Paris residents: sewing & crafts magazines Giveaway - Appel aux franciliens : Don de magazines de couture (ETA: magazines reserved)

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First of all, thank you for the wonderful comments you all left on my previous post. They really warmed my heart. Thank you. This has been such a difficult year and there were times I thought I'd snap. I'm sure you can all imagine how sewing - and this blog, and YOURS - has helped me stay strong. Merci, so much.

~*~

Now for this post's topic. If you do not live in or near Paris, feel free to skip the rest of this!
ETA Dec. 17: magazines reserved. Craigslist rocks!
Obviously, I have to let go of some stuff for the move to London.
I have decided to give away some of my French sewing and needlecrafts magazines - but you'll have to come and fetch them. There is no way I can find the time to package and send this out - and the shipping costs would be horrendous.

- General needlecraft magazines (cross-stitch, knitting, home dec : Marie-Caire Idées, Dec. 2006; Les idées de Marianne, October 2004, January 2005; Idées Magazine special Christmas, 2005; Broderie et Couture january 2006, oct-nov 2004.

- Sewing magazines: these are my Mode & Travaux magazines; I had a subscription (with the sewing "supplément" included) in 2006, and have a couple more from 2005. These magazines have recipes, home dec projects (not only needlecraft), a bit of knitting and cross-stitch. Most will come with the pattern sheets that are only included in the "supplément couture" subscription. Most are for women and little girls (often with the matching outfit for a doll). I think there are typically 3-4 sewing patterns per magazine (2-3 for women, 1 for girls and/or dolls).

Finally, I also have an Arts & Métiers du Livre magazine (Oct-Nov 2007), that I bought at someone's request - said someone then dropping off of the face of the Internet. Nothing to do with sewing, but just in case.

If you live in the Paris area, you are welcome to come and take them, preferably by December 23. I live in the 11th arrondissement, not very far from République.
Ideally, I would like you to take them all as a whole; but I can give them in two batches (one home dec / one with the Modes & Travaux). If you're not interested in the books/edition magazine, no problem ;)
If you're interested, please email me at Thank you! :)

Bonjour à tous !
Ceux/celles d'entre vous qui ont lu mon article précédent savent déjà que je déménage à Londres dans quelques jours. Je dois bien sûr faire de l'espace et me séparer de certaines choses. Je donne ces magazines à qui voudra bien venir les chercher.
Edit du 17 décembre: les magazines sont réservés. Vive Craigslist!

- magazines de broderie / tricot / déco : Marie-Caire Idées, décembre 2006; Les idées de Marianne, octobre 2004, janvier 2005; Idées Magazine spécial Noël, 2005; Broderie et Couture, janvier 2006, oct-nov 2004.

- Magazines Modes & Travaux: Je donne à qui voudra bien venir les chercher, une quinzaine de Modes et Travaux, dont un abonnement durant l'année 2006 avec les suppléments couture : les planches de patron sont incluses. La plupart concernent des vêtements de femme et de petite fille, avec parfois la tenue assortie pour une poupée.

Pour finir, rien à voir avec la couture mais j'ai un exemplaire de Arts et Métiers du Livre (oct-nov 2007), que j'avais acheté à la demande de quelqu'un qui a ensuite disparu d'Internet (no comment). Juste au cas où ça peut intéresser quelqu'un.

A venir chercher de préférence d'ici au 23 décembre. Idéalement, vous emportez le tout, sinon au moins un des lots : l'ensemble des Modes & Travaux, et/ou l'ensemble des magazines de broderie/tricot/déco. Si vous n'avez pas envie du magazine sur le livre/l'édition, pas de souci ;)
J'habite dans le 11e, vers République. Si vous êtes intéressé(e), envoyez-moi un email à Merci ! :)

A big move (and a sewing update!)

No, I'm not talking about moving blogs; even though this blog has been shamefully neglected, it is staying in its cosy little corner - and should get a new life once I feel settled again.
I'm talking about us moving houses... and not merely moving houses: moving countries.

Miss Cutie, Seb and I are moving to London at the end of the month... for a yet indeterminate period of time (9 months? 2 years? longer? there's no knowing at this point). We found an adorable flat in zone 2 - with a little garden for Miss Cutie! And a second room that Seb immediately labelled as my home office/sewing room. I never needed asking. And, I should at last have less work. The year to come should be much happier than the last.

All this may help you understand why I haven't updated my blog since before the PhD defence (which apparently was a success, by the way - since I am now Dr Izzy!). I felt shattered for a few weeks after the defence, and we've also had loads to deal with, what with Seb's moving back from Amsterdam, our looking for a place in London, and everything. And my usual beloved teaching, of course.

It's not that I've stopped sewing - since my last update, I've made a dress, a couple of tops, am halfway though a skirt and another dress. It's just that I haven't had the energy to take pictures, blog about it, and all that. Not to mention that taking pictures in the winter is always a challenge that tends to put me off. I loathe artificial lighting. So, I have a long backlog of projects to document and review...
I got brave tonight though, and took pictures of my latest top as I came home from work wearing it - this is my third take of Simplicity 4020.

This top was not part of any plan. I was cutting out Vogue 8489 in this fabric (this is the current dress in progress), and realized I might have just enough extra fabric for a top - I foraged through my pattern collection, and out came my trusty old Simplicity 4020. I had to add a center back seam to the bottom part of the bodice, but I managed to position the print so that the seam could hardly be noticed.

I also managed to cut the top back-and-sleeve so that the black wavy line was continuous from one sleeve to the other.

I also made the sleeves shorter to fit them onto the fabric.

Here is how I was wearing the top to teach my classes today - it's gotten very cold in Paris, so I like layering :)

~*~

A highlight to the past month, which happens to be sewing-related, was meeting Trena again when she came to Paris for work. We had a lovely, albeit way too short evening together. She was, as ever, dressed adorably.
Trena, by the way, managed to diagnose my dressform as too big at a single glance.
(This should, and may be the topic of a whole article, but I saw that smaller ("petite") dressforms were manufactured in England; so I may lend or resell my current dressform and get a new one once I'm in London.)

In closing, I would like to thank Julie for her presence over the past few months. Julie and I have been meeting almost weekly at my home for sewing bees. It has been wonderful. Do go see her very first dress on her blog - she even wrote a bilingual post for you!
I'll leave you with a confession: I may enjoy teaching sewing almost as much as literature. Which is saying quite something!

Sorry for the long post... Believe you me, I've made this as short as I could ;)

Signed: Dr. Izzy :)