Vous voulez adopter un look des Fêtes, mais votre budget est serré ?
Ce projet à faire soi-même est pour vous !

Je vais vous montrer comment créer un accessoire amusant et plein de style : une couronne en fil de fer. Retrouvez votre princesse intérieure et attirez tous les regards lors de vos soirées !

À la base, j’ai trouvé cet adorable projet de bricolage sur le blog Free People. Je suis tombée en amour avec l’idée et j’ai décidé de réaliser un projet semblable, légèrement modifié.

Pour ce projet, vous aurez besoin de : fil de fer, coupe-câbles, pinces et vieux collier.

J’ai utilisé un fil de fer artistique 18 gauge que j’ai acheté dans une boutique de fournitures d’art. Pour décorer les pointes de la couronne, j’ai utilisé un vieux collier que j’ai trouvé récemment dans un échange de vêtements.

Étapes :

1. D’abord, faites un cercle en fil de fer qui deviendra la base de votre couronne. Il devrait être un peu plus grand que votre tête. Avant de couper le fil, essayez le cercle sur votre tête pour vous assurer qu’il est bien ajusté à votre tête.

2. Après avoir coupé le fil, enroulez solidement les bouts autour de la base au moyen des pinces. Assurez-vous que les bouts du fil ne pointent pas vers votre tête, ce qui évitera que le fil n’irrite votre tête.

3. Ensuite, coupez huit morceaux de fil de fer d’environ 21 cm de longueur. Ces morceaux deviendront les pointes de la couronne.

4. Pliez les morceaux de fil en leur milieu.

5. Décorez les pointes de perles. Utilisez les pinces pour tourner le bout des pointes qui tiendront les perles.

Je voulais utiliser des grosses billes de plastique grises, mais leur trou était trop petit. Le collier contenait aussi des petites billes de métal avec un trou plus grand que les billes en plastique; il y en avait exactement huit!

6. Pliez le bout de chaque pointe pour les attacher à la base de la couronne. Essayez de  ne pas faire de trop petits plis, sinon, la prochaine étape sera difficile.

7. Organisez les pointes de façon symétrique le long de la base. Commencez par en mettre deux à 180 degrés de distance.
Accrochez les bouts sous la base en fil de fer. À l’aide des pinces, entourez les bouts autour de la base aussi solidement que vous le pouvez.

Ensuite, placez deux autres pointes à 90 degrés des points attachées et suivez les mêmes étapes.
Après cette étape, vous devriez avoir quatre pointes attachées également, comme sur la photo. Attachez les quatre autres pointes entre ces quatre pointes.

Encore une fois, essayez de faire en sorte que les bouts de fil de fer pointent vers l’extérieur afin d’éviter qu’ils n’irritent votre tête.

Et voici la couronne!

Bon bricolage! Que ce Noël soit féérique!

Mon blog : dushonok.com

Want to look special this Christmas and stay on budget? Then this DIY tutorial is for you!

I will show you how to make a fun and sassy accessory: a wire crown. It will bring out your inner princess and will have all eyes on you at any party!

Originally I spotted this lovely DIY project in the Free People blog. I fell in love with the idea and decided to make a similar project with a few modifications.

What you will need for this project: wire, wire cutters, pliers,  and an old necklace.

I used Artistic Wire 18 Ga that I bought at an art supply store. To decorate the points of the crown, I used an old necklace which I found at a recent clothing swap.

Directions:

1. First, make a wire circle that will become the base of your crown. It should be a little bit bigger than your head. Before cutting the wire, try the circle on your head to make sure it fits properly on top of your head.

2. After cutting the wire, wrap the ends tightly around the base using the pliers. Make sure the ends point away from your head: It will prevent them from scratching your skin.

3. Then, cut eight pieces of wire of about 21cm in length. These will become the crown points.

4. Bend the wire pieces in the middle.

5. Decorate the points with some beads. Use the pliers to twist the tips of the points to fix the beads.

I wanted to use the big gray plastic “pearl” beads, but their holes were too small. The necklace had also smaller metal ones with bigger holes;  there were precisely eight of them!

6. Bend the ends of the points to prepare them for attaching to the crown base. Try to not make the bent ends too small; otherwise, it will be difficult to do the next step.

7. Arrange the points symmetrically along the base. Begin with two in 180 degrees from each other.
Hook the ends under the base wire. Using the pliers, wrap the ends around the base wire as tight as you can.
Then, place two other points  in 90 degrees from the attached ones and repeat the steps.
After completing you should have four points evenly attached as show on the picture. Attach the other four in between.

Again, try to point the ends of the wire towards the outside; it will prevent your head from getting scratched.

And here comes the crown!

Happy DIY-ing! Make this Christmas special!

My blog: dushonok.com

When it is gloomy and rainy outside, it is the perfect time to stay at home and start some DIY projects!

Today I will show a sequel of my  Bleached Denim post. Let’s stamp!

My inspiration was these bleached-n-painted jeans shorts. I loved the idea of combining a bold black and white design with the subtle denim texture. The problem was… I could not do it by hand because I am so bad at drawing! What could be the solution? Stamping! Stamping is perfect for me. It is very easy to do, and gives a greater uniqueness and personal touch than what you can find in stores.

To my surprise, it was not easy to find good stamping accessories in Montreal. Some stampers were available at the art store DeSerres. Stamping kits were there too, but they were paired with a regular paint that is not suitable for fabric. Even Dollarama failed to help: I was only able to find toy stampers for kids there.

Of course, I could have bought the accessories on the Internet. But I did not want to wait – it was time to get creative!

I made a stamping inkpad out of a dish sponge that I cut through the middle. Small air-tight plastic containers from Dollarama became inkpad cases. The fabric paint was bought at DeSerres. Also, I bought a few floral and heart-shaped stampers there and got a bag of toy finger stampers at Dollarama.

At first, I did some sample tests. I diluted the pink paint with a bit of water and poured it on the sponge.  Then, I stamped the fabric and realized that- surprise, surprise! - results are better when stamping is done on a flat surface.

After stamping is done, the design needs to become permanent! The paint gets fixed by ironing for 5 minutes in cotton selection. Once fixed, the design resists machine washing and dry cleaning.

After waiting for the paint to dry, I washed the samples. Woo-hoo, it looks so cool!

Floral stamps looked pretty too.

Although I liked the resulting floral pattern, I wanted to make a geometric ornament with circles and rectangles. To do that, I bought an eraser and used its wide side as a stamper. The circle was made out of a finger stamper with the shape part removed.

The result was not perfect enough for me. The surface of the eraser side was too large, and the paint got unevenly distributed across the surface. The same happened with the circles.

After experimenting more, I decided to use the most narrow side of the eraser. It greatly improved the quality of the prints. Hurray!

I liked the brick pattern the best. Instead of the circles, I decided to use the star finger stamper.

Ok! So the pattern and the technique was all set! It was the time to prepare the shorts.

I bought a pair of jeans at a thrift store.

Then I cut and bleached them using the instructions I have recently published.

Stamping time! Making the very first prints was so exciting!

The left part was stamped with stars. Some stamps turned out to be untidy, because the circular edge of the stamper left marks. Another hint: to get a good quality print, use good tools!

On the back, I only stamped the pockets.

Before fixing the design, I waited one hour to let the paint dry.

Fixing by ironing was long and inconvenient, so I decided to use a different method! I baked the shorts in the oven for 5 minutes with the temperature at 300F.

(OMG, my oven is so dirty! Have not noticed before!)

Here comes the result! I rolled up the trouser legs and sewed them underneath in a few places. After baking, the fabric got some yellowish tint. The tint was resistant and survived washing, so I decided to pretend it was by design!

The view from the back. The flaps need to be ironed after every washing.

Stamping is cool!

A few practical tips from my experience:

• Quality of the print depends on the quality of the stamper, so it is worth to spend money on accessories.
• Do stamping carefully on a flat surface; to make sure the fabric was  flat, I put a magazine inside the shorts.
• The fabric should be stretched and secured with pins.
• White\bright paint will probably not be visible on a light cloth; while choosing the paint, pay attention to what fabric it is designed for (dark\light).
• It is much easier to dry the paint in the oven than doing so by ironing; of course, it will work only if the garment has no plastic details or buttons.

This is it! Happy stamping!

My blog: dushonok.com

Look for this sign when walking down Mackay street from the library!

Hello fellow Swappers,

Our exciting Take of Your Clothes – Concordia Edition event is drawing very near and we wanted to talk about a very special partner that will be present at the swap and ensuring that we are well refreshed
while we swap to our heart’s content – Thé Kiosque.

Located at the heart of Concordia’s downtown Sir George Williams campus, in the corner of Mackay and Saint-Catherine, Thé Kiosque is a trendy tea house that serves over 200 different types of brews from all corners of the globe, from premium toasty Genmaicha to the soothingly mellow blueberry white tea. It is indeed a refreshing change from the cluster of coffee chains on campus!

As a matter of fact, the founders of Thé Kiosque originally had the idea back when they were still studying in Concordia and couldn’t find a nice place to hang out and kick-back with a healthy beverage. “A good amount of people still prefer coffee in the morning, but we have this mocha nuts mate – a tea from Argentina with as much caffeine as coffee, yet the best part is that the mocha nuts have a rich and smooth flavour, along with the antioxidants of tea, which is extremely beneficial for your health” explains owner David, who solemnly swears he is not related to David’s Tea – a wide-spread franchise that vastly expanded into 50 stores between 2009 and 20011.

Thé Kiosque invokes the mom n’ pop shop nostalgia, yet successfully blends the traditional ancient art of tea-making with the modern high-paced lifestyle of today’s workers and university students. Many students have found that relaxing in front of a book with a hot cup of tea is an excellent way to savour the breaks between classes. However, speaking of savouring, did we mention that they also had a wide- range of mouth watering tea-infused pastries, iced teas and lattes? As their popularity expanded, so did the shop’s space when they opened up a terrace to hang out and announced plans to expand into more locations in the coming years in order to spread the experience and culture of tea.

At the Swap Team, we’re excited to say that our swappers will have that experience come to them while they swap! With sustainability being the forefront of our mission, we are happy to have Thé Kiosque
amongst us this year and sip on organic and fair-trade tea brews!

Check out their online store here

Follow them on facebook

Let them show you the intrinsic art of tea-making!

At Take Off Your Clothes – Concordia Edition, we want to give you the best swapping experience!

This time, we have a special appearance from Antonia. She will be there at the swap to do your on-the-spot alterations for your newly swapped clothes.

Antonia seamstress extraordinaire and bookkeeper by trade who always found time to nurture her passion for clothes.  It all started while watching her mother, a professional seamstress sewing yards of fabric on their kitchen table.  She picked up sewing techniques that would allow her to make some extra money for her family.  At the ripe age of 12 she took on her first clients, making alterations for her friends’ mothers clothes!  After nearly 50 years of experience lovingly repairing clothes that needed TLC for her community, she will be offering her skills & passion for this Wednesday’s swappers. If you need a little repair or hem done she can do it on the spot, so you can bring home your newly acquired outfits to measure.

Simple alterations would be FREE and complex ones are offered at a very low student price!

Don’t miss out!

Hi, my name is Nadya, and I’m a swapaholic.

Unnamed cotton dress found at the first Mega Swap event. It always gets tons of compliments

Just about three years ago I was a regular girl who was spending up to half of her salary on clothes. My wardrobe had trouble swallowing up all the stuff I crammed into it. My storage room contained two big suitcases almost bursting open because of the stuff inside.

My then husband hated Thursdays and Fridays. On these days, the balance on our credit card suffered severe losses.

But I could not help it. My girlish nature demanded new clothes on a regular basis, period!

Vintage jeans dress from 80s found at the YMCA swap event last year

Then everything suddenly changed.
One day I met Aleece (the founder of The SWAP Team) who came to visit a friend working in my office. Aleece told me about The SWAP Team and their clothing swap events. Shortly after, I participated in my very first swap.

A whole new world opened up right in front of me!

I got to exchange the clothes I was bored of for new-to-me, cool ones. I even managed to find some pieces that would be impossible to buy in a regular store.

That fascinated me.

Vintage dress found at the last Mega Swap event

I loved the feeling that I had while going through the racks and looking for interesting pieces. It was the thrill of the hunt and the anticipation of surprise. I felt like a kid in front of a box full of chocolate eggs with toys inside!

Then I began to meet people who found the items I brought to the swaps. I was looking at the things that used to belong to me … and I felt kind of proud of myself! The choice I made the other day when decided to buy them was greatly appreciated by somebody else. In addition, it was interesting to see how the others blended my former belongings into their style.

Divided dress found at the last Mega Swap event

I realized that I had started helping to save the environment much more than before. Instead of participating in blind consumption, I took part in a nature-friendly exchange that produces no greenhouse gasses — only a lot of fun!

Vintage dress from 80s found at the last Mega Swap event

My suitcases became empty, so my husband was happy. I got a great new wardrobe and saved tons of money!

This all made me very much addicted to clothing swaps. I recognize my condition, and I am very happy about it!

Suede shorts found at the last Mega Swap event

Vintage dress from 80s brought by Aleece at the YMCA swap event last year and found by me

This summer bleached denim is one of the hottest trends. Partial bleached and “acid wash” items give a wardrobe an unusual trendy twist, and there is no wonder why it is so popular. It looks very attractive!

But do you need to buy a pair of bleached jeans at the store? Of course not! It is a great DIY project which is fairly simple to do.

I fell in love with it as much as everybody else and decided to give it a try.

I bought jeans pants and a jeans shirt at Renaissance and got three bottles of Clorox bleach from Canadian Tire.

There are many instructions about the bleaching process on the Internet. However, it turned out that almost none of them reveal all the tricks and secrets. Still, I accomplished this project by trying, failing, and finally succeeding. Let me tell you my story of bleaching.

The original items: The jeans and the shirt.

I wanted to make bleached shorts.
At first, I put on the jeans and marked the new length in front of the mirror. Then I cut the legs a couple of inches below the marked line.

I folded the shorts in two and attached them to a hanger with clips.

Then I put them into a bucket with the bleach and kept there for about 3 minutes.

After taking the shorts out, I left them hanging for half an hour. Then I rinsed them in clean water and left them hanging for a night.

In the morning the bleaching became more visible (the picture on the right).

After unfolding the shorts I got an unpleasant surprise. I saw ugly looking yellow stains everywhere on the fabric!

It turned out that some cloths are not suitable for bleaching.

The stains can show up for two reasons. Some indigo dyes may give this unpleasant result. Also, the fabrics with spandex may turn yellow while being bleached. The threads of spandex cannot be bleached, and they produce this yellow tint while the main fabric threads are becoming white.

I tried to wash the shorts, but the stains did not get off.

Well, I had nothing to lose! I put the shorts back to the bleach.

I decided to bleach the shirt along with the shorts. The preparations for bleaching take some time, and it is more convenient to bleach more items at once.

This time I brought the bleach and the bucket to the balcony. The bleach produces hazardous vapors, and it is better to handle it outside.

I bleached the shorts for half an hour and did not rinse after. Then, I hung them outside.

Now it was time to take care of the shirt.

At the first I put the sleeves in the bleach. Then, I carefully bleached the body part while making sure that the bleach drops would not stain the rest.

Both items spent a night on the balcony.

In the morning of the next day the results looked quite good. The shorts got bleached very well, and all the stains had vanished. The shirt got a yellow stripe along the white part. It did not be wash out, and I put the shirt back into the bleach.

Meanwhile, I took care of the shorts. Plain white shorts looked a bit boring, and I decided to rip them off and to make a fringed edge.

While making the shorts even shorter, I left some allowance for the fringe.

To make a fringe, I used scissors with the sharp ends. I loosened the threads from the other side of the cloth where the weaving pattern was simpler. Loosening was boring, and I made the fringe only on the front part.

The holes were made using the same scissors. To make the edges look more “used” and ripped I used a sand paper.

I also made some holes on the back pockets.

After finishing the adjustments, I washed the shorts, so the sanded spots and the threads felted and looked more used and torn.

Here is the result!

As you can see, the shirt got a blue border. It appeared during the second bleaching, because the level of the liquid was higher. The border ate up the yellow stripe which showed up after the first try.

Here is an outfit with the bleached jeans shorts. They look great with a front knot shirt that allows to show off the non-bleached top part of the shorts.

Here I combined the bleached shirt with my DIY collar which I made this spring.

Bleaching was a fun project. I enjoyed experimenting and have collected all the information I needed. Now I want to share it with you!

Here are my tips for the denim bleaching:

- while working with bleach, use gloves to protect the skin on the hands;

- do bleaching outside, for example on the balcony, because it is hazardous to inhale the bleach vapors;

- use green bleach which breaks down to salt and water; read the label before buying;

- always dispose the bleach and water with bleach to the sewing system; it will neutralize of the any leftovers of bleach;

During the bleaching, the fabric can get a yellowish or brownish tint. To avoid this, follow these guidelines:

- bleach turns spandex yellow, so avoid bleaching elastic denim;

- while looking for a jeans item to bleach, take a close look at the fabric; if it is yellowish on the light spots, it will probably turn yellow after bleaching, too;

- sometimes some particular indigo dye reacts to bleach by turning yellow;

- thus, try first to bleach an example of the cloth; in my case I could have done it with a piece from one of the cut-off jeans legs;

- do not expect to get a pure clean white color after bleaching; if it is your goal, you should use a white fabric dye;

- the threads that stitch the item would probably keep their original color and would not get bleached.

This is it!

Happy bleaching!

Quel meilleur moyen d’épargner de l’argent sur les vêtements d’enfants que de les échanger avec d’autres mamans et papas?

Notre tout premier Grand troc Kids POP, en partenariat avec POP Montréal, aura lieu le samedi 22 septembre de 13 h à 17 h au 51, rue Bernard Ouest.

5$ billet d’avance pour les adultes. GRATUIT pour les enfants de moins de 12 ans.

COMMENT PROCÉDER EN 4 ÉTAPES :

1. ACHETEZ votre billet (ci-dessus)
2. METTEZ vos vêtements, souliers et/ou accessoires d’enfants (0-12 ans) DANS DES SACS : Téléchargez, imprimez et remplissez cette étiquette pratique et attachez-la à tous vos sacs de vêtements propres et pliés que vous souhaitez échanger. [Vous voulez savoir ce que vous ne pouvez pas échanger? Consultez notre politique de nettoyage ICI.]
3. DÉPOSEZ vos vêtements avant le 16 Septembre à la Boutique Local 23 sur 23 Bernard Ouest. (Avez-vous raté la date limite ? Pas de soucis ! Apportez jusqu’à 20 articles maximum à l’événement pour les troquer !)
4. RENDEZ-VOUS à l’événement, récupérez vos coupons d’échange à l’entrée et commencez à échanger !
(Pour chaque article accepté vous recevez un coupon d’échange qui est valide pour n’importe quel article à l’échange)

APPORTEZ DES JOUETS D’ENFANTS QUI NE SERVENT PLUS
Il y aura aussi une section jeux pour vos enfants! Si vous avez quelques jouets qui ne servent plus, apportez-les! Nous n’offrirons pas de coupons d’échange pour les jouets, mais les enfants seront sans doute heureux de pouvoir jouer avec eux pendant l’échange. Les jouets seront ensuite donnés à Renaissance à la fin de l’événement.

Nous n’acceptons pas : sous-vêtements, couches, maillots de bain ou chaussettes. De même, nous ne donnons pas de coupons d’échange contre des articles déchirés, décolorés, tachés, égratignés, sales, effilés, avec des boutons manquants ou des fermetures éclair brisées ou contre tout autre article usagé ou endommagé. Les articles ne respectant pas nos critères de sélection seront remis à Renaissance et seront recyclés.

DES QUESTIONS?

• Commandites/Partenariats : aleece@theswapteam.org
• Être bénévole lors de cet événement  : volunteer@theswapteam.org
• Foire aux questions :http://theswapteam.org/francais/foire-aux-questions
• Demandes des médias et toutes autres questions :  info@theswapteam.org

On se voit à l’échange!
L’Équipe SWAP

What better way to save some money on kids clothes than to swap them with other moms and dads!

Our first ever Kids POP Swap in partnership with POP Montreal will take place on: Saturday, September 22 from 1PM – 5PM at 51 Bernard Ouest.

Tickets will be $5 in advance (free for kids under 12).

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

1. BUY your ticket (see above)
2. BAG your kids clothing, shoes and/or accessories (age 0-12)
Download, print and fill out this handy label and attach it to every bag of clean and folded clothing you’d like to swap. (Want to know what not to swap? See our laundering policy below.)
3. DROP OFF your clothes BY SEPTEMBER 16 at the Boutique Local 23 on 23 Bernard Ouest (Missed the deadline? No problem! Bring up to 20 items MAX with you to the event to swap!)
4. COME to the event, pick up your exchange coupons at the entrance, and start swapping!
(For every item accepted into the swap you will receive one exchange coupon valid for any other item at the swap)

BRING ALONG YOUR KIDS’ TOYS YOU DON’T NEED ANYMORE 
We will also have an extra play section set up for your kids! If you happen to have some toys you don’t need anymore, please bring them along! We won’t issue exchange coupons for them, but the kids will surely be happy to play with them during the swap. The toys will be donated to Renaissance after the event.

We do not accept for this kids swap: 
Swimwear, underwear, diapers or socks. Likewise, we do not issue exchange tickets for ripped, faded, torn, stained, scratched, dirty, frayed, missing buttons, broken zippers or otherwise worn/damaged items. Items received that fail to meet these standards will be donated to Renaissance for recycling.

Laundering policy strictly enforced 
As a courtesy to fellow swappers, please wash all clothing items you’d like to swap in hot water and dry on high for a minimum of 20 minutes (or: have them dry cleaned and keep them in the original plastic covering with a knot on the bottom). When the laundering cycles are complete, the clean laundry should be placed in new, clear recycling bags and sealed. We inspect everything that comes in and reserve the right to reject any item or bag of clothing that does NOT appear to comply with our policy.

QUESTIONS?
Sponsorship/Partnership: aleece@theswapteam.org
Volunteer at the event: volunteer@theswapteam.org
Frequently asked questions: http://theswapteam.org/faqs
Press inquiries & all other questions: info@theswapteam.org

See you then!

The SWAP Team