same fabric. Wouldn't that be awesome ? Also, isn't that a great print matching?



Mary has already revealed her beautiful polka dots version as well. If you haven't seen it, go and read. It looks beautiful on her !

So ladies, are you planning on trying out the Mabel ?

If you follow our Blog Tour, you will see 6 beautiful versions :

Wednesday, April 16th -- Jenny at Cashmerette
Thursday, April 17th -- Mary at Idle Fancy (That's me! That's tomorrow!)
Friday, April 18th -- Exclusive interviews on Cashmerette and Idle Fancy with Sarai and Alyson
Saturday  Sunday, April ; 20th -- Laurence at Quirky Pretty Cute
Monday, April 21st -- Tanya at Mrs. Hughes
Tuesday ; Wednesday, April 22nd; 23rd -- T at UandMii
Thursday, April 24th --Jenny at Cashmerette
Friday, April 25th -- Mary at Idle Fancy
Sunday,  April 26th -- Sophie-Lee at Tworandomwords
Wednesday, April 28th -- Mary at Young Broke & Fabulous

23 comments:

  1. Wow, Laurence! That is one sexy skirt!! Great job on the pattern matching. I haven't made a Mabel yet.... we'll see if I do. It's inspiring to see this skirt on you and Mary. I don't normally wear anything that tight!

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    1. Thanks Tanya! I think you should give it a try. It doesn't mean you have to blog about it though...

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  2. Great skirt, and great job with your pattern matching! I don't normally wear tight skirts either, but I really like how my Mabel turned out. I swear that it's a "magic butt skirt" or something like that for those of us who have fuller rear ends.

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    1. Thanks a lot for your nice words! The Mabel was a big surprise for me as well.

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  3. Laurence, this looks lovely on you! What a fabulous choice for fabric. It's such a modern, chic twist on this skirt. Nicely done!

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    1. Thanks Mary :) I was very lucky with the fabrics I found lately.

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  4. Thank you for this honest post, Laurence. It was beautiful and so are you. I *love* your skirt! I find it so empowering to see other curvy women dressing as they like, not attempting to camouflage the areas they are sensitive about. I'm trying to do that more and more myself. It's interesting -- I find it's one of those "fake it 'till you make it" things for me -- the more I dress as if I am not self-conscious about my bod, the less self-conscious I become. Anyway, thanks again for the post, and enjoy the hell outta your new skirt! :)

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    1. Thanks for your nice note Susan! It is funny because this allowed me "psychologically" to consider other patterns. I would recommand this to almost everyone!

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  6. Gorgeous! I can understand why your hubby likes it :) I also love seeing the mini version - super cute.

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  7. Love your Mabel version and such totally awesome pattern matching! Soooo, glad you did this post before my Mabel reveal as you have revved up my confidence at revealing my own kangaroo pouch! ;) it shows that sometimes sewing outside of your comfort zone can give pleasantly unexpected results, and you can feel more comfortable in it than you might first think. Looking forward to seeing the peplum top!

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    1. Thanks T!
      I loved your versions too! Sewing can make us so happy! Even more lately...

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  8. Good for you! Its very professional looking, too.

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  9. I purchased the Moneta pattern when I first saw the dress in the blog hop, but I passed on the Mabel. You have given me reason to re-think that decision! You and your skirt are lovely! Thank you for sharing and letting me envision what these patterns may look like on my curves. I love the Curvy Sewing Collective!

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    1. Hi Jan! Thanks for the nice words! I am super curious to see how your Moneta turns out!

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  10. This skirt looks amazing on you. Well done girl!

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  11. I love it. Very sexy. It makes me want to try it, but I don't think I can don the 'so what' attitude about my lower tummy.

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    1. I understand it can be tricky. TBH, I would not have tried if it was not part of the blog tour. But I am glad I did!

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  12. PLEASE tell me you will wear the peplum with the skirt!

    My lower abdomen (or I like to go by it's Spanish name, "pancita", which means "little stomach") is one of my least favourite areas too that I like to hide. But try not to all the time.
    I'll agree with your mister - the back looks great! And nice work on the pattern matching.

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    1. The peplum is in the works, amongst 10.000 other projects :) I wore the skirt the other day with a longer cardi and it looked perfect too!

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  13. Love the skirt, it looks so good on you!!! I also like the Colette dress, great fabric choise for both!

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    1. Thanks a lot Natalie :) I can really recommend both pattern. Super easy and flattering (I am not paid to say it :) )

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