I gave in and ordered from eShakti

eShakti top with 3/4 sleeves in 41-34-41 custom size.

So, since my semester started I have barely time to breath, let alone sew!! But I did the next best thing, design a top for my custom measurements and had it sewn and shipped to me ;)

eShakti is a web only shop for very nice dresses, tops and skirts ; with some retro flare and a lot in natural fibers. What is special about them is that you can order an item to your specific measurements and customize the sleeves, neckline and hem length... All for a very reasonable price I think.

I tried a knit top first, just to test their customize size options in a top I wouldn't necessarily need to pay to return... When you register you get a welcome rebate and I bought my top at 30% during a promotion weekend... So it was 38$ before tax but I paid 28$ with taxes and shipping for a custom made top. It arrived VERY fast 5 days later! Here is the review I sent them after washing and wearing my top 1 day :

The original top

"I love the color, the material is a medium-thick interlock knit, the quality of the sewing is perfect. I order to my measurements, I am 5'3", (34G) 41-34-41, 165 Lbs.

The bust fits me very well, the waist/hip hem is just too wide for my taste. There is more ease than I would have sewn in a knit (too boxy for my shape ; I need the top to come in below my bust to be more flattering).

I am considering adding thin darts vertically under the bust and taking the side seams in a little.  Meanwhile I will wear it tucked in only.

I would have loved a thin black elasticized sleeve hem or cute cuffs for elbow or 3/4 sleeves...

I love the options for sleeves and length. I wonder why all dresses in poplin are not offered in all colors? Maybe you could ask the customer's preferred fit for knit garments ; this knit top has too much ease for a knit but a similar woven might be fine... The packaging smelled bad (plastic smell) but I washed the top so it all went away..."


I didn't received anything from eShatki, I am just posting my review here in case crazy ladies like me stalk the web to see what they want to buy on someone else before committing to a purchase! ;)

I am not convinced yet that their sizing is good (nor bad), maybe the style was just not the most flattering on me... The real test would be to order a sheath dress without stretch!! I am quite smitten by this one even if it is polyester...

quilted jacquard dress

Diamond quilt jacquard sheath dress

Guide to Earth's Underpants Making Resources

No spaceship needed, YOU can make underpants!

Image source

As we all know, Aliens loves underpants to make upside-down pants races... But because they never realized they could make them themselves, they come to Earth to steal our bloomers from our drawers.  Hence, to avoid any more Earthlings with an empty underwear drawer at 6am on a  frantic Monday morning, I decided to help the Aliens make their own. Of course, they will still need to buy (or zap from outerspace) some raw material and tools from Earth, but every Alien can make their own panties!

 

Fabrics and Tools

• Tools : A sewing machine with a  zig zag stitch and a stretch needle (works better than a ball point needle). A rotary cutter and self healing mat helps cut stretchy knit fabrics, but is not necessary.
• Elastic : You have a lot of type of elastic to choose from, but try to keep them narrow. Fold Over Elastic (FOE) for a stream line clean finish, normal flat elastic to be hidden in a turn of cloth and/or some picot edge decorative elastic to peek-a-boo on the edges! Even stretch lace can be used to bound the edges.
• Lining Fabric : The crotch pieces needs to be made of a soft and breathable natural stretchy fabric (per example, cotton jersey). Think about recycling those unworn T-shirt or stretchy cotton remnants! 
• Shell Fabric : Depending on the pattern, the underpants can be made out of :
  - knits (jersey, interlock, micro knits, tricot, old T-shirt, etc),
  - stretch woven or lace or even velvet (with lycra/spandex/elastane mixed in)
  - woven cut on the bias (satin, charmeuse, chiffon, etc).
  Favored fibers are silk, cotton, rayon (viscose, tencel, modal, bamboo, etc), merino wool, nylon, microfiber and some sports underwear use polyester to keep the athlete dry. All those fibers accept dye well, except for polyester.

Every pattern I found recommend about 1/2 yard (0.5m) of fabric 115cm/45in wide. For a wider fabric, say 150/60in wide, I could squeeze 3 pairs of low rise panties in 60cm or 2/3 yard.

For the elastic, you need enough to wrap around both your tights and your hip/waist depending on the pattern. For a size medium, I calculated about 2m/ of elastic per panties.

 

Underpants Patterns

A lot of tutorial exist on the web to draft your own pattern by copying a pair you really love. Some offer tips to copy your favorite panties without cutting it apart (here) while other take the cut away approach (here). But if you would like to try a patterns, here are the some downloadable that I found lately :

Free Underpants Patterns

•  Make Bra : offer the free hipster panties pattern and the DL21 panties for 2,50$EU.
• So, Zo Underpants Free Pattern : Low rise pants, tips to make them from old T-shirts.
• Indigorchid T-shirt Panties Pattern : Low rise pattern.
• VeraVenus Grannie-Pannie : High waist granny panties for stretch fabric, not woven on the bias.
• Vera Venus French Knickers : Made of woven fabrics, their vintage flare is undeniable.
• Rosy Lace Ladyshorts : Made of stretch lace little boxer shorts.
• A list of free lingerie patterns on so-sew-easy.com
• I am not a fan of thongs or cheeky panties, but you can head over to Melissa from Fehr Trade, to consult a list of more free underpants patterns...

Independant Patterns Designers

• Bra Makers Supply : Canadian Ottawa based one stop shop for your lingerie patterns and books!  Patterns about 20$. Etsy shop for patterns and online shop for everything lingerie related.
• Merckwaerdigh sells lingerie patterns and supplies, like lace, underwires and bra kits. Pattern about 15$
• Mrs. Depew : Californian vintage looking lingerie and garment pattern designer. She have about 50 vintage lingerie patterns as knickers, bra, corset, garter belt, slips, etc. Pattern bout 8$
• Ohhh Lulu : Canadian Ontario based designer that offer more than 7 panties patterns on both Ohhh Lulu Etsy shop and via the Craftsy website. Pattern about 9-12$.

Established Pattern Companies

• Jalie : Canadian Quebec based company that offered patterns for more than 30 years! They are the only one with a family friendly multi-sized multi-style pattern that fit both male and female from 12 months to an adult size 22. Retails about 12$ per pattern, some can be downloaded. Their patterns are loved on patternreview.com.
• Kwik Sew : They offer a dozen of lingerie patterns, almost all with panties. Comments gathered around the webshpere says their crotch pattern piece runs wide. About 12$ per patterns, some can be downloaded.
• Burda Style : Burda offers a little more than a dozen of lingerie patterns (2 panties) at a low price of 5.40$ each.

 

Underwear Fabrics Sources

Most obvious places to get suitable underwear fabrics are your unworn garment drawer, your local fabric store (Fabricville, Fabricland, Jo-Ann, etc.), thrift stores for used T-Shirt or bargain fabrics and online fabrics stores... Here is few of the stores specializing in lingerie:

• Merckwaerdigh sells lingerie patterns and supplies like lace, underwires and bra kits.
• Bra Makers Supply : Canadian Ottawa based one stop shop for your lingerie patterns and books!  Patterns about 20$. Etsy shop for patterns and online shop for everything lingerie related. Very good Canadian source.
• Sew Sassy : They offer fabrics for lingerie, bra and swimwear as well as the Elan and Kwik Sew bra patterns. Very liked in the online sewing community I think.
• Bravo Bella : They offers yardage but also bra and panties kits in cotton, satin or tricot in a rainbow of colors.
• Booby Traps : An Australian company selling yardage and bra kits. I remember seeing their name in the websphere a lot, I love their name!
• Dharma Trading Co. : They offer fabrics made of silk, bamboo, cotton, nylon, hemp fabrics and even pineapples!! Their prices are very low, but please note that all their fabrics are black or white. All white ones can be colored by their dyes and paints. 

For more sources, please visit Dixie DYI website, she offers an extensive guide for bra making, with International fabrics and notions suppliers, recommended patterns, good tutorials and reference books!

In Montréal : You can found pretty and inexpensive knits at GlobalText on St-Laurent and Chabanel, 2 notions and trims stores and several suitable stores on St-Hubert Street, North of Jean-Talon. See my Montreal's Fabric Store page for more info.

You might find a little bit more on my "Sewing - Underwear" Pinterest board...

 

Did you miss anything on my Pant-tastic Mission?

Intro and Patterns Comparison

Resources to Make Underpants

Sewing the Underpants
Final Countdown... ♪

Montreal Sewing Bloggers Meet-up Recap

Lovely afternoon in marvelous company!

Hello! A short post to thank Vicki from Another Sewing Scientist for the wonderful afternoon I had yesterday in Montréal! It was so much fun to meet lovely ladies with the same passion! Sharing a meal, talking about sewing and shopping for fabrics was very fun. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the superb day since I was too busy taking it all in!

I even had the pleasure of finally meeting Rhonda after months of facebook friendship! Thanks too to the sweet Carmen who made us lovely gifts and even convinced Jalie to treat us to a retractable measuring tape! She is full of resources! Finally, a warm thank you to everyone present, Vicki, Carmen, Katherine, Renée, Rhonda, Shannon, Tammy, Rachel and Julie for making this afternoon memorable!

Sewing Meet-up in Montreal !

Saturday August 17th - 12:00

I am so excited to be able to join this time around! :D

Vicki from "Another sewing scientist" is organizing a sewing meet-up in Montreal this coming Saturday August 17th 2013. Meet us at noon at  El Chalateco at 520 rue Beaubien E for a pattern/fabric swap and some fabric shopping around!

Vicki, une autre scientifique couturière, organise un rassemblement de couturière bloggeuse Samedi le 17 août prochain... Rendez-vous à midi au El Chalateco at 520 rue Beaubien E pour un échange de tissus et/ou patron et une séance de magasinage de tissus sur St-Hubert après!

Invitation from Vicki here...

Invitation from Vicki here...

OK, I will close the computer all week in order to finish my current rendition of S1882 in time for the meet-up!!

Vente trottoir sur St-Hubert!

Garment District Visit

Start spreading the news, New York garment district is fabulous! My little town blues won't ever melt away now that I've seen the greatness of the the NYC garment district!

I spend some time trying to locate 4 ply silk in Montréal and never succeed... But as soon as I set foot in my first stop on 40th street, I hit a wall of it! Too bad I was way too intimidated to take a picture of the Great Wall! Wow! 4 ply silk is indeed gorgeous, has a great drape and feels soft ; but I fell in love with pure silk charmeuse big time!

Thanks to Meg's (aka Lindsay T Sews) awesome and very user friendly printable guided tour and suggested itineraries, I've seen all that I wanted in my brief journey! I was lucky enough that my husband had a client to meet in NYC on Wednesday AND my mother could keep the kids overnight AND the mega storm Irene didn't canceled any of those plans! Too bad I went a few days prior my favorites bloggers were meeting there!

Those who know me would be surprised that I actually bought fabrics for myself! The 6 hours drive with my husband convincing me to spend half the money his company would give us because he drove down instead of flying might have do the trick...

It was really exciting to go with my love. We arrived quite late Tuesday night and went to a pub in Brooklyn. With a good friend and a ton of wheat beer on the menu - we had a blast! We spend the night in an hotel on 49th Street, and had a lovely late (by frantic-morning-with-the-kids standard!) breakfast together, chatting... I walked him to his client office and then I had a WHOLE DAY ALL BY MYSELF! No kids, no master degree class, no working from home, no errands, nothing...

Loosing no time, Meg's itinerary in hand, I went down to the garment district! I had written a list of things to look for to go with my Fall Palette 2011, I will blog about this Fall challenge later on... But I was looking for silk to make some tops and nightgowns and for interesting linings for skirts and dresses.

Fall Palette 2011

Paron: I found out I was quite intimidated to be in NYC, shopping for fabrics. My whole body language screaming I'M A BEGINNER AND HAVE NO CLUE! I saw my Great Wall of 4 ply silk there. Touching fabrics gave me a sense of quality and drape for fabrics I only knew by names! I bought Bemberg twill lining in a perfect grey (on sale) for my projects and the latest Threads magazine to break the ice...

Lace Star: I found silk prints that I really loved! But I wasn't sure about prices and quality yet, so I left with my "coup de coeur" list in my notebook. I should have come back for the floral one... ;) 

B&J: Just WOW! I loved it! They offer fabrics of quality. The fabric is really well labelled and they display about a yard of each fabric on nice little hangers. They even have mirrors so you can see fabrics on you! I had to get some, but went to lunch and went to the discount stores before building the nerve to spurge on it! I chose a marvelous silk sueded charmeuse (washed) in rust pink ; I bought only 2,5 yard of it and shove the receipt way down my purse without a glance! I'm planning to sleep like a queen in my Colette's cinnamon or parade in town in a retro top...  They even had velvet silk ; it's SO soft!

And a few discount stores on 39th Street : Chic Fabrics, Fabrics For Less and G&R Fabrics. They were crowded with bolts and seems to be own by the same peoples as I've been helped by the same lady in 2 of them... I bought 3 yards of silk charmeuse in an intense grey with a hint of blue. I LOVE it! I'm planning Colette's Cinnamon for it! I quite loved a silk chiffon in turquoise but it's too fragile for a dress from my little princess turning 3 year old and I have too many projects to sew a summer dress now... (Colette's Chantilly maybe?!) 

Weaver’s: They had great wool selections, but I hadn't any project in my queue for them and their silks were way to high for me to touch... So little time, so much to see ; I left!

Daytona Braids & Trims: It is HUGE! About 3 time the size of the trims store I know in Montréal... I was overwhelmed and starting to think about embellishments for my little girl so I left before spending my ME time on planning project for my kids. So selfish ; it felt good! ;)

Steinlauf & Stoller: It is small but seems to have it all. I just bought a tailor ham and french curves ruler at home the week before so I didn't knew what I needed more...

Mood: The famous store! Strangely enough, I like to sew to get unique piece and a good fit, but I'm not that interested by fashion... nor television... So I haven't seen Project Runway! But I liked the store, It is HUGE, but I stayed on the first floor going all over the silks. Too many choices, time passing too fast and I still needed to go back to B&J to buy the rust pink washed silk charmeuse ; so I left! I didn't want to leave empty handed so I bought some pretty pink pattern weights, bee wax and a gift for my little girl ; a big blue ostrich feather! 

NY Elegant Fabrics: I came back on 40th Street for some silk print at Lace Star and saw that I missed it! I loved this shop, one of my favorites. Fabrics sections are well labelled. They had a lot of interesting lining ; I bought 4 yards of fuchsia with printed leaf silhouettes and 2 yards of pink Bemberg Twill. They had a few modern and floral silk prints that I loved! But my alarm clock went off and I promised my husband to spend my whole budget before meeting him back at the hotel... So I  bought poly stretch Charmeuse in a color I loved (teal), but I should have indulge in less yardage in a silk print instead...

Piouf! I was exhausted but really happy of my trip to the garment district! It's really impressive and have fabrics of quality that I could never found in my hometown... I hope my little story inspires you to go fabric shopping in NYC if you get the chance!

Montréal Fabrics Scene!

Bon après-midi,

I've became quite obsessed with 4 ply silk lately... I've seen projects by fellow bloggers (Sunni's Seafoam Silk Ginger skirt and Gertie's Homage to Elizabeth slip and Pink Sencha blouse in particular) and the description of this fabric make me wanna roll myself in yards of it!

4 ply silk

This is considered the "Cadillac" of silks. It is "heavy" for silk, has a beautiful luster to it even in pastel colors and drapes beautifully. It hangs like glass when you are standing still and it resists wrinkling in a very real way. This silk is generally used for very fine business suits, formal evening wear, bridal gowns and simply constructed dresses that you can wear during the day and by adding embellishments carry into an evening situation. The quality of this silk varies from supplier to supplier. Because it is a crepe it has a stretch to it and if you don't get a good quality, you will have a lot of stretching that is difficult to control while sewing. It makes up into beautiful bias cut gowns in the wider width. Source: Anjoorian Silks

Hence started my quest of fine fabrics stores in my hometown Montréal, Québec, Canada! But I haven't found 4 ply silk yet... Meanwhile, I would like to share with all Montréalers and visitors fabricaholics alike my findings.

• Fabricville: This is the biggest fabric stores chain I know, Its probably the equivalent of the American's Jo-Ann. You can find a lot of these around town, I usually go to the one in Lasalle near my place. But when I was younger I used to go to the one in Place Versailles... They usually do not offer a lot of specialized notions nor fine fabrics like silks...
• Tissus Hajaly - 3332 Ontario E., 8100 St-Denis, 2810 Masson: A small chain of stores. IThe one on Ontario Street is where my mother and grand-mother used to buy their sewing supplies when I was young...
• Emeline and Annabelle: I found a crafting and sewing café on the web that is supposed to be in Notre-Dame de Grâce (NDG) ; it's not too far from my place and I'm going to check it out soon...

Note that in Montréal, we have our own "Garment Districts" and it is paired with the wedding gowns shops on St-Hubert Street. La plaza St-Hubert is a covered promenade with shops and restaurants between Beaubien and Jean-Talon. Note that most fabrics stores are north of Jean-Talon Street and not part of the Plaza.

La rue St-Hubert, Montréal

Fabrics Shops on St-Hubert:

• Effiloché - 6260 St-Hubert: They have the cutest designer's quilting cotton by the meter or fat quarters and lots of knitting supply. They also offer classes and you can pay per hour to sew with their serger and equipment.
  
• Tissus Regent - 6580 St-Hubert: It is my bargain place for all sort of mixed up fabrics rolls (2, 3 or 4$/m) and they have a lot of fabrics for dance/skating costume in Lycra... But you need some patience to go through the place!
• Fine Fabrics Shop: I found a gem of a store with all sort of silk (velour, chiffon, etc) and wools at 7195 St-Hubert, north of Jean-Talon, on the east side. A good plus for me, everything is well organized and labelled - a rare thing on St-Hubert Street! As soon as I'm more confident with my fitting skills, I'm going to treat myself there!
• Notions Shop: There is a notions shop on St-Hubert, on the West side of the street just north of Jean-Talon ; They sell laces, ribbons, trims, belts notions, feathers, etc.

That's it for now! If you have been fabrics shopping in Montréal, where did you went? Do you ever go fabrics hunting while in vacation abroad?

P.S.: I will update this entry next time I will set foot on St-Hubert, with the names and addresses of the shops...