Once more into the (planning) breach

Happy New Year! …a bit late, I know. I’ve never been that into New Years as a big, important holiday (as evidenced by the lateness of this post), and I’ve never really made resolutions or done a big look back or anything, but (maybe because I’ve been reading everyone’s great year-end posts) it feels right to do a bit of reflection this year.

2011 was a pretty good year for me, I suppose. (11 is my favorite number, after all!) I posted 29 reviews on PatternReview, made several more things that I didn’t review, and wrote up the tutorial for my messenger bag that I’d been thinking about for eons. I also participated in Self-Stitched September, which was a big step for me. It definitely made me want to wear things I’d made all the time! I started the year mostly making big-event type dresses, and ended wanting to spend my sewing time on practical, comfy things I could wear every day (more on that later). Let’s see, the item I’m probably proudest of is the orange polka-dot silk halter dress I made in May for a friend’s wedding (success with silk!), followed closely by my voile maxi birthday dress. The item I’ve probably worn most is my V1224, which I thought when I started it that I wouldn’t like it or wear it at all! And I found a great TNT jersey dress pattern in McCall’s 5893, which I’m excited to make more of this summer. And overall, I’ve basically gone from being somewhat of a shopaholic to not being interested in clothes shopping at all. Of course, it’s been replaced with fabric shopping… but I am glad to be not buying so many RTW clothes. And, not to forget, I started this blog!

In non-sewing matters, my biggest achievement in 2011 was probably cycling. A year ago this week I bought my fancy road bike, and since then I’ve ridden over 3,000 miles! I’ve gotten so much more fit than I’ve ever been in my life, and discovered the exhilaration of coasting at top speed down a mountain that I’ve just ridden up. In July I rode my first half-century (50 miles), and just a few weeks ago I rode the most difficult route in our area (with 4,700 feet of elevation gain), and now I feel like I can do anything! I’m hoping to do more organized rides this year, and maybe even a full century (100 miles)… and also to sew a bike jersey or two. Hobby merging!

And now for my future sewing plans. The other day I sat down on the floor surrounded by my stash and put together a bunch of patterns and fabrics, then laid them all out on the table:

Yeah, so that’s probably not going to happen. I won’t go through all the patterns in detail, but I will say there are a lot of knits and everyday sorts of things, something I learned from my fall sewing that I needed. I also would like to participate in Tasia’s Minoru Sewalong (I’ll be attempting it in buffalo check nylon, I think). Also, a lot of these fabrics are from pretty deep in the stash, so I’ll be entering some things in the PatternReview stash contest (though I have no chance of winning – some people are going to sew up like 25 yards, I think! Crazy). But it’ll be good to get to some of these fabrics at last.

So here we go with 2012… I’ve already completed a couple things I’ll post about soon, and now I’m going to start cutting frantically and see what I can get done next!

 

Crafting Christmasily

With the Christmas season actually here (by which I mean it’s December – I am resoundingly not an early holiday-season-starter), I’m trying to kickstart my gift making. To that end, I’ve joined the Crafty Christmas Club (founded by the lovely Tilly). There’s tons of great inspiration over there for your gift-making from loads of talented sewists. I’ve just shared my messenger bag tutorial, and I intend to post the other gifts I make there too. Some of them I’ll also post here (if it’s a gift for someone who doesn’t read my blog), but others I’ll just put up over there, so no peeking! (I’m looking at you, mom.)

I tend to work faster with a deadline (and this “Christmas Day” deadline is pretty firm), so hopefully I’ll be able to get all the gifts I’ve got planned done in time! It wouldn’t be the holidays without feeling rushed, right?

The last thing I need…

Despite already having nine eight projects in my fall sewing queue, I was enticed as usual by the JoAnn pattern sales this week… it’s not like they don’t put the patterns on sale pretty much constantly, but for some reason I feel like I need to stock up on patterns every time a sale happens, even if I know I’m not going to get around to making it up for eons. I justify it by saying you never know when a pattern’s going to go out of print, but really I just like shiny new patterns and the planning possibilities they entail. Anyway, here’s the most recent haul (click on image for pattern info):

                          

I really would like to get to most of these this fall/winter – particularly B5649, the jean skirt style version (which I need in khaki to replace a RTW skirt that just ripped), and B5672, the cute side pleat double knit dress everyone’s making and making me envious with.  I don’t currently have fabric for either of those, but I do have fabric for M6069 (the double cowl dress) and B5685 (the big-lapel coat). The dress I think I can whip out pretty fast, but the coat will be a more serious undertaking, as I haven’t attempted any coat-like-object thus far. The Simplicity coat is more of a far-off-dream, purchased because I love it and want a green wool coat just like the picture, but it’ll only happen if for some reason I end up being a total whiz at coats (I am not anticipating this being the case). Finally, the knit cardigan is a pattern I’ve been eyeing for a while but our JoAnn persisted in not having my size in the pattern during the last two McCall’s sales.  Can’t have too many cardigans (they’re what we wear in California instead of coats when it gets “cold”, aka in the 50s, in December).

So as usual, my eyes are bigger than my stomach (wait – is that the colloquialism?), but I just can’t resist the promise of more fun stuff to make!

It’s Fall! Time for overly ambitious sewing plans!

Okay, it’s totally fall.  The air is crisp, there’s been some rain, and I’m okay with wearing things with sleeves.  I’m actually getting excited – I do like fall (it’s my birthday season, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays) – so the other day I pulled out a bunch of patterns and fabrics from the stash and laid out my fall sewing plans:

Oh boy. Yes, that is nine projects.  Many of them are things I intended to make last year, but winter and spring came too fast and I abandoned them into the stash.  But this year I’m thinking ahead (um, if early October is ahead… luckily the weather here is basically fall-like until January), and I’m going to take a stab at making all this stuff! So clockwise from top left we have:

• Butterick 5454 in a brown border print slinky-y jersey from Mood in LA. I actually bought this fabric with a DVF wrap dress style in mind, but no particular pattern.  I attached this pattern to it last winter, but never got around to it.  I think it’ll be a great work dress… I hope I have enough fabric!
• Simplicity 2497 in green poly shantung from JoAnn, currently in progress and the cause of the furry foot yesterday. I wasn’t going to make this the first project, but I realised a few days ago that I have a dressy work event on Saturday (as in the day-after-tomorrow!) that it would be good for… we’ll see if I can get it done; I’m about halfway now but waiting for disaster to strike.
• McCall’s 5927 in awesome red and gray plaid from The Sew Weekly‘s Mena.  I’m less excited about the pattern than the fabric; I’m still not sure if this sheath dress is what it wants to become.
• Simplicity 2343 in brown stretch twill.  Pencil skirt with pockets; need I say more?
• Simplicity 2447 in turquoise/orange plaid from fabric.com. I got this fabric too late last year to make this shirt – it’s such a fall item to me.  I’m hoping to have it done by Halloween so I can go as Liz Lemon.
• Colette Beignet in orange denim from JoAnn. I was going to make the Beignet in the brown twill, but I’ve seen so many great bright colored versions of this skirt and I wanted to give it a try, and I bought this orange fabric on a whim the other day (they get you with those 50% off coupons!). I hope the buttonholes aren’t too impossible on the thick fabric.
• McCall’s 6035 in green poplin with a cool woven dot pattern. Having been assured by my mom that button-up shirts are “easy”, I’m going to give it a try with this basic pattern.
• Simplicity 2443 (jacket) in gray baby corduroy. This will be my first attempt at a jacket; we’ll see if all the little fiddly bits make me go crazy. I like this style (lightweight, cropped length/sleeves) for fall.
• Simplicity 2758 in wool plaid with navy lining. I got this fabric to make a circle skirt last fall, but again didn’t get around to it.  I’m going to make it now, though, for sure – I hope these full plaid skirts are still in style!

Whew! So that’s what I’ve got so far.  As far as project order, the jacket and the skirts are highest on the list, but I’m just going to see what I feel like doing next after I finish one. I’ve got a few more patterns that don’t have fabric and vice versa floating around, but I’m going to try to get these things done so they don’t languish in the stash until next fall! We’ll see how I do – right now I’ve got 1 or 2 hours a night plus Mondays for sewing, but my work schedule will lighten up a bit around Thanksgiving.  But by then I’ll want to be doing winter sewing!

Here goes…

So why am I starting this blog now, in the last week of August, and not at just some random time?

The self-stitched months have been some of my favorite in the sewing blogosphere (yes, I did just use that word). I love seeing everyone wearing their creations in everyday life, and I’ve been wanting to join in for a while, but I’ve not felt like I had enough self-made items to get me through a month.  I think this one is it, though, and it will motivate me to post a lot in the first real month of this blog. And hopefully get me better at the whole self-photography thing. It’ll also let me share all the things I’ve made in the last year and a half!

I have actually made over 30 items, so technically I could do the month with no repeats, but unfortunately many of my items are fancy dresses that I would feel odd wearing for just a normal work day.  I already know I need to make more everyday items and basics, but we all know those just aren’t as exciting to sew… Adding another fun element to the self-stiched month is the fact that my husband and I are planning a trip to Hawaii in the third week of September, so I’ll be packing an entirely self-stitched-suitcase! I’ll be trying to knock out a few more summery items for the trip in the next two weeks, rather than starting much more sensible fall projects. Because our weather has been so terrible this summer (as in, this is the only place in the country that was not super hot, but instead overcast every day and not warm), I haven’t really gotten summer dresses out of my system yet!

So, anyway, here goes:

I, Aleah of no time to sew, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept ’11. I endeavour to wear at least one self-made item each day for the duration of September 2011′

Let the alliterative fun begin!