Since I’m
half way through the year, and I set myself 52 sewing projects at the beginning
of the year, it seems like an appropriate time to review those projects and see
just how realistic 52 projects was:
I have
completed a fair number of them;
1. Small case
for travelling medication
2. I Pod case
4. Black and
Yellow Bikini – done and blogged
5. Re-trimming a
straw hat – done and
blogged
9. Black and
grey polo shirt for special person (I was the special person). It wasn't actually a polo shirt, but it used the grey and black fabric so I'm counting it as project 9
16. Black and
white checked skirt with arch shaped godets and red piping - done and blogged
13. Grey and
Black Jacket - done and blogged
20. Red Lycra mock
wrap top – done and blogged
21. Blue, black
and white Lycra dress – done, blogged and worn on numerous occasions.
8. Purple and grey
dress - done, blogged and worn
51. Red ¾ Jeans -
done and learnt from
25. Grey crinkle
Maxi dress with embellishments – re-examined this fabric and decided
that I really don’t like it, but I do have a grey speckled jersey that made a very
wearable and useful dress, so I substituted that fabrics for this project
48. New York
cushion for the living room - done, but probably not interesting enough for a blog post. It's a rectangle with a zip.
10. New cover for
my deck lounger -done just before the warm weather broke, so It’s been sitting
under cover ever since.
3. Brown Print
Maxi Dress - I sewed this one, and it appeared briefly in the corner of my
re-branded studio.
Unfortunately very
soon after this my daughter had a rather nasty accident and was left with
(hopefully) temporary scarring on both legs.
Although she’s not a maxi dress person, she was desperate for clothes
that would hide her legs for the rest of the summer but found jeans
uncomfortable. With this in mind I
allowed her free range on my wardrobe and I haven’t seen the dress since.
...and a
number that are in progress
6. Patchwork
quilts – following a Craftsy course plus a few made up blocks – I’ve made good progress on this one, having
put together 25 blocks, sashed them and started quilting.
45. Pale Green
laptop bag - started, but sort of ground to a halt
11. Barrel shaped
saddle bag for my bike I’ve started this using the left over fabric from
project 10.
52. Grape
coloured Jeans - wearable muslin completed
22. Grape
“Couture” dress - I’ve started on a calico muslin for this dress, as per Susan Khalje’s instructions
...and some
I’ve had second thoughts about;
47. ‘Purple
seahorse appliquéd cushion for my bedroom – sort of lost all enthusiasm for
this idea after deciding that it was time I had a “grown-up bedroom, although
I’ll probably create some sort of cushion for my bed.
49. Pink and
silver blouse - I have revisited this fabric and can’t imagine what possessed
me to think I would ever use it. I’ll
write this one off as abandoned
26. Candy Striped
dress – jury’s out on this one. It is
possible that I was having some kind of pre-menopausal hallucination when I
really thought that I would be able to wear candy stripes at my age. It’s on the back burner until the spring when
I will re-visit the idea.
30. Green Peplum
Dress – I’ve tried a few RTW peplum dresses on, so I’ll have to re-think this
one. I’ve mentioned before how fabric
talks to me – well this dress talked to everyone else! “Look at these HIPS! Look at that BUM!”. I’d still like to do a green dress, but I
think I need to avoid the peplum trend.
44. Chambray
short/culottes – I managed to spill coffee all over this fabric, and washing
didn’t improve it a great deal. Not
wanting to buy more fabric I’ll probably abandon this project, although I’m
really keen on trying the Tania culottes’ pattern, so I may substitute the
chambray for something more “girly” and floaty and just consider this project
re-branded as XXXXX shorts.
Of
course, the vast majority are still sitting in my studio patiently waiting to
get sewn:
37. Black and
Blue striped dress – I’d probably like to make this up in the same fabric as
the grape dress that I’m doing for the couture dress class, but I’ll re-visit
that idea after I’ve finished project 22.
50. White
Flowered jeans
35. Red white and
blue striped shirt
38. Black and white
Corset dress
39. Graduated
dyed dress (originally white)
12. Bucket bag to
fit into my bike basket
46. Quilted dust
cover for my overlocker
17. Pink and
black hounds tooth bias cut skirt – I’ve not made any progress on the skirt,
but I have made a jacket to go with it.
36. Blue and white striped shirt (for undetermined
male) – probably for me now as I’ve reviewing my career and am hoping that I’ll
need a couple more corporate looking shirts in the near future
7. Tote bag for
pattern making classes
23. Olive Green
Short sleeved Jacket
24. Olive green
tailored skirt
15. Pink and
brown tweed skirt
27. Blue Lacy
cardi/wrap
28. Black Merino
Cardigan
29. Black Merino
T shirt
31. Green and
cream silk skirt
32. Brown Tencel
Shirt
33. Blue and
Green Striped skirt
14. White Leather
Hat
18. Short sleeved
black and white checked jacket
19. Red Silk
Shirt
40. White
flowered sleeveless blouse
41. Bottle Green
Tailored Pants
42. White slashed
shoulder blouse
43. Teal Crinkle
dress
34. Blue, black
and white dress
When I put the add up it doesn’t look too impressive... out of the
52 I’ve sewn a rather pathetic 15 with another 5 in progress. There are 5 that I’ve had second thoughts
about but there are still 27 projects that are in the waiting pile. That’s over half not done. I need to focus on these, as they are all projects that I am still keen to sew.
I have also completed a few bits and pieces that were not on the list,
like the kitchen accessories for the gift stash the gecko T shirt that I made
to wear with project 16, and the pink and black hounds tooth jacket that I did
for the Burda Sew-a-long.
I was on Skype with my Mum in Australia and she admired the kitchen accessories, although she did say that they wouldn't go with her royal blue kitchen. Since the set uses both the embroidery machine and the bias tape machine (both gifts from her) I made her a Royal blue set:
I actually enjoyed making these for Mum. I'm just about getting used to giving handmade gifts and immediately clicked with Caroline's post on making gifts as I was making these oven mitts. It was an opportunity to think positively about our relationship.
A friend popped over with a bottle of wine recently and challenged me to a game of chess. I discovered that, although I had ended up with the chess pieces when my ex and I separated, he got the chess board. I know I could have bought one, but I had black and white calico in my stash so I decided to sew a chess board because... well because I can. It's a simple checked pattern with a very thin woollen batting so the quilt is quite flat and the pieces don't fall over.
I also made a flag. I am currently babysitting a boat for a friend who is overseas. He lived in a rural area close to the beach so never bothered with a flag since he didn't drive very far while towing the boat. He was quite happy for me to use the boat, but for driving through the city I was told I needed a flag to attach to the motor because it protrudes more than a metre behind the main chassis of the trailer. I did a little research on this flag and it appears that there are no specific rules about it. In fact, I've seen people tying an old rag onto the back to meet this requirement. Needless to say, I figured I could do a lot better than that!
The yellow linen was a small piece from from my $1 stash, as was the print that I used for the appliqued letter and the binding.
The result is a flag that is visible and noticeable, but it also is very "me". I have had a few amused comments about the flag from other divers and boaters, but to those who know me it is a signature piece, advertising me and my tendency to sew anything that I can. As I say, I don't do ready-to-wear so why should the boat!
Do all sewers become known as sewers, or are other people more discrete about there craftiness?
