2020 - Realisations/2021 - Goals

 As the hell year that was 2020 comes to a close I find myself very inspired to get a whole bunch of sewing done in the new year.  How much I get through is questionable as I will be on a year of maternity leave so finding a balance between parenting, housework and sewing may be hard.  

I also have 2 goals to work on sewing wise this year, they are

1. Increase skills by working on more elaborate and complete pieces

2. Work through stashed fabric and notions

The first goal is logical, we only get better if we challenge ourselves.  The second has a sad but kind of inspiring story attached.

At the beginning of 2020, my mother passed away.  She was young at 66 and it was an unexpected loss.  I won't go into large details but sufficed to say as she was also a sewist and as I am the only relative who is also a sewist, I inherited a large amount of sewing stuff.  It is also probably relevant to point out that we were also both kinda low key hoarders with a special interest in sewing stuff, so stash mountain has turned into stash Everest.

I did let a lot of the stash go, donating to The Sewing Basket or to family friends who were making large numbers of masks given the situation with Covid.  In truth there was no way I could ever consider being able to get through it all.  But there were many many fabrics I kept, so many of them purchased with plans to make things for her grandchildren - a task I will try and complete in this year coming and others fabric she had had for a long time.  Fabric she found and liked and would use one day but never got the chance.  Perhaps the right project never did come up or perhaps it did but what if she lost weight (she was always trying to lose weight) or what if she found something more perfect to use it on.

I think we all have a stash like this, we end up buying fabric specifically for projects rather than using what we have and a lot of what we have could have been used but its like deciding between having your cake and eating your cake.  What I realised in all of this was cake is no good if you don't eat it.  Eating it is its purpose, having it is a waste.  So 2021 needs to be the year I realise the perfect project is the one I have now not the one that may or may not exist in the future.  That silver and grey brocade I have been holding onto for nearly a decade, the vintage fabrics I found at fairs all of it is useless unless I use it.  I don't want to hold onto it and then miss my chance.   

With that all in mind I have started making lists of ideas on what projects I could conquer in 2021 - Assuredly I will not get through all of this but the priority is that each project must meet both goals.  I will list them here in short form so that I can refer back to it when I finish one and move onto another.  Some of these I will expand on in planing posts so that I also have an easy reference place for all my research.  (List is being done in chronological groups)

Please feel free to comment on what projects you think would be most fun or that you would like to see or hear about.

Medieval

• Viking Apron Dress
• Tudor Catherine Parr 
• Italian Renaissance Gown

1700's

• Robe a'la Francaise
• Robe d'Anglaise
• Slytherin Riding Habit
• Chemise a'la Raine

1800's

• Regency Silk Ballgown
• Scarlett's Orange Mill Dress
• Linen Walking Ensemble

1900's

• WW1 Era dress
• 1920's daywear
• WW2 Military Suit

Non Costume Sewing

• Vintage inspired work pieces
• Mums Children's wear
• Baby Bix Baby clothing

Fixes and Finishes on old projects

• Elizabethan Cartridge pleating
• Cursed Green Dress
• Blanket Dress
• Plaid Dress
• Toph's Victorian Coat

Real Life is a Total Time Suck

I know it has been ages since I posted and as the title suggests it is because real life is a time suck.  Since last checking in I have completed two terms of full time uni and full time work and moved back in with my mother.  I have also learnt how to knit (photos to come).




With all that going on there has been little progress in the sewing world.  I have completed the mountain of skirts - to which I now have a husband complaining that I have to many skirts and should make some dresses (honestly he should make up his mind).  Most of my stuff in in storage but that's ok cause I am still trying to get thin enough to fit back into them.  (Worst dieter EVER).  I am also planning my trip to Egypt/Jordan in a few weeks which will be fantastic.




I did manage to make a dress for my friends wedding (photos and post later this week) but mostly all that what I have managed is to purchase more material (that I probably didn't need) and more patterns (that I certainly didn't need).  I am coming to the point where now I need to honestly consider - should I sell off the patterns I don't think I will use?  Then I get that other thought... as soon as one is sold then I will want to make it.  The old adage about having cake and eating it too comes to mind.  I never really understood that one - what good is cake if I can't eat it.  I probably should resell and share the love but I love them all so much (at least I do when it comes to sale thoughts).


In order to get a better handle on sewing I have come up with the idea I am going to try and complete one major sewing project every month.  A pre-planned extravaganza of awesome sewing with no corner cutting allowed. 


Before the trip I may put together some random skits and things like that but once I am back it is all on.  I will post my calendar of sewing projects in a week or so when I have finalised the plans (all subject to change of cause).


Anyway I have 13 weeks off uni so hopefully I can get at least a few posts in here, even with the month away.

It Is Possible I have an Addiction

Today to celebrate the multicultural nature of my great country on it's special day (Australia Day) I made my way to Cabramatta for some Yum Cha and some fabric shopping... of cause.

I hear on various Facebook parenting groups that you only ever regret the children you didn't have.  Well I guess that's how I feel about fabric.  I will only ever regret the fabric I didn't buy.  Having my husband there does help to restrain my tendency to plan 50 outfits in each store and then stock myself ready to make them so instead I came out about $30 poorer than I entered but 10m richer in fabric.

This on top of the Alexander Henry fabric I purchased on Ebay last week means I should be very busily trying to burn through some stash.  So for the record I accept that I have an addiction, but that being said there are far worse ones out there right.

So new to the stash are the following:

So this one is the Alexander Henry that i bought on Ebay, and it is probably my favourite of the new stuff.  I have maybe a meter to a meter and half but its a tall bolt so i don't know if its a skirt of shift dress.  The colours have come out pretty good on this photo its black creamy white and soft brown tones.

 I have two meters of this its a cotton with a slight soft stretch to it.  You can't see here but there is a weave pattern int it.  I got it because my husband is adamant that I have to make more plain skirts so that I have something to wear with my patterned tops.  So this was the choice.  Its not quite as mushroom as the picture an more a very soft brown.

This is poplin, the green is showing more lime than it should be its more acid.  Infact it is the same colour exactly as the green from the hulk outfit in my avengers post.  And the other is black, plain run of the black.  The green will be a dress that I will explain in a later post and the black will be a skirt and maybe a petticoat/petticoat dress (which I should do a post about shortly).  And also cause well when do you ever have enough plain black cotton.

And finally my true addiction three more pattern rayons for skirts. I am very very much addicted to this fabric.  It is light and airy, it is easy to sew, it falls beautifully and is only $4/m.  There was about 10 other patterns I wanted so to only have these three I think shows some awesome restraint.

I still have 3 other skirts to finish plus this three so I better get to the sewing side of things now.

I will update soon on a couple of the projects I am hoping to complete soon including an awesome cape trial and several other skirts.... But first things first.

Is Organisation the key to success?

I have cleaned my sewing room - it isn't entirely perfect yet, but it is much better.  I finally bit the bullet so to speak and accepted that my mess was prohibitive to my creative flow.  I didn't take any before photos but this is basically where I am at now.

I have put my girl dress on Mavis as a goal reminder that i need to get my lard butt up and shrink back into it.  I really do love it.

Patterns are in boxes, and material is all away and now I can start planing my next stash bash.  In that vein I have started to create photo files on my computer in an effort to try and recall when needed all the different fabric packets that I have.  So in my next post I will put up a few matches that I have already made.  More as a reminder to myself of the projects I have to get round too.

My husband is now on my back about how long I think the material I have will last, given that some of the stuff I have is stuff I got at least 5 years ago, I think that I can safely say that his guess of 1 year is rose tinted at best.

To start however I will be making very uninspired but much needed skirts and tops with the multitude of small meterage fabrics I have.  I know it won't burn a lot of meters in my 50m goal but it will get rid of some packages very quickly and truth be told I could use them.

I am still trying to pick a bigger project - I am thinking the double breasted jacket (1960's style) in blue velveteen though it seems like the wrong season.  Perhaps I should look into that this year too - is sewing like gardening - when do you make your winter/summer stuff?

Well it is now late so I will head to bed and catch up later.

Christmas is in the air

So the christmas fabric at spotlight has finally gone on sale and Ange and I are now able to plan our christmas outfits, mostly for the christmas eve party but I guess I will wear mine christmas day as well because hey why not.


I have to say though that christmas fabric is a real rip off, its printed poplin or voille at best and they charge up to $18 a meter for it. Can anyone say Grinch!!!. So anyway weeks ago I found this fabric in Spotlight that is perfect for a christmas Ange which basically means it has a christmas theme and cats. Or as Ange will call them "KITTIES!!!!!!".


I also found the fabric I want which is a more subdued and more voille feeling off white and red and brown robin print, but I did not get a picture of that one so you will have to wait till tomorrow at the earliest and probebly longer cause well thats seems to have been the trend. I will be collecting the material tonight.


I can however say that I plan on using this pattern to make mine.














So there you have it Anges Fabric, my pattern and a suprise for both when we get them finished. Wow only a week to go.

Stash Bust - Now with upated Photos

This post will unfortunately be without images, maybe tonight I will take some and come back and update it with them. (as it appears I did)

Last night as I worked on the "pretty dress" as detailed in the last post I discovered that I was having one of those nights (this discovery came as I pulled the zip bit off the bottom - the sealed bottom- of the zip teeth, thats right I was being so heavy handed I literally pulled the zip apart. Luckly it has been repaired). In any case one "those nights" it is often best I have found NOT to work on projects, however I did want to get some work done with my sewing projects. I was not in a tracing mood, so I decided I must be in a cleaning mood - and so I cleaned.

I sorted out my cottons, my notions, buttons and trims, needles and pins, closures and tools now all sit neatly in their home. Then I moved onto the Black box of cloth mountain, which now looks a little less mountainous, being almost flat to the top of the box.

In doing this I discovered a few materials I had not remembered having. (here is where I really need to take pictures and update, but will see if I get around to it tonight).


I have a chameleon based "Hawaiian" print in blue, green and yellow. The material is some sort of quick dry board short material, though I think I remember planning to make a dress out of it. I think there is either 3m or 5m (which is what i normally buy in) and I think it is 150cm bolt. I am thinking it needs to be a summer beach dress (why waste the quick dry quality) but otherwise I am at a loss design wise. Estimated age 1.5 years.


I have what has been called the "bug material" which is a white eyelet with blue and orange and pink flowers printed on it, as well as green bugs - grasshoppers I think. I have at least 5m of this one and I know the dress I want to make out of it, but I don't have the colour to line it with (thinking orange but could go to other colours I guess) and under the rules of stash bust I don't know if I am allowed to buy it. I am now considering the dying of some white or it may have to wait till after November to be done. Estimated age 2 years.

I have white sateen, which was to be a skirt to wear with an outfit ages ago but I never got round to it and now don't know that I would use a white sateen skirt. I think there is about 1.5m of it maybe 2 if I am lucky on a 150cm bolt, maybe a onsie would be cute. Estimated age 1 year. (Photo not included as I am sure we all know what white looks like)

I have a brown with more mustard brown pin stripes, I remember getting it to make pants as a pirate but the pants when made up were way to small - and now I have about 1m of 150cm bolt left of it just hanging around, it could be shorts, or a vest but there isn't much of it to play with. Estimated age 2.5-3 years.


I have the purple Elvis material, which is abstractly striped with Elvis' head. I have 4m and I know what I want to make out of it, it is even all traced, but I have some issues in that I need to line up the stripes I am not quite sure how I go about doing that. It requires some thought. Estimated age 9mths.

I also have 4 yellow buttons with "I'm a flirt" written on them in purple (talk about impulse buy) lord only knows what I will do with those.

There was many many more bits of fabric that I had forgotten about, Stash busting is turning into an adventure of discovery.

One Fabric - Two Patterns

Long time back, Spotlight had a sale on lots of fabric. I managed to pick up this brilliant blue Micro crepe and I think it cost $3/m which is a huge bargin.

I bought it because it was cheap and it went into the stash for a short time - then I purchased this repro vogue pattern and decided that they were a pair.

The blue looks a lot darker in this picture than it is in actuality.

As with so many of my projects this one got shelved for more fun stuff, less work ready and more interesting in details. Also this dress looked HARD, since then a friend of mine has made it and assures me it is not too hard at all and for a wrap dress does an excellent job of staying shut.

Anyway then I bought a huge batch of actual vintage patterns off Etsy, one of which was this one. I love the soft femininity of this, and thought I could see it with a pretty red belt and my red and white shoes.

The problem is that I only have about 5m of this fabric and I doubt I can do both.

The colour is closer to the second picture but not as bright, kind of between the two I guess. The lighting in my lounge where they were taken is kind of yellow so all fabrics come out funny coloured in my pictures.

So what do you think, which pattern should win the right to my awesome crepe?

Era?

I got this awesome material from Etsy.

As a bit of background I love yellow, it is my most favourite colour in the whole world, and also just about the worst colour I can wear. It makes me look washed out and sickly. As such I am always on the look out to find ways to incorporate yellow into my wardrobe without it being unattractive. My husband on the other hand loves brown. Does not matter what its for, clothing, interior design, anything can be brown and a winner in his books.

So I saw this material which is both yellow and brown and snapped it up all 4+ yards for an awesome $35USD postage included. When it came in I could not be happier, it is light and airy, with a slight sheen and I think absolutely gorgeous. Plus it is vintage, but just what vintage I can't tell. (there will be another post like this going up as soon as I get a picture of the offending fabric).

So if you have any idea or would like to hazard a guess, the seller indicated that it was either 40's or 50's and I want to make the right vintage outfit out of it (no sense wasting vintage fabric on the wrong era).

Hef

FA Meeting

Hi, my name is Hef and I'm a faric-holic.

I have more fabric than a small fabric shop. Buckets and Boxes and Piles of fabric abound my 'sewing' Room. Folded, on Rolls, scrunched into bags, some cut out ready to make something that I have just given up on.... I am surrounded by it, but I can't stop myself from buying more.

I have about 10 shades of black in cotton varieties - from poplin to sateen, not to mention the 75m of white poplin. I have stripes, spots, bugs, checks and plaids. I have reds, greens, pinks, purples, browns, greens.... I even have some strange silver stuff thats kinda shiny/wet looking, 7m of it, and I have no idea why I bought it, it really isn't me.

So in an effort to save my marriage, sanity and money - I will be swearing off buying any fabric for the months of August through to Novemeber. My fabric hording partner if crime, Ange will be joining me in this cold turkey attempt to cure a truely horrible addiction.

THE PLEDGE

1. We will not buy any new fabric between the 1st of August and the 31st October. (though swapping amongst ourselves and others is fine, just can't hand over cash)
2. we will not buy any new patterns between the 1st of August and the 31st October (again we can raid/borrow from each other or from any other kind sewer)
3. gifts need not be knocked back - and if the gift is a certificate to a fabric store then "new" fabric can be acquired.
4. records will be kept of the meterage we manage to clear out of our stashes, as a reminder as to why we should not hoard.
5. yum cha may still be had at cabramatta if we think we are strong enought to just say no.
6. a photo of the stash will be added for the beginning of the challange.
7. any item completed will be blogged with an indication of how long the stash fabric has been laying around.