While we were in Toulouse during our French road trip, not only did the lovely Marie-Christine put us up for the night and cook us a wonderful dinner, but she had a gift for me, too – the latest edition of Idées Couture magazine!
If you’re not familiar with Idées Couture, it’s a monthly magazine that usually has a mix of knitting, crochet, and other crafts, and then one issue per year is a full translation of La Mia Boutique magazine. So even though this issue is the May 2011 Idées Couture, the designs and photos are all from the March 2010 La Mia Boutique magazine. Handily, this was just before my LMB subscription started, so these are all new designs to me!
To complicate matters, last year it was looking as though there was going to be a monthly French LMB translation, titled Ma Boutique, but now it appears that was just a one-off issue and they’re back to doing the yearly Idées Couture magazine instead. Confusing, I know!
The first feature was full of nautical styles that I can never really feel I can wear (for, err, obvious reasons). But I love this short, sailor-style jacket with the contrast topstitching. Clearly I wasn’t the only one, either, as I found out this was the cover image for the equivalent La Mia Boutique issue…
I’m always on the lookout for good trench coat patterns, and since I bought all my fabric and hardware for one in NYC, I’m thinking this Fall might be a good time to actually make one. Here’s another good trench coat option for my list!
I really like how they’ve added some stretch lace to an otherwise basic, long sleeved teeshirt and turned it into something special!
When it comes to daring fashion, I’m fine with baring my legs or having low cut tops (just don’t even whisper the word “midriff”!), so this miniskirt doesn’t strike any particular fear into my heart, and I really think it looks great paired with tights and this cute jacket.
I was decidedly unimpressed with the Plus feature (and its weird styling – why did the woman look like she was a chemo patient??) and noticed this time around that the French version doesn’t contain the recipe section or the strange knitting pattern, either. The kids patterns were perfectly fine, too, if you’ve got smaller boys and girls to sew for.
In other news, I’ve finished the summer version of the Burda September cover dress, but I’ve got such a manic week (something on every single night plus a hen night at the weekend!) that I have no idea when I’ll have a chance for a photoshoot.
Looking slightly further ahead, I’ve got two big events in two weeks’ time – my annual big 10k race which I’m actively training for, and a friend’s wedding which I’m actively sewing for (though I don’t know whether I should wear the above lace dress or the currently-in-progress turquoise and silver motif dress?).
More on both these things later, but if you want to follow along at home… (and if you sign up for a free daily mile login, you can actually send me comments during my race – it’ll speak them in my headphones during the run! How cool is that?)