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Sunday 8 November 2015

Brushing up my French with Dior and Carmen


Early this summer, when we were in the Francophone parts of Belgium for a wedding, I felt the need to work on my rusty language skills. After successfully practicing my culinary French in restaurants and bars (très important, non?) I wanted to find some books to bring home to keep up the good work. Of course I went straight to the sewing books when we found a lovely bookstore in Liège. What else? Sewing wise I could not find anything interesting, but there were some very pretty fashion books!
After spending an hour in the reading nook of the store I bought La révolution du New Look.


Great read, and brilliant pictures!


In case you ever wondered about the perfect skirt length, here's Christian Dior telling us all hems should be 40 cm above the floor. No more, no less.

As I was slowly making progress reading this book I received a surprise email by Carmen of CarmencitaB blog : I won her book in a giveaway!



Carmen is the winner of Cousu Main, the French equivalent of the Great British Sewing Bee. She wrote a beginner friendly sewing book including 11 patterns. The book is a joy to read and the patterns for pants, blouses, la petite robe noire, a button down shirt, pencil skirts and more are looking great. The styling is fun, just like Carmen and her blog!

Hi Carmen!

Carmen also sent me a pretty tote bag. If you're part of #bpsewvember on Instagram you'll have seen today's question 'Why I sew?'. Here's one of the many answers:


Merci beaucoup, Carmen!


10 comments:

  1. You must have great book karma! The french book looks fabulous- I'll have to try that 40cm trick ;) I've never heard of Carmen but the book looks fun. I'm going to check out her blog now.

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    1. Carmen's blog is great! I forgot to mention she's blogging in both English and French.

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  2. What a cute tote bag! Looks like you got some great books.

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    1. Isn't it the perfect bag for fabric shopping?

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  3. What a fabulous prize. I have never heard of the 40cm rule by Dior but I must see where it reaches on my legs.

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    1. It's shorter than I thought it would be! I was just reading how Dior was accused of 'hiding women's legs' and being a silhouette dictator and 'fashion czar'.

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  4. Just the cover on the Dior book is worth the price! I'll have to try to find it (hopefully in English). Thanks for all the recommendations!

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    1. I agree! There are so many breath taking pictures inside. I completely forgot the time (and my waiting husband) when I was browsing the book in Belgium!
      http://www.amazon.com/Dior-The-New-Look-Revolution/dp/0847846644

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  5. 40 cms - so that takes into account heel height too? So the higher the heel, the longer the skirt length? Or is there a recommended heel height? Great looking books.

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    1. All heels in the book look pretty similar. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'silhouette dictator' ordered strict rules for New Look heel height!

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