I love Colette Patterns. I love how they come so beautifully presented (you can tell Sarai was a usability expert in a previous incarnation). I love the website and its simple and intuitive guides and quick tips. I love the sweet little notebook of directions the patterns come with. They truly are little works of art in their own right. And they make me feel extremely calm and a just a little bit zen. So, I am delighted to say that I have finished my very first Colette Beignet and while it’s not perfect by any means, I am thoroughly chuffed with it. Here it is… the
‘Zen-im Beignet’ (a bit creased from sitting down all day though):

I wanted to approach this project as calmly and methodically as I could, for there to be no silly mistakes and no raging tantrums. And guess what – there weren’t! I carefully traced all the pattern pieces onto Swiss tracing paper/material. That took a whole evening but was so worth it as I now have a virtually rip-proof (read: cat proof) version of the pattern in my size.

Another evening was spent cutting out all the pieces – so many pieces! I was quite bedazzled by it all. But I was being zen, remember? So I took it in my stride.

A third evening (or was it Saturday morning at this stage?) was spent preparing the lining and facing and joining the two. And I finally managed to put the whole thing together on Monday night, with just a few adjustments to make on Tuesday.

In all, it was a really lovely project to do and I’m so pleased with the result. I love the little pockets and the neatness of the facing/lining combo inside – what a lovely stylish touch on the part of Colette patterns.

In terms of slip ups or issues – there weren’t many although I could NOT for the life of me understand the concept of understitching the facing. I read through the notes on the pattern twenty times, I looked it up and found a fantastic tute on the Colette patterns website. Nada. I just couldn’t translate what I was seeing on the tute to my skirt, so I decided not to risk it. I also tried and failed to turn my denim belt loops the right side out using the needle method. Oh god – what a horrible little task – I gave up after a while. I’ll attempt it at some point in the future.

Fit wise – it was a little bulky round the waist and hips so I just repositioned the buttons to pull it in a little. I see myself wearing this skirt a lot and I can’t wait to make another version. Yay the Zen-im Beignet!

Disclaimer: Frizzy hair day and v. tired from work - sorry for fairly lacklustre appearance!