"Dressing de Fête", my new sewing book

It's always a special moment to be able to hold in your hands the fruit of several months' work. Here it is, " Dressing de fête ", my new sewing book published by Mango, which will be released in bookstores on Friday, May 29.

For this fifth book, five years after the release of " Learn to sew your clothes and accessories ", I wanted to take you on a journey through my passion for exceptional outfits, sublime materials and the exciting techniques associated with them.

I will tell you the story of this beautiful project...

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Writing

It all started in spring 2019, a year ago. My line of customizable PDF dress patterns had just been released and so I had time for a new project.

I like writing books because they allow me to tell a story, to unfold a universe through patterns, sewing techniques, the choice of fabrics and photos. So I contacted my editor Mélanie Jean to propose a new project around an exceptional dressing room. My ideas are already quite clear: I want to decline timeless patterns allowing to improve one's sewing.

The summer is devoted to creative research: drawings of models and associated sewing techniques, research of fabrics and colors, first drafts of the "railroad" which allows us to define the content of the book page by page...

In September, I tackle the pattern making. It is a very long work made of many iterations. I trace each model and I sew many toiles to perfect them. Each toile assembly also allows me to define the steps that I will explain in the book and that I will take pictures of later.

At the end of October, we went to Stragier to choose the fabrics. I'll tell you about this crazy day below.

In November, I sew the patterns from the book while photographing each assembly step. It's not the easiest because I shoot in natural light and winter is clearly not the best season for that! At the same time, I write the instructions. We also have someone who works on digitizing and grading the patterns from 34 to 48.

Mid-December, everything is ready for the photo shoot! I'll tell you about it at the end of the article.

I spend the end of the month rereading, rereading, rereading to finally entrust my manuscript to Mélanie and rest (almost!).

In January, Mélanie and her team compile my text and photos and work on the layout. We do a lot of proofreading and correct typos (keeping our fingers crossed that there are none left at the end!).

In mid-February, the book goes to print. Then we can really relax!

Love and Yes, the wedding dresses

The fabrics

When I started thinking about this new book, the choice of partner for the fabrics was obvious, I wanted to work with the Stragier house. They have been following me since my first book. I knew them for their selection of Liberty fabrics and over the years, I discovered their wide variety of materials of incomparable quality and especially their fabrics for wedding dresses.

Another obvious fact was that we had to go to Belgium to choose the fabrics "in real life" and to be able to talk with Nicolas and benefit from his expertise. So the three of us went, with Mélanie my editor and Chloé the artistic director, to spend a day at Stragier and select the fabrics that would bring my patterns to life.

It was a rich and intense day, we almost missed our return train! Managing to find the fabrics, linings, interfacings, lace for the 8 models in the book was not easy but Nicolas's support and advice made the task easier for us.

You can find all the references at the end of the book to help you choose your fabrics and haberdashery for sewing the patterns.

Afterwork, the trouser suit

The photo shoot

Another obvious choice for this book was that I wanted to work with photographer Laurence Revol. We had already collaborated together for the photo shoot of my wedding dress collection in 2017 and I had very fond memories of it. Laurence really has an eye for making women look their best and taking photos that are full of life. One day in December, we settled into the Le Grand Quartier hotel. Manon and Jen were super brave and braved the cold and rain, thank you very much!

Champagne, the little sequin dress

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I hope you enjoy the book and that it makes you want to sew your own "Party Dressing".
Find it at your bookseller or order it online .