2017 - Year in review

I love to reflect on the past year with Gillian's Top 5 series, but I took some liberty and made a unique big (and late) post about 2017.

Sewn Projects:

• Gertie sundress and bolero: for my 40th birthday!
• I made my first bra with Abracadabra (Monserratt Lopez) at the Common Thread.
• Started a pair of sandals at the Common Thread.
• I sewn a dress for my niece with a full circle skirt!
• Resized a dancing costume for my daughter's best friend
• Sewn a Barbie ensemble as per my daughter's design...
• Made 2 bat wings sleeves dresses for my daughter : Black "Mavis" the vampire from Hotel Transylvania for her Halloween costume and a crushed velvet purple one she asked for... I hope she will want to sew one for herself since the design is simple! 
• Sewn ribbons to mitts, embroidered names on clothes and tackled a never ending list of mending projects!

Sewcial Activities:

• Museum "Expo 67" with about 20 Spoolettes + apéro at Brutopia
• Atelier Fiber Art on Wellington to sew legging with Spoolettes, organised by Terri
• Sew bra at class with Monserratt Lopez, at the Commun Thread
• Sew leather at the Commun Thread: I started sandals, Vicki & her son made bags.
• Musée de la mode avec Julie Peloquin, exposition "Fréquence Bleue" + apéro sur place
• I tried to visit a local exhibit with Monserratt Lopez, but I screwed up and the library was closed! We had a bite in a local cafe instead...

Personal Highlights:

• I travel much : Querretaro Mexico, PEI Canada, Skiing in Tremblant, Ontario cabin with friends during March Break, NYC, Vermont and Lake George camping with friends and we played tourist in Montreal for our wedding anniversary!
• I took time each month to do something fun but felt quite overwhelmed when I started working full time in May 2017, moreover when my daughter was diagnose with dyslexia and dysorthographia.
• I finish a Spartan race with a group of friends : "Straight Off the Couch!". It took us forever, helping each others at the obstacles but we made it : Arooo!
• I turned 40 years old!

Reflexions:

• I am very lucky, lots of vacation time, more money now that I work full time, even thought working weeks are absolutely frantic. I did a lot of fun activities last year. We are healthy. My family is close by. 
• I feel like I have a hard time to find balance between work, personal and family life. I still feel even more guilty to work full time with kids needs now. I feel I am getting old, feel like time is passing too fast, kids need me now but I am not there to be free later (working for retirement)...
• ME TIME : I need to work out, swim, run and ski... I need to do more of what I love : reading, sewing, travelling, painting/art, playing with my kids! Stop procrastinating in front of computer, fake relaxing browsing facebook ; DO INSTEAD!! 
• COUPLE TIME : be with my husband, go out more, ask the babysitter next door...
• KIDS TIME : play more, be there not just for chores/homework/boring parents stuff... I am the default parent and feel I am not fun anymore..
• Challenge to help my daughter learn to Read/Write... Not sure yet how to approach this without her having too much homework and starting hating school...
• Challenge to help my son be more happy when there is constraints, external demands at school and home, be better at delayed gratification without throwing a fit everytime someone ask him to interrupt his play time...
• HOUSE : Need to redo RDC bathroom and decide if we do the garage or not (vs travel and save for retirement with the money)

Goal for sewing 2018 :

• black bra *
• sew panties *
• new wallet and/or purse *
• warm slippers/sock in B&W herringbone wool and polar fleece*
• mitts and hat in B&W herringbone wool and polar fleece
• use my raspberry bamboo knit : top with shawl back cowl
• use my tropical rayon challis : B6453 sundress
• finish leather sandals
• something blush pink (top or dress?)

* needed.

Atelier Fiber Arts de Verdun

Atelier Fiber Arts - 3993 Rue Wellington à Verdun

Ce samedi 4 novembre 2017, les Spoolettes de Montréal iront coudre un legging en bonne compagnie à l'Atelier Fibre Arts de Verdun (page facebook) près du métro De L'Église.

Ce nouvel atelier de Montréal offrent des cours de coutures pour débutants à avancées (même un avec ma copine Monserratt pour coudre un soutien-gorge!), un service de réparation de machine à coudre et une panoplie de machine à coudre, surjeteuse et même une machine à long bras pour les courte-pointes. Un groupe de courte pointe, The Montreal Modern Quilt Guild, s'y rencontre parfois et ils partagent leur locaux avec Craft de Ville qui y vendent des tissus (quilting cotton) et patrons.

J'ai bien hâte d'aller découvrir l'endroit...

Merci à Terri d'organiser cette journée :D

A BRA ka da BRA!

PinUpGirl - Classic Pattern

I made a Bra!

I went to a local class with Monserratt Lopez (Mexican Pink Blog at The Common Thread) and we sew the PUG classic.

It was an amazing experience, I liked sewing it in 2 days with other students!! Moreover, she made EVERY SINGLE SIZES as samples and we could try them out to choose the best starting size. She then pinched here and there to fit it to my body with little clips and translated that to our personnalised pattern before the first class.

So here is my first sewn bra! I am not in love with the constrasting thread color but it was easier to unpick part of it! The fit was almost perfect : I just needed a little dart that I will translate to my pattern for the next one. :DIt is not perfect, but I still wore it all week!

If you can set in a sleeve, you can do it too!

Monserratt demonstrating

J'ai cousu un soutien-gorge!

J'ai suivi un cours avec Monserratt Lopez (Mexican Pink Blog au Fil Commun) et j'ai cousu le patron PUG Classic.

C'était vraiment super, j'ai adoré coudre avec d'autres couturières pendant 2 dimanches! De plus, Monserratt avait cousu TOUTES LES TAILLES du patron, donc lors de l'essayage nous avons trouvé la meilleure taille et elle l'a ajusté sur place avec de petites pinces. Avant le premier cours, elle avait retranscrit toutes les altérations nécessaires sur notre patron personnalisé!

Alors voici mon premier soutien-gorge! Je n'aurai pas choisit cette couleur de fil, mais le contraste aidait vraiment pour découdre nos erreurs... L'ajustement était presque parfait! Pour le prochain, je vais modifier le patron pour enlever une pince dans le bonnet du bas. Il n'est pas parfais, mais je l'ai porté toute la semaine!

Si vous pouvez coudre une manche, vous pouvez le faire vous aussi!

Voici mes altérations pour ne pas les oublier :

Modifications for v1 of PUG Classic 38F

Mode Expo 67

While Canada is celebrating is 150th, my hometown Montreal is now 350 years old in 2017! What better to celebrate than to visit a fashion exhibits about the international fiesta that was Expo 67! A small group of Montreal sewing bloggers are going to a private guided tour of the Mode Expo 67 at the McCord Museum on Saturday, July 29th 2017 in the afternoon. 

We still have a few place...
if you would like to join us,
send me an email or comment here! :D

2016 - Year in Review

General Reflections 

Happy New Year! I usually follow the Top 5 from Gillian @ Crafting a Rainbow to make my year end review... But this year I found that the format didn't suit me. So here is my short review of 2016 :

Young Girl to Frozen Princess Bedroom

I didn't blog much this year. I concentrated my energy mostly on helping my daughter to learn to read while she was in grade 2 (2015-2016). I started working as a consultant again in November 2016. I finally manage to create a lasting habit of going swimming in the morning 3 times a week and loving it! At last, we redecorated all 3 of our bedrooms at home.

Fireman's to Slide & Cave Bed

I also figured out after my master degree was finished that I needed more than being a stay at home mother to feel fulfilled and I was happier after starting to work again, even if it is part-time and from home. Working again, I had less time for myself but I found it easier to focus on the important stuff. Having too much time on my hands, my sewing mojo vanished and I felt torn about how I should vs would like to fill my free time ; always feeling guilty no matter what I did.

Living Room to Put-the-bed-here to OUR Bedroom

Sewing Highlights

I organized a Bra Sewing Afternoon at my place and had a blast! Thanks Sewing Ladies Friends. I started sewing a bra, a swimming cap and one piece swimsuit... I followed several Beverly Jonhston's classes on Craftsy about sewing Bras and swimwear too...

I did finished my mother's kaftan about 5 minutes before she showed up at my place on Christmas Eve!! (I am such a procrastinator) Worst thing in taking 2 years to sew that wonderful chiffon dévoré fabric is that it was a breeze to sew - TAKE THAT, FEAR OF CHIFFON!! And she liked it so much that she wore it at Christmas to my aunt's party! :D

But I didn't sew new garments ; I did the usual numerous alterations, hemming, "summerizing" my kids clothes, sewing ribbons on mittens and patched about 1 000 000 000 pair of pants' knees!!

My Sewing Projects in 2016

My Sewing Resolutions

I would like to sew in 2017 : 

• a bra
• a one piece swimsuit for laps swimming
• about 7 new everyday panties
• a set of neck warmer, mitts and hat 
• a new wallet 
• a clutch purse
• Use my cotton sateen tropical fabric
• Use my raspberry bamboo knit
• Use my tropical rayon challis
• Start a coordinating nightwear capsule wardrobe : 1 nightgown, 1 camisole, 1 long sleeve top, all with bust support to mix & match with my cotton/lycra leggings and rayon challis shorts.
• Maybe warm slippers or polar socks.