I’ve made up the schedule for the Comox Trunks Sew-Along and also a page on our blog side bar where you will be able to access all the posts indefinitely. Even though the Comox Trunks take very little time to sew, I’ve stretched out the posts to include no more than half an hour of sewing per post so that new or busy sewers won’t be intimidated. I hope these dates work for you and that you are looking forward to joining us!
- April 4th: Choosing your fabric and elastic
- April 6th: Picking a size and ideas for customizing (lengthen the legs, enlarge the front cup, create narrower legs, or remove the right exit fly)
- April 8th: Cutting out your fabric and preparing your machine
- April 1oth: Sewing the trunks front
- April 12th: Sewing the trunks back
- April 14th: Hemming the trunks
- April 16th: Attaching the elastic waistband (or adding a fabric covered waistband) – We’re done!
- April 18th: Joke post – Photographing your Comox Trunks sans sexy model
- May 5th: Deadline to submit a photo of your finished Comox Trunks
- May 8th: Winner of Comox Trunks Prize Pack announced and a parade of the finished trunks!
I went fabric shopping today for your prize pack at our newest retailer (and also my local fabric store), the Courtenay Fabricland! So much fun! I played around with all sorts of potential fabrics to get a great summery/Canadian theme going and to provide as much variety as possible. I have gathered together a pretty awesome prize pack – if I do say so myself – to equip the winner with everything they need to make a whole underwear drawer worth of Comox Trunks.
Fabric, from left to right is as follows: Our grey bamboo/cotton jersey from the Comox Trunks supplies kit, a thicker cotton/spandex t-shirt knit in a nautical navy stripe, a medium weight t-knit red jersey in combed cotton/spandex, and lastly, a novelty maple leaf interlock (spreading the Canadian pride!).
I’ve also included a really nice selection of elastics for the winner to test out – a length of our black elastic from the Supplies Kit plus two colours of plush elastic (super soft on both sides) that are comprised of cotton, polyester and rubber. I love the grey version and only realized once I had claimed it that I had taken the last of the roll from an employee’s wish-list pile!
Added to this pile are two Dylon fabric dyes in case you want to experiment with dying elastic or some of your own knits. One of the employees told me that she thought any elastic with a cotton content had a chance of taking on colour, even if it also contains polyester – imagine the possibilities with the white elastic! Plus you get 10 Thread Theory garment tags to give your trunks a polished look.
And of course, you could not have a complete Comox Trunk Sewing Prize Pack without some ball point needles and a twin needle.
To enter our Comox Trunks Sew-Along contest for a chance to win this prize, all you need to do is comment on our final sew along post (the joke post called: How to photograph your Comox Trunks sans sexy model) with a link to a photo of your finished trunks by May 5th. Your photo could be on your blog, Flickr, Facebook, Pinterest or any other accessible online location. The winner will be picked using a random number generator and announced on May 8th. Good luck!
Thread Theory 
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April 13, 2014 at 12:52 am
Reblogged this on I'd rather sew… and commented:
I never make anything for my husband. So I’ve added this to n my to do list (ordered my elastic aready):
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April 3, 2014 at 7:58 am
Awesome! I linked your sew along up here, so hopefully more will join in: http://swoodsonsays.com/sew-a-long-calendar/
April 4, 2014 at 8:30 am
Thank you! Wow, I can’t believe how many events are going on this month. Your calendar is a great reference for haphazard blog followers like me 🙂 I’m always missing announcements!
April 2, 2014 at 4:55 pm
I’m so excited to sew along! That canadian fabric?! And the plush elastic?! What a dream prize package. I’ll be using something much less exciting: scraps from my stash ; )
April 4, 2014 at 8:31 am
Good job stash-busting 🙂 I look forward to seeing your trunks!
April 2, 2014 at 7:56 am
Another panicked question – twin needle a must? my machine can’t take them (as far as i can tell!) 😦
April 2, 2014 at 8:10 am
Not at all a must! In fact I almost never use them because I actually like how the zig zag looks (and I’m often too lazy to change needles lol). The instructions describe when you can use the twin needle but they also give the option to use a zig zag for the hem and to attach the elastic. By the way, a twin needle should fit in most machines because the two needles are joined with a cross bar and attached to a single post that you insert into the machine just as you would a normal needle – I bet it will work for yours if you decide to give it a try!
April 4, 2014 at 8:03 am
oops must’ve missed this!
Thanks once again! I was hoping you’d say zig-zag would work – i used it on a test fit tshirt a while back and it worked more or less – hopefully this project is going to force me to like working with jersey (stretch is evil ¬_¬)
and while i know the needle will fit – [simpletonQuestion]doesn’t my machine need to have the capacity to hold 2 spools? [/simpletonQuestion]
April 4, 2014 at 8:28 am
Lol not a simpleton question at all…I remember a time not at all long ago (*hint* when I was sewing the Comox Trunk samples lol) when the same question went through my head. My machine has two thread holder posts but every time I tried to use them for the twin needle function, my threads would get all snarled together. In the end, I decided to use a serger spool of thread on the table behind my machine and a normal spool on the thread holder post. It works fairly well (it still gets snarled sometimes but I think this is all due to my little domestic’s REALLY faulty tension disks).
April 2, 2014 at 7:14 am
Hooray, perfect scheduling!! I can’t wait to get sewing 🙂
April 1, 2014 at 8:31 pm
Oh, rad! That maple leaf knit would make a great present for my brother who’s been living in Toronto for the last year, the traitor!
April 2, 2014 at 8:27 am
Nice! That fabric would be very fitting 🙂 I was a little worried people would think it was too ‘out there’ for trunks but it looks like I had nothing to worry about. I am using a length of it for the serger version of the sew-along and was toying with the idea of choosing a pattern placement that would result in a leaf right at CF…in the end I did a random placement but it would be pretty cute (ahem, I mean handsome) if someone tried that.
April 1, 2014 at 6:56 pm
Wow, what a generous gift package! How fun! I just finished my husband’s Comox trunks yesterday, and they fit great. He’s on the fence about modeling, so perhaps I can guilt him into it by telling him it’ll improve my chances of winning the contest prize! 😉
April 2, 2014 at 8:25 am
Great! I look forward to seeing them! Maybe if you tell him that my father-in-law and his friend are planning to model the trunks he will feel less intimidated by our varsity basketball models and feel the peer pressure 😛