Kwik Sew 3504 - second try

 Here are Simon's jeans, Kwik Sew 3504 in a size small.The first time Simon insisted he was a size medium and not a small. So I made the medium against my better judgement. They were so large that it would not have been worth it to take them in. So here come try #2.

 I am happy with the results. The first time I did them, they were too big. You can see them Here and Here. The second time you do a project, you just don't have the same steam. I planned on getting these done by Tuesday of my vacation, and I completed them Saturday night. I would sew the jeans while Simon drove the kids to daycare, then when he got home we worked on the valance and curtains. I was not in a rush.

 Then we he tried them on for fitting, they were TOO SMALL!!!! Ok, either he porked out in the last month or their sizing is wacked on this pattern. I ripped out my seams and make them 1/4 inch seams. Now it fits well.

A new pair of jeans just in time for Easter.

Kwik Sew 3484 - Men's shirt

For my first shirt I chose Kwik sew's 3484. This is the shirt that launched a $2500 purchase, my Janome 8200. I started out using my Singer Esteem with dismal results. All my work during a 3 hour class had to be redone. What a waste of a class. But I did get a kick butt machine afterwards!

Men's shirts have collar, short sleeves, and side hemline slits. View A has breast pocket. View B has contrast right front inset and breast pocket with contrast band at top edge. View C has contrast center panels.

 We chose view A for our first go. Simon had gotten me a gift card for Valentine's day for Fabricville and I picked up a beautiful baby blue linen look fabric on mega sale. I really wanted this to be done in time for Easter Weekend dinner. It is 1pm and it is done. Wow! And I got his jeans done in a size small (second try at sizing).

 This is a nice casual shirt. The buttons were easy to make, especially with my Janome, it was all automated!

The front pocket was a but mangled, but that was the Singer's fault, not mine at all, no. 

 The side slit was easier that I thought to do.

 It was interesting working with 1/4 inch seam allowance.

I really like this color. It scream EASTER!

ANGRY BIRDS! Bad Piggie McCall's 6481

Simon made Tyler the Bad Piggie from Angry birds. He used McCalls's 6481 and used view C. The pattern itself is not an angry bird, but they look darned similar. Just change the colors around and Voila!












SImon had trouble installing the ears. After he finished them he did not like the results, so he restarted, He found a stitch that was easy for him and that produced good results. He is left handed, so sometimes he needs to adjust how he sews so his hands do not get in the way! I don't quite understand as I am not left handed, but I can see his difficulty.

Part 2 of curtains - The panels

 The side panels took a whole day and evening to finish them. Simon put up the old sheers to see how they moved in the background. They move perfectly and the front curtains do not move at all.






You can not see the sheers in the back when they are opened. The curtains cover them perfectly.














They do not seems like they would take this long to sew, but it did take all day. The are long and heavy to sew. But my new Janome Memory Craft 8200 did not struggle one bit. There is NO WAY we could have sewed this with my Singer Esteem.

 But look at the results. They are worth it.

 Now I can't wait to do the sheers. We will have to do when the kids are not around, or asleep. With Easter and all the chocolate that may be hard!

Simon basking in the glory of his efforts!

New Living Room Curtains

Here is a picture of our living room from the listing. You will notice the old brown curtains and the carpet. The carpet was the first thing to go. That involved one month of restoration to the hard wood and another story!

The sheers are getting yellow and torn in a few spots. My mother DID NOT like my curtains and insisted we redo them. Don't worry, this is a picture from the old owners. But I am sure her couches are in better condition than mine.

I had taken down the looped curtains and left the box bare. The black strip you see on top is Velcro.
The box has matching wallpaper on it. The wallpaper is not too prominent, so we could live with it in the meantime. My boys played in the curtains so I did not care if they ripped. Now that we are redoing them it will hurt more if they are torn.



As you can see the window is MASSIVE. I checked at Fabricville and curtain fabric STARTS AT $25 per meter. The span is 12 feet, the sheers are French pleats, ughh. I live just off the Island of Montreal. Now where can i buy cheap fabric? Hummm.... Let me think. I know! Chabanel and St-Laurence street!  

 We picked up great lined fabric for $3 a meter! Happy dance. The sheers were $5 a meter.

 At Canada Asia Threads we bought matching thread at $1.50 a cone. My LORD! This store has every imaginable color. It is soooo cool!








On an unrelated note, I picked up a WHOLE ROLL of elastic for guess how much???? $4! OMG!

 My curtains do not have the 4 prongs that I see on the internet. They have one hook. If we take down the sheers and look closer you will see that they have an interfacing in them at the top.

 The top is nice and sturdy, even after (what I can assume) is more than 20 years. We inherited all the window treatments. I think the previous owner did a lot of the work herself. They were done very well, mind you.

 You can see the 3- 1 inch folds. They are sewed along the sides of the folds and on the bottom.

Instead of buying new clips and using the interfacing that has strings that you pull, we will follow this method. We went back to 99 Chabanel on the fourth floor. There were several places that sold the Drapery interfacing, the string method and the plain interfacing. They both sold it for $0 per meter.


Simon wanted to put piping along the top and bottom of the valance and he also wanted Codelle to pad the valance. Off to St-Hubert street we go. We got 1 inch cording for $1.50 per meter at Ultratext and the padding (which cost $20 for for 2 meters) at Sam Textiles / Draperies Saratex.

We started off by serging the edges of the material. Simon wanted to use the edging foot from the Janome but I assured him it would be MUCH faster to use the Serger. I mean, that is why I bought the machine and all those serger cones, no? It produced a great result and Simon picked out the perfect color. He really is excellent at choosing colors.

Now for sewing the material for the Valance. My Janome 8200 makes superb invisible seams. Simon read the manual, took a scrap piece of material and Voila! Easy-Peasy.
This project overtook our basement. Thank Goodness we have folding tables and SPACE! 


 The piping was a good idea. It adds definition and a touch of professionalism to the project. It did not cost much more for the cording and we used the balance of the material cut from the Valance. It just took a lot longer to make.

 I think the effort was worth it. There is about an inch tucked under that you don't see in this picture. The material is used to staple the material on to the valance on the top and the bottom.

 We bought the Codelle padding to wrap the box in.

 Tell a man he can use his power tools and he is a Happy Man Indeed! Add to that special staples and and air compressor gun, and he is ready set go!











I put in my ear plugs. This was a loud project.

 Here you can see how we attached the piping.

There will be side panels that are stationary as well as sheer curtains. The box already had the track for the shears. We added a towel rack to hold the curtains. Simon installed to hooks to keep the side panel curtains in place. I am not sure how that will work, but he knows what he is doing. He even bought a grommet set.

 

 

 Ta-Da! The finished result. I am very happy with our efforts. Next, we will do the side panels and the sheers to complete the look.

Montreal's Garment district

My father was an importer of material and his office was located at 9310 boul. St-Laurent, corner Chabanel. I have fond memories of accompanying my father to work. We would go to business breakfasts, lunches, dinners. I would help my father in his office, drawing him pictures. This was back in the 80's when the district was in full swing. St-Hubert street was not full of beggars and Chabanel on a Saturday was INSANE! Nowadays St-Hubert street has more stores closed than open and Chabanel/St-Laurent is old and fading. But I do LOVE shopping there.

On my first day of vacation today I went shopping with my husband, sans children. The deals we got are amazing, and I am going to share with you the places we went. Now, we did not get to a fraction of the stores, but here is what we found.

I wanted to start my day with looking for something I actual have a project for. Simon's underwear. I wanted spandex. We went to Suzie Spandex at 9320 boul. St-Laurent, suite 601. They are super nice there. The availability of spandex and stretch boggles the mind. Go there with a project in mind or else you will buy everything! I will have to go back there for my bathing suits. The prices are way better that a fabric store.

We then went downstairs to Stretch Text in suite 300.They are amazingly nice. We bought 2 meters of tricot stretch in black at $5 a meter. He gave us more that 2 meters, he gave us extra. He offered to cut us samples of fabric if we needed.

The best place that we found for fabric for our curtains was Salon Marocaon, Tissus Mayda, located at 99 Chabanel Ouest, suite 444. We paid $3 per meter for our curtain material and $5 per meter for the sheers. At fabricville they start the prices at $25 per meter! They have all sorts of material for fashion, apolstry, sheers etc! They take Mastercard and Visa, and of course cash.

Just beside at 9176 boul. St-Laurent we found Canada Asia Threads. They have every single color of serger thread. We bought HUGE serger cones for $1.50 each.  We also snagged black 1 1/4 "elastic. We paid $4 for the WHOLE roll. He also sells accessories of industrial machines.

We went into Tonitex. They have a huge selection of choice, the place is immense. I was not impressed too much with their prices, especially after Chabanel street.

I will have to make it one day to 111 Chabanel and 333 Chabanel. the higher to address the more $$$.

Here is a running list of places. I will try to update it when I go back. I just dug out my father's address and I will go check out his floor for memories. It has been 23 years since he passed, and this will bring a tear to my eyes. Good memories.

What other gems have you found? Please feel free to link to my list. Please feel free to repost it, but please give credit!

St-Laurent and Chabanel 1) Canada Asia Threads Serger threads (starting at 0.90 each), eleastic 9176 boul. St-Laurent 514-383-6643 2) Stretch Text spandex and stretch fabrics 9320 Blvd. St. Laurent #300, H2N 1N7 (514) 389-0813 http://www.stretchtextfabrics.com/history.php 3) Suzie Spandex spandex and lycra 9320 boul. St-Laurent, suite # 601, H2N 1N7 514-731-6840 http://suziespandex.com/ https://www.facebook.com/SuzieSpandex 4) Piranha Zippers 9600 Boul. St.Laurent, suite 502 514-387-2818 Not sure if it is still there 5) Tonitex 9630 blvd. St-laurent, H2N1R 8.30- 5.00 Mon-Fri, 9.00-4.00 Sat, Sun Closed http://www.tonitex.com/ Huge selection 111 Chabanel building it's the seventh floor 333 Chabanel building it's the third floor. 99 Chabanel building it's the fourth floor 6) Can sew thread, serger thread 111 Chabanel West, Suite 101, 514-382-2807 http://www.cansew.com/ 7) Canzip Zippers, bulk mim 25 1615 Chabanel 514-934-0331 http://www.canzip.com/ 8) Tissus Mayda fabric, fashion, sheers, upholstery, drapery, drapery tape.... 99, rue Chabanel Ouest suite 444 514-382-4177 http://www.salonmarocain.co/   https://www.facebook.com/pages/SALON-MAROCAIN-TISSUS-MAYDA/179770565407102?id=179770565407102&sk=info ST-HUBERT 9) MADELEINE SOIE ET LAINE 6394 RUE SAINT-HUBERT, H2S 2M2  10) Rubans Boutons 7 363, rue St-Hubert Mtl (Qc) H2R 2N4 Mon 13h-18h, tue-wed 10h-18h, thurs frid 10h-19h sat 10-17h00 sun closed http://www.rubansboutons.blogspot.ca/ 11) Ultratext great trims and notions 7186 RUE SAINT-HUBERT 514-271-9929 www.ultratext.ca 12) Goodman-Carlyle  7193, rue Saint-Hubert, Montréal, QC H2R 2N2 514-564-6600 13) Sam Textiles / Draperies Saratex Fabric, drapery fabric, bading, accessories 7195 St-Hubert 514-278-9761 14) Draperies St. Hubert fabric for draperies, sheers, laces and made-to-measure 7196 St-Hubert (514-274-0364) 15) Myrlene Decors valances, curtains, fabrics 7207 St-Hubert 514-270-7554 16) Textiles Debouk 7254 St-Hubert (514-276-3278) 17) Tissus Tueni silks 7442 Rue St-Hubert 18) C & M Textiles 7500 St-Hubert (514-272-0247) 19) Kava 6000-yd. serger cones for $2  7609 St Hubert, Montreal, QC H2R 2N7 514) 271-2888, mon-fri 9H00 à 18H00, Sam 10H00 à 15H00, Dim Fermé http://shop.kavainc.ca/index.php 20) Rix Rax 801 Gifford, Montreal, H2J 1P1 514-522-8971, CLOSED Mon & SUN, TUE & WED 11-18h, THURS & FRIDAY 11-19H, SAT: 11-5 http://www.rixrax.ca/ OTHER club tissue fabricville American and Efird Canada Thread, Embroidery Supplies, Notions 8301 Ray Lawson Blvd., Ville d'Anjou, QC, H1J 1X9 Minimums: $35 - $50 per order www.amefirdca.com

Jalie 2327: Simon's 1st attempt at sewing

Simon wanted to try out our new serger and sewing machine.
I looked and looked and did not find many patterns for men's under garments. Jalie has a really good pattern that has the trunks, briefs and a thong (not pictured). Ok, so the thing is a no go EVER. But the 2 other options are looking good.
Jalie patterns are created by  Jeanne Binet, from Saint-Romuald, Canada(a small town near Quebec City). I like supporting local talent.

Jalie patterns come in all ranges, from the smallest boy pattern to XX Large. This pattern will get much mileage. The paper is very thick and easy to trace. You can download the instructions from the Jalie website. Doing so makes it easier to work with as the pattern opens up and is rather large. 
He took an old T-Shirt that was too small (he says it must have shrunk in the wash) and laid the pattern on it.

This was Simon's first time following a pattern from strat to finish. He did a very good job. He was confused at first as he did not know where the diagrams were. The instructions and the pictures are not together step by step. After that he was fine.

Simon made a small error using the serger on the front flap. He cut too much, but he recovered and fixed it.

 He did a good job for his first attempt. He said that he will do it again, and he will also make some for our son.

He says that this pattern is not complicated, and he enjoyed it.