Fabric Hunting In Montmartre

Long time no see! :)

It's been a while since I wrote a post, I have to admit I have been feeling a little under the weather ever since I lost my job on January 1st. I'm feeling a lot better now and I started a couple of new activities that I'm all excited about!!!

Yesterday, at around 10pm, I made my first item of clothing ever!!! Since sewing with the sewing machine drives me crazy, I did what I thought would be the simplest thing I could do. So I sewed a tunic and did a pretty good job by my standards. I was thrilled! (And I've been wearing my tunic ever since ;) )

Today was such a beautiful day here in Paris, and  I needed velvet to make more cushions so I dragged Greg with me to buy more fabric. Oh yeah and of course I wanted to find a cute fabric I could make a new tunic with.

We went to the huge sewing supplies stores by La Halle Saint Pierre. It's such a cool place, if I had more money I would spend it all there! Gorgeous yarn, tons of different fabrics, zippers, buttons...

I was pretty disappointed though because I couldn't find the velvet I was looking for (Usually I can get the cheapest one, 5€/3meters) and I had a hard time finding a fabric I liked for the new tunic.

It was fun anyway, and once I was done we took a long walk back to Republique.

I finally figured out that I need days off. I can't work at my jewelry every single day locked up in the apartment. I don't feel guilty anymore about going out. What a change!!! 

We walked up to the Sacré Coeur. It's also good for me to walk from time to time. I spend 90% of my time sewing on the couch... I love and miss walikng on a daily basis.

We came accross these. I loved the glitter and confettis. We attended the Chinese New Year Parade by our place the other day and the confettis reminded me of this day. :) I shot a whole roll at the parade and still haven't dropped them at the lab.... Bad me :(

Pretty sweet day!

So here is my master piece! :) Forgive my tired look but I had been sewing for hours in the dark. :p of course the tunic is far from perfect. the straps are not the same width and the collar is quite poorly done. But I really thought it would be so much worse!!! I would LOVE to be good at sewing with the machine but I suck and I don't have the patience to learn. This machine is very intimidating to me.

 But I got it, a great part of a project being a success is doing a neat job at cutting your fabric. 

Those pictures are not the best at showing what the tunic looks like... It reminds me of the blouses my great grand mother would wear all the time. They looked like aprons but with the front buttoned up. It also reminds me of a painter's apron. I love both ideas.

Loks like a dress in this picture, a pretty dress I think :p

I also sewed a pink zipper! and I'm pretty happy with how I did it! Pretty neat! :) (Say hi to my spongebob towel in the mirror reflection)

The zipper is useless but I think it looks nice. :)

I'm thinking of adding pockets, that would be practical but it would mean to take off the tunic and I'm not ready quite yet. :p

That's it for today's adventures, but I have a bunch of stuff I need to catch up on so I'll be back soon. :)

Paris With Estelle - Sacré Coeur, Montmartre, Centre Pompidou

My friend Estelle got a new camera. We thought it would be fun that she would meet me in Paris and  take pictures all day. Estelle got in Paris at 10, we did a little bit of shopping and around 11:30,we were on our way to Montmartre. Once there we had lunch, not a single picture had been shot yet. :p

I'm not a big fan of bread. But this one was absolutely amazing!! We sat there where people park their scooters and motorcycles and ate our sandwiches.

The view from where I sat.

So we played tourist most of the day in Montmartre. :) I brought my film camera with me. I'd like to take an entire roll of pictures with as many different places in Paris as I can. On different days of course. 

The view from the Sacré Coeur.

I saw these, they look like thistle but the flowers were the size of my fist. I had never seen thistle like this before.

This is a very famous place in Paris, where all the painters used to come. Now most of the square is taken by restaurants' patios but there is still some painters and caricaturists. I couldn't get a good picture of the whole place because it's so busy and so dense, it didn't look good. It's very crowded, not only by people.

We walked in Montmartre. It was such a hot day.

Montmartre is definitely not my favorite place in Paris. It's nice but it's always very busy and the streets are very small. I'm not a big fan of crowds.

Cute poster :p

Then we headed to Les Halles and Le Centre Pompidou. It's a big art musueum/cultural center, with lots of exhibits that change several times a year.

Everytime I go there, there is this homeless man who's feeding the pigeons, always in the same spot. I don't really like pigeons, like most people, but when they are gathered up around this man, it's kind of magical. I wanted to stay longer and keep taking pictures but we were on a tight schedule. :) 

Talking about pigeons, a couple of them made their nest in our neighbors' flower bed. :) They've been away for about two weeks and they'll come home to baby pigeons! 

And now more pigeons...