Paris - City of Cheese, Wine and Absinthe

Bonjour!

I spent last weekend in Paris, having a very nice chilled out holiday with my friend Claudia who lives back in the UK so most contact is usually through Skype. IRL is so much better :) I won’t put all my photos on here but I did wear me-made most of the time and we all know this is about the sewing.

Guys, it was HOT. I am a delicate Northern flower, so this was cause of much sunburn and hat buying. Naturellement, I whipped up a cool jersey maxi as soon as I saw the weather forecast. It’s a self-drafted pattern, something I have been toying with more since my pattern drafting course. I saw a Modcloth dress on Pinterest (ain’t that always the way) that used the stripes in both directions, which I liked, and this fabric has a good amount of 4-way stretch so it was a good bet. It worked out alright for a rush job and it’ll definitely get worn when the sun comes back to Berlin. The photos were taken in Pere Lachaise cemetery, where we went for a lovely if morbid stroll on the Sunday afternoon and visited Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. My inner goth was very happy there.

 

 

 

I got this watermelon skirt after seeing it on Million Dresses’ Wednesday Wants. See, internet? We don’t need magazines anymore. I accidentally bought the wrong size and didn’t have time before my flight to go and exchange it so I took it in crudely at the sides. That counts as a refashion, right? Or something? Upcycling? No, probably not. Either way, I really like it and it’s just the kind of ridiculousness I would make. I did wear another 2 me-made dresses for evenings out but we were too busy with the food/wine/absinthe to take any pictures.

Eating out with a gluten issue is always a bit of a pain but I remembered enough French from uni to explain everything and everyone was alright about it. THEN we went to Helmut Newcake in Rue Bichat on the Saturday for lunch…and a take-away bag of bread and cakes, ahem. Hands down, THE best gluten-free place I’ve been to, evah. I had a Caesar salad, which may not sound that exciting to normal people but I can’t normally have any dressings and obviously croutons are out. I’m still trying to figure out what their bread is made of, I think there’s coconut, corn and rice in there but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly unicorn tears, hopes and dreams. I found their site before we went and had already announced my intention to have an éclair but then I saw this double layered chocolate éclair nonsense and made it mine. So good that I bullied a girl at the counter into getting one as well. You’re welcome, stranger.

Anywho, that’s quite enough from me and my face. I absolutely loved Paris. For some reason, I thought it was going to be an over-rated let down. I think some people build it up so much that they’re gutted when it’s a little bit dirty around the edges. Maybe it’s because I was comparing it to Berlin or because we avoided the tourist hot spots but I thought it was amazing and I can see why people fall in love with it.