April month-in-review

This really does look like a super-productive month, since I tend to count stash on the months I finish the project vs. when I cut it! So let's just jump right to the fun stuff, shall we?

Projects Finished This Month: 
8 total. Unless I count the diapers individually. Then it's closer to 80. But that's cheating, isn't it? First up, the unblogged things.
As seen on Instagram: I did take another cute-but-stained PJ set that I was given for free, plus a boring snap-front newborn tee, and did this. The applique was hand-stitched on, just like the frog one I did last month, and as a bonus, this reads completely gender-neutral to me. Which means it's definitely something I can recycle for any future siblings. I also had a decent-sized piece of unstained fabric, so I used this tutorial/pattern to whip out a quick hat. I did have to cut one piece with a seam in the back,  but it still worked up really fast. (The snail was the other part of the original applique. It was there, so why not use it?)

Next up: Several weeks back, I was looking for maternity/baby clothes at the thrift store, and stumbled across a bin of K'Nex for a really great price. Since then, Doug and I have gotten in the habit of checking every few weekends for any more good toy finds. One week, I found a bag of wooden blocks, which just seems like one of those staple toys that every kid should have. But they needed containment. So I took a piece of stash cotton and made a bag for them. I think this was one of my mom's dyeing-for-quilts experiments that she wasn't totally happy with, and I just wanted to use a piece that I didn't really care what I used it for. Honestly, I made this more complicated than I needed to--I realized about halfway through inserting the drawstring that oh, wait, I have to think about choking hazards now! So then I had to completely wing it with a zipper in my stash that wasn't quite the right color, but oh well. I know this bag is kind of huge for the amount of blocks that we have, but I figured that it would make it easy to add any more that we might acquire. (I mean, I don't even have the whole alphabet here!)

My most recent sewing project was a nursing cover. Not to say that women shouldn't have the right to breastfeed when and where they need to or anything--I just know that I'll personally be more comfortable if I'm able to stay covered up when I have to feed him outside of the house. Besides, I've had this particular quilt cotton for years, and I'm happy that I finally found a way to use some of it. I actually had this in the stash and wanted to use it for the leaf quilt I made several years ago, but it was just a little too busy of a print to really work. I still have about half of the piece left, so I'll just need to figure out what to do with it. But this was a really fast/easy project to make-- just a rectangle with a casing for a piece of boning, another two rectangles for the strap, a couple d-rings, hemming, and done. Ideally, I would have used d-rings that were a little thinner/lighter, but this is what I had in the stash, so I went with it. If it really bugs me in the long run, I can always perform a little seam ripper magic later and replace them.

I also finished off a stack of cloth wipes to use with the diapers. But I can't really count that as stashbusting, since my mom cut up a bunch of flannel that she had and all I had to do was serge the edges. Honestly, this isn't even exciting enough to take a picture of, but at least it's done.

Stashbusting totals for the month:

Stash out, not counting the 3 reconstructed projects:

• For the diapers: 31.25 yards total of PUL, athletic mesh, and cotton fleece (!)
• Maternity/nursing maxi-dress: 3 yards of knit
• Storage bag for blocks: .5 yard of hand-dyed cotton
• Nursing cover: 1 yard of quilt cotton

Total:  35.75 yards out, plus a few scraps for the Star Wars shirt. Woohoo!

Stash in:

• 2 yards of an Aztec-print knit. I was out running errands with Doug one day, we stumbled across a sewing machine store, and he suggested we head in and see if we could find me some new fabric. Who am I to say no? The selection was pretty small, but since I've been burning through all of my print knits in making maternity clothes, I figured I could allow myself this little splurge.  
• My parents moved into a new house this month, and my mom handed off a couple of pieces of fabric that she thought might be more useful for me in making future boy clothes than her for quilting. So I got a little over 1 yard of a reversible blue fleece (brighter blue on one side, more royal on the other), and 8 yards of a plain black twill (but only 19.5" wide!) that she had left over from a couple of non-quilt projects.  The twill will probably have to get used up for pants and shorts, but at least kid clothes are small and skinny. At least at first.

Total: 11.25(ish) yards in, but that's still a total of 24.5 yards less than I started the month with.  For the year so far, my spreadsheet is saying that I have just over 336 yards, but I've used about 63 1/2 up. Which is really good for the first third of the year, especially since 3 yards is the most I can usually burn on one project!

May Goals:
I did touch on this in last month's review.  At this point, I've reviewed the list, and pared it down based on what I didn't get done this month and think is most important. So here's what I'm hoping to do:

• I'd still like to make that changing mat. I think that will be the next project.
• I found instructions for how to make a baby gym on Pinterest. This wasn't something I was originally planning on for baby gear, because those things are ridiculously expensive and bulky. But since this one snaps apart and would be really easy to set up/store, I have a large piece of a certain quilt cotton that would be perfect for this, and I have a ready supply of adorable felt things that would be perfect to hang from it (extras from some shower favors that my mom made--all animals to go along with various books), I'd like to give this one a shot.
• I have curtains for the nursery, but I need to sew the blackout layer into the colored layer, because they're way too sheer to keep light out for when he's napping. The curtains need to be shortened anyway. So this should be a quick project, it's just a case of doing it.
• And I still need to do a lot more cooking. Though I've actually made a pretty good dent on recipes I'd planned for dinners--I think I have 3 more recipes to make for that, and then what I'd planned for lunches. And breakfast, if there's still room in the freezer.

Finally, a quick little update on how those sewing lessons are going! The girl is doing very well. We took a little bit of a break around Easter due to her family going on vacation, but since then, she's finished up the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch. We spent most of that day's lesson working on invisible zipper insertion, and she did a very nice job for her first try! (Not perfect, and I did have to do a little unpicking for her at the bottom to fix where something got caught, but the end result doesn't have that annoying bubble that invisible zippers sometimes get at the bottom.) She finished the skirt on her own after her last lesson, and I'm not sure what she wants to work on next--I'm letting her pick the projects after the bag we made first, because of course it's more fun if you sew things you want to make. Guess I'll find out on Monday, so here's hoping I'm sufficiently prepared!

They're finally done!!

My biggest baby-sewing project, that is: the diapers. I really doubt this is the sort of thing most people reading this would be sewing, so feel free to skip this post if you think it'll bore you. But given that this was a 2-person, 4-month job, the end is definitely worth celebrating!

Also, I'd like to give a shoutout to my mom--I know she reads this blog when she can, and I literally could not have done this and finished with this much time to spare without all of her help. My sanity would not be very intact either, for that matter. So thanks, Mom!!!

So...this is what 72 cloth diapers plus inserts look like, at least as far as I could fit them into the picture. There's 24 apiece of three different sizes: newborn, small and medium, because according to the pattern, these three sizes should fit him all the way from 8.5 to 35 pounds. Worst case scenario, if Hobbit is a fast grower, I may have to make a batch of larges sometime, but now that I know the process, hopefully one set would go fast. I also went for prints/colors that I considered to be fun-but-gender-neutral, since we started this process before I knew he's a boy, and ideally, these will hold up well enough that I can use them again for any sibling he might get down the road. But even if they don't, I think the money savings on using them with one child will make this effort worthwhile!

The pattern we used is called Darling Diapers Unlimited. The nice thing about this pattern is that you can use it to make pretty much any type of fitted cloth diaper that you want. The not-so-nice thing about this pattern is that it makes the directions ridiculously confusing to follow. I ended up making two different styles, and literally went through the directions to re-write out a step-by-step guide for Mom and I to follow, only using the printed directions as a reference point after that.

For all of the diapers, I used poly-urethane laminate for the outside, a softer athletic mesh for the inside layer, and cotton fleece for the "soaker" layers. I was able to get the mesh from Joann's, but I got everything else from Diaper Sewing Supplies. The quality of their snaps and elastic sounded a lot better than the Babyville Boutique stuff I could get at Joann's, and I liked that the company aims to supply quality American-made products in an eco-friendly manner (including their PUL manufacturing). Also, frankly, they have a much bigger variety of prints and they're way more fun!

A little more detail on the two styles...

Left side: Unfolded. Right side: Folded and velcroed closed.

The newborns are basically what you'd consider an "all-in-one" diaper. I did have to wing it a bit on the padding, because I'd already cut everything as rectangles to fold into thirds before I realized that the stuff-the-pocket type wasn't even listed as an option for this size, due to how tiny they are. So I added a layer of the athletic mesh on one third of the soaker for softness, and then sewed them into the back. Since they're still mostly detached, I'm hoping this will help them dry faster. I also ended up stitching a little extra fleece underneath in the backside region--hopefully it's not too TMI to say that the soaker ended up being narrow enough that I was nervous about things being contained back there without a little extra width. Ahem. I used velcro for the closure, to make it easier to handle the diaper changes while we're first learning to do this, and did the scooped front option so that it wouldn't rub against his belly button while that's still healing over.

Clockwise from top left: Unstuffed, the liner, and stuffed.

For the small and medium sizes, I did more of a "pocket diaper" for ease of cleaning and especially speed of drying. So all of the soaker layers are the tri-fold rectangles, and can be pulled out for washing. I also decided to do snaps instead of velcro for these two sizes--I figured those would stay on a little better once he starts getting mobile, and also be less likely to pick up all of the dog hair that seems to accumulate around here. That, and since these heavy-duty plastic snaps don't separate quite as easily as the usual metal sewing ones I've used in the past, hopefully that will keep him from succeeding in taking them off himself! Here's hoping that I can keep the two sizes straight, since the solid blue/green and the TARDIS print were used for both of them, and I figured I was spending enough and therefore didn't get size labels.

The stashbusting total: a whopping 31.25 yards! Granted, I did buy all of these fabrics specifically for this project. I did have to buy an extra yard of the athletic mesh, though that got used up. I bought a little extra plain PUL from Joann's to help reinforce snaps once I ran out of scraps, and still have maybe a yard of that left, but I purposely bought extra so I can make a changing pad for the diaper bag. (Hopefully that will happen soon.) And since the rectangular soakers took less fabric than I thought, I have nearly 2 yards of the cotton fleece left over. It's got a pretty rough texture on the outside, so I don't think it'll make a good sweatshirt or anything like that. But I have some ideas for non-clothes things I can use it for, if I don't end up needing to make a set of large-sized diapers.  

And since the whole point of this undertaking was to save us money long-term, here's the breakdown: I ended up paying a total of around $350 for all of the supplies, which translates to less than $5 per diaper. It looks like the absolute best I can do buying the cloth ones new is around $6.67 apiece. I got this price off of a 6-pack on Amazon, and those are ones that have a bajillion snaps so you can try to make the same diaper fit the kid as he/she grows. Definitely cheaper, but I wasn't sure how well they'd hold up from all of the washing. If I was getting the more sized ones like I made, it would be at least around $18 apiece. Which means I would have only gotten about 19 diapers for the same cost.

On the flip side, I did a little googling, and according to Mint.com, the average cost of 1 year of disposables is around $800. I know I'll have to occasionally use the disposables for instances like church nursery/if Doug's mom is babysitting for us, since I really can't see her wanting to deal with these. (My mom is totally on board, though.) Even so, aside from the cost of detergent and my time in carting the laundry around/getting loads started and put away, using these as my primary means of diapering should pay for itself in less than 6 months. Which means more money for fabric, right?

administrative details

Just two quick things today:

1. Since the sidebar widget I had for my finished projects hasn't let me add anything to the list since May (really, Blogger?!), I finally got fed up and reworked the page for what's in my closet to take care of that. It's just a big link list now, since trying to figure out how to add that many pictures would take forever, given that this is on the older side for sewing blogs. But I did at least organize it between what's in my closet/what isn't in my closet anymore/stuff I made for other people/etc.

Incidentally, I'm kind of surprised at how old certain items in my closet are now. Like that black military jacket I made back in 2006--whaaaat? I guess that explains why the lining is tearing. I'm also wondering how many of those current closet residents will get to stay around post-baby, but I guess it's too early to worry about that.

2. Since I ended up with significantly more yardage than I started last year with, and the Facebook group is really fun, I'm doing the Stashbusting Sewalong again. With all new themes and a bunch of new hosts! I didn't volunteer to host a month because, you know, baby stuff, but best of luck to all you ladies who are participating! So here's my pledge for this year, which I kept really simple:

I, Becky, will endeavor to end 2015 with less yarn and fabric than I started this year with, and to only buy notions as needed for specific projects.  I shall also try to limit the number of new patterns I buy for myself this year. 

To avoid stressing myself out, I purposely am not doing a number of yards/pieces of fabric type pledge this year, since I have no idea what sort of wrenches being pregnant and having a newborn will continue to throw into my sewing. And I did also specify limiting patterns for myself, because I'm sure I'm going to want to start collecting a few kids' patterns. I do have a few from things I've made for friends before, and whatever's in my Burda magazines, but not a whole lot to pick from in my pre-existing stash. If Hobbit cooperates, we should see if we're having a boy or a girl in less than two weeks, which I'm getting quite excited to find out!

And with that, I guess I'd better finish practicing my flute so I have a shot at actually cutting something out today. Yeah.

The last little unblogged bits of 2014

The good news is, I think I'm finally starting to get better. The constant nausea is going away, at least, but it's kind of hard to tell--just when that started letting up, I got slammed with a virus 2 days before Christmas! The doctor at the clinic called it "flu-like", and while I wasn't actually having stomach issues from it, I did have to spend the next 3 or so days fighting off fevers. Since then, it's just felt like a nasty cold. And hopefully without going TMI, when I'm really stuffed up, I easily get nauseous anyway. So I still haven't had a nausea-free day, but I'm hopeful that it's coming soon. At least I'm slowly able to start expanding my diet again--I can actually drink water and a little tea now, and I've been eating fruit in the form of smoothies. I may even be able to start cooking dinner again soon, and while I know that takes up time, when you've been living off of chicken noodle soup and cheerios for a few months, that's pretty exciting!

All that to say, I wasn't able to do much sewing for those first couple of days after I finished up at my retail job. Because that ended the day before I got sick, and I was feeling so progressively lousy that day that I couldn't even finish cutting out one of the projects I do have to show. But I did get that done on Monday, and then sewn up yesterday.

I'm going to start with some knitting today, since I recently finished this fairly quick project. The pattern is called "Magic Hat", and it's supposed to be so stretchy that it can fit a variety of sizes. I used some leftover bamboo-blend yarn that I already had, and knit this up in the 4-12 month size, since Hobbit will probably be about 5-6 months old when he or she will need a winter hat. I also didn't quite use up all of the yarn, and I'm rather tempted to see if I have enough left to add some Yoda ears! But the yarn is so drapey, I'm kind of afraid it wouldn't work.

The hat looks a little cone-head on the table, so I had to improvise on a model. My parents gave us a few Christmas presents for the baby, including this little stuffed German shepherd. So its ears seemed to be enough to make the approximate shape. Cute, right?







I do have a little sewing to show. I stitched up this first one back at Thanksgiving, but never posted it here. Just a quick refashion--my mom was getting rid of some unwanted pants, so I picked the zipper out of these corduroys, scooped out the front and stitched up what was left of the fly, and then added this stretchy panel. I know it looks kind of distressed brown in the picture, but these pants are actually black. I have another pair all cut up and ready to sew, save the panel, in navy blue. Hopefully I can knock that out soon, because I literally have two pairs of "work" pants (both black), and two pairs of jeans right now. And that's it. I swear I bought 3 pairs of jeans, but the one pair seems to have vanished without a trace!

And then yesterday's sewing project was these burp cloths. I promised Doug I'd make some hockey-related things, so I found this flannel print that has the logo and colors of one of his two favorite teams. I managed to use up about 2 yards of flannel on this, between the one yard of Penguins fabric I bought, and the solid black that I partially got for this and partially to back one of the geeky bibs I made earlier in the month. There's a total of 9 burp cloths here, and I know my mom has a stack of others for us, too.

I do have one more bib to sew up, since Doug also really wanted to help make one! So he cut one out yesterday and I'll be sewing it. I also need to fix a pair of pants for him ASAP, but then I'm hoping I can start sewing some clothes again! 

I did some quick looking over my spreadsheet to see what my final tally was for stashbusting this year! It looks like I started 2014 with about 340 yards in...and ended with 375. Oops. Granted, I did just buy about 20 yards of stuff to make diapers with, which will get used up in the next several months and accounts for the bulk of the overage. On the plus side, it looks like I sewed up close to 72 yards this year. And I did manage to use up about 27 pieces of fabric altogether. I think that's pretty good, considering that I spent the entire last third of the year unable to do much at all, between traveling and pregnancy sickness!

June in review

All things considered, it wasn't a bad month, sewing-wise. I did two of the four challenges for The Monthly Stitch's Indie Pattern Month, busted a couple of pieces of stash, and made some progress towards what I need to get done for DragonCon.

1. Projects completed: 3. There was the Tiramisu maxi-dress, my Tiramisu-Moneta mashup for my Belle costume, and since I had a yardish left of the maxi-dress fabric, I tried out the Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono tee. I haven't had a chance to take pictures of it yet, but will try to do so soon. I also hemmed a skirt for the same friend whom I did some prom dress alterations for a few months back--she gave me the skirt at the same time, but I'd been slacking.

I ended up with approximately half a yard left of the blue from the Belle dress, plus some large, oddly shaped scraps. So my stashbusting total for the month is 6 yards used up (2.5 from the Belle dress, and 3.5 from the maxi-dress and Kirsten tee.)

I also added some stash, though-- my mom was cleaning out a bin at her house and found all of these fabrics she'd been given that wouldn't work for quilts, but would work for clothes. So I took four pieces off of her hands, which adds up to about 11 1/2 yards in. Yikes! That light greyish lavender solid piece is going to need some work--there's some rusty-looking stains on it, and that's not a color I'd wear, but I figure it could be a good candidate for a dyeing experiment. And they all need to be washed a second time, because after one trip through the washer and dryer, they still have a weird musty smell. But I'm kind of in love with the colors on that plaid. And already plotting possible shirt ideas for how to use the gingham without the results looking too country, and found some cute ideas on ModCloth, which are now on Pinterest.

Side note--I'm not surprised, but slightly annoyed, that it's so much easier to find stashbusting ideas for fabric I wasn't planning on having than, say, the pieces of brocade that have been sitting in my stash for years!

On the knitting front, I'm making slow progress on my Roheline cardigan. I haven't gotten past the point where I'm increasing every few rows yet, but I tried a sleeve on the other day, and they're almost up to my elbows. I am planning on making the sleeves about an inch longer than the pattern calls for, to accommodate my monkey arms, and I still need to do the shoulders and yoke once I get to the point where I can attach the sleeves to the body, but that gives me hope that I might actually finish this one before it gets cold! Which is good, because I already have my next cardigan picked out and have the yarn for it. I'm also working on a couple of smaller projects on the side. One of which is for a gift. So I'll talk about those later.

One non-clothes thing I made, which might be a little cheesy: an anniversary gift for Doug! Since the traditional gift is paper, and I didn't have a ton of time to make anything, I decided to go with an idea I'd seen on Pinterest awhile back for those nights we want to hang out but aren't sure what to do. I kept the basic principle of different colors for different kinds of dates (at home vs. cheaper nights out vs. dates that take more planning and/or money), but decorated the sticks with scrapbook paper that I already had in addition to the paint. And since I didn't get all of the sticks written on before our anniversary, we did some brainstorming to add some things that fit us a little more than the ideas that were on the original website--there's at least two sticks in there that have something to do with hockey! He liked it, and we did finally have a chance to pull an idea from it for what to do last Friday night (board game night!) So I think this will be a fun thing to have around.

I sat down recently to review my capsule wardrobe list, and all things considered, I've been doing pretty well with it so far! Though I forgot to factor in the DragonCon stuff at the time. So for the upcoming month, here's my goal list:

From the capsule wardrobe: the black maxi-dress, which will be super-fast since it's basically a long knit tank top, and the Reglisse dress, hopefully in time for the Sundress Sewalong that Heather is hosting. Also, the skinny jeans, which I have somewhat started already, at least as far as pattern retracing and altering goes. I'm hoping to get those cut out today and start sewing by the end of the week. They'll double as part of the DragonCon sewing (yay for Doctor Who companions who wear normal everyday clothes!), and the timing is perfect for Lizzy's Jeans in June/July sewalong!

Aside from the jeans, I'm also hoping to knock out the rest of my Belle costume-- I need to make a white top to go underneath the dress, which I'm pretty sure I have something in the stash I can use for that, and a hair bow.  The Monthly Stitch's theme this month is monochromatic (all black and white), so between that and the black dress, I should be good to go! If I have time, I can probably also finish my Amy Pond outfit, since all I'll need to do aside from the jeans is to slightly refashion a plaid top that I found at Goodwill awhile back. But if not, I can easily knock that out in August. I have one other costume to do aside from those, plus buy a wig. (And now that I decided to go with my old Eowyn costume instead of finish the Tauriel costume, I found out yesterday that Simplicity just released a pattern for one of the other Tauriel costumes! Go figure.) I'm trying to get better about being realistic about what I can accomplish in my sewing time, so let's see how I do, shall we?

once more with feeling

There really isn't too much for me to say about Thurlow pants by this time. But I finished one more pair yesterday.

This is pretty much the same fabric as the olive pair, aside from the color. For the inside, I used the same lining fabric that I used for the navy denim pair. I do have to say that after sewing two pairs at the same time, only doing one made it feel like it went so quickly! This one only took 4 days total, and I finished half of the sewing in one day. It went a little slower when it came to finishing details like the waistband and hand-stitching the hem.

I decided to play around with my color palette when choosing what to wear for these photos. Plus, I always desperately crave color this time of year anyway. The sun is actually out today, so that helps! The blouse and sweater are both thrifted-- I found them on the same trip, and I couldn't help but notice how well they went together.  I kind of love how in your face orange the cardigan is, even though I'm never really sure what to wear with it aside from this blouse and one other top that happens to have orange in the print! I haven't worn it in a few months, though, because black pants with this always felt a little too Halloween. But I think the grey works with it pretty nicely!

Decided to play around with poses here, too. Mostly to hide the shoes, which are less than ideal, but I didn't have many options since I know I'm going to have to trample my way through some snow later. Yeah, I look like I'm listening to "Twist and Shout". Anyway.

With this fifth pair, this brings my "pantsapalooza" to an end. I'm sure it won't be the last pair I make ever-- I'm in need of some more jeans, the pair of plain black pants that I've had since college has chosen recently to start dying (the fabric-piercing hook fell off). And I'm a little concerned about the longevity of the charcoal denim pair, since the fabric has already started pulling at certain seams! It's not that it doesn't fit--I think it's more the fabric, almost like it's a slightly looser denim weave. I've reinforced with extra stitching, and did a little thread-weaving on the back seam last night to try and strengthen that particular area. I will most definitely be keeping an eye on it. But for now, I am quite happy to move on to another type of project. Even though the two things I have planned next are also more on the involved side... stay tuned!

Pattern: Sewaholic Thurlow trousers

Amount of time it took to make: 4 days

Fabric used:Grey cotton twill from Fabric.com

Amount of fabric used: about 1.25 yds twill, plus .5 yards lining- 1.75 yards total

Stashed since: 2012

Current stash total: 336.5

It actually went up about 3 yards, because I made a couple of purchases last week-- 3 yards of something for my March of the Shieldmaidens project, to be revealed at a later time, and half a yard each of some cotton and some flannel for a baby shower gift that I'll need to make before sometime this spring. For Stash Diet purposes, the costume fabric is my "use 4 buy 1", since I used my travel exception for NYC, and the shower gift falls under gift exception, because guess how much baby-appropriate fabric I have? Pretty much none. Besides, I needed about $2 more of stuff to get free shipping. 

Look at this pile, isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you say my collection's complete... ok, before I get that song more firmly stuck in my head, I should probably clarify that the collection is not complete, because I still have to, you know, actually sew this. (And cut out the interfacing.) But this pile represents 3 pairs of pants, which is what remains of the original 5 pairs I'd planned to make. Now that I have the fitting worked out, I think this will go very quickly. Especially because I can use the same serger thread for both the blue and black denim versions, which means that I can definitely assembly-line make those two pairs! The grey will have to be done separately for it to look right, I think, but you can't win them all.

As far as my stashbusting goes, overestimating once again bit me in the butt. I don't have the full width yardage on any of these, but I still have a solid 1 3/4 yards of both the blue and the black lightweight denim. So I'll have to figure out what to do with those, though I did manage to use one largeish remnant of the black for a secret project. (Which doesn't count towards that 1 3/4 yards, unfortunately.) I do have quite a bit of the grey left as well, but I do already know what I'm going to do with that. And it isn't another Hummingbird skirt.

On the plus side, I did use up the cherry print, and one length of the multiple cuts of this batiked muslin from ages ago. I think there were something like 6 total. So that puts me at 3 out of 4 fabrics to get out of my stash completely before I can buy more-- 4 if I count the zebra print charmeuse that I passed on to my mom for a bag lining. I'd ordered 3 yards, but they only sent me 1, and then ran out, so I can't use it for the winter coat lining that I'd originally planned.

I think I'm going to count it. After all, I can't delay too long in ordering fabric if I'm going to be ready for March of the Shieldmaidens. But I'm still making progress, right?

Two for the price of one

My pantsapalooza is back on! I finally made the olive pair of Thurlows, and now have 3 more to go. I also learned as I was cutting these out that, once again, I did err on the side of too much fabric. So rather than fold up the remaining large piece of fabric, I just went ahead and cut out a Hummingbird skirt while I was at it! I already had a zipper in my stash that would work, aside from the one I'd bought specifically for the pants, and I used the same buttons for both, which means that aside from sewing time, this skirt was essentially free. Can't beat that!

Of course, this also means I'm going to have leftovers for the other 3 pairs of pants, too. I already have an idea for my grey twill, but I'm also going to have some charcoal and navy lightweight denim (as two separate yardages) to figure out what to do with. I'm hoping that I can get my cutting table cleared off today so I can cut as much of this out tomorrow as possible, given that I'm actually going to be a working musician tomorrow as well. (I love playing weddings, they're such easy money!)

Anyway, on with the projects, shall we? I'm attempting to track stash usage as I go this year, since I'm on the Stash Diet. So that information will go below.





Pattern: Sewaholic Patterns- Thurlow Trousers (worn here with my Simbelmyne top)

Amount of time it took to make: about a week, I'm going to estimate about 10 hours total

Fabric used: A cotton olive green twill, plus a quilter cotton for the pockets and waistband facings

Amount of fabric used: Approx. 2 1/8 yards (really more, I was left with 1.5 yards of the twill, half the original width.)

Stashed since: 2012

I think this is going to be my new indoor spot for photos. The light just seems so much better in here than in our living room! Plus, you know, books. Anyway, aside from an hour or so spent basting and unbasting the back seam to tweak the fit, the second round of these went together much, much easier than the first.

The welt pockets look pretty good this time, I think! It helps that it's a better-quality fabric than what I used for the brown pair for certain. But practicing the construction with the first pair helped a lot, too. They're still not perfect in the corners, but certainly passable.  I did also realize some things about the waistband construction that made the end result look much better--it was probably obvious to a lot of people, but I figured out that stopping the stitching 5/8" away from the raw edge made the zipper area fit in much, much better! I got the pockets sorted for what side needs to be out for the insides to look pretty this time, too. Which is good, because I'm actually super-excited about what I get to use up for one of the next pairs, and I want to show it!









"Guts" picture! This quilt cotton has been around forever, from some fabric my mom gave me from her own stash when I was trying to get this quilt planned out. It didn't quite work out for that, so I'm glad I finally found a use for it. I did discover that the twill creases quite a bit during wearing, but nothing that a little dryer or iron action won't fit. The creases are mainly in the front from sitting, anyway, and I generally wear my shirts untucked, so I'm not worried. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure I can count these pockets as "Itty Bits" for the Stashbusting Sewalong, too.

And now for the skirt...

Pattern: Cake Patterns- Hummingbird skirt (worn here with the "Autumn in Lancaster" Renfrew, since there is some olive in the print.)

Amount of time it took to make: Probably about 5 hours, if you count the time I had to spend ripping out my fitting mistakes.

Fabric used: same as the Thurlows. I'm calling this my "Tapenade" skirt, because that's the sort of thing you'd make from leftover olives, right?

Amount of fabric used: a 1.5 yd x approx. 30" piece of twill, cut crosswise, + 5/8" yard cotton

Stashed since: 2012

Despite the fact that I've made this skirt twice already, I had a surprising amount of trouble with the fitting! When I made the hemp Hummingbird, I had to take the top in at a pretty extreme angle, which you can see much better in the pocket detail picture for the TARDIS skirt variation. I don't know if it's because the twill has much less give than the hemp, or because there was no stretch involved like there was with the denim, but it didn't work at all this time! The skirt sits pretty tightly against my waist, and when I first tried it on, there were these weird wing-like protrusions at my hips. Which is pretty much the last place I want wing-like protrusions. So I had to rip out the seam, the serging, and the topstitching (argh) that I'd already done, soften the angle quite a bit, and then restitch it. I guess this means I may need to rethink my pattern alterations before I use this one again!

Also, I completely blanked on constructing the pockets--the good news is that I got the right edges lined up first try, but that means the wrong side of the pocket fabric is showing from the inside. Oh well, it could be much worse.

Aside from fitting, a few minor tweaks I made was doing a centered zipper instead of invisible, just because that's the sort of zipper I had on hand. I also added topstitching to the front and side seams, to give it a more casual look.


Total yards out: 4.25 (twill used up, only large scrap left of cotton left, so I'm counting it.)

Current stash total: ~334 yards


Diet rules: 2 pieces of fabric, 2 separate patterns out of 4 before I can buy more of either. Which I'd better get cracking on, because Doug and I are planning a weekend trip to NYC in February, and he said we could go to Mood! I've never actually bought anything from the physical store, though I did have a chance to step inside it once, so this is really exciting! I do have things I can legitimately buy to finish already planned projects, like a winter jacket lining, and I did build in a travel exception, but I still want to be very thoughtful about what I do buy there.

More thoughts on stashbusting

I just found out that the Stashbusting Sewalong that Cation Designs and EmSewCrazy hosted last year is still going on! Which is exciting, since I'm doing the Stash Diet anyway. So I'm definitely jumping in on this one, too, in hopes that I can actually participate in more of the challenges this time around.



This year, they've also added in a "Curating Challenge", so here's my answers for January's questions.

Why do you sew?

I sew because making things is what keeps me sane. No, really. You don't want to be around me when I haven't had time to do any crafty stuff in awhile. I also like having clothes that fit me better/are different than what you find in stores--even when I was a kid, I liked wearing the clothes that my mom, and later me, made, because no one else in my school had the same stuff.

What's on your list?

This will probably get altered depending on how many Saturdays get stolen from me I have to work in the spring/what sewcial challenges come up, but my current mental list for this year, in no particular order, is the following:

• 4 more Thurlows (first one is in progress currently)
• A Robson coat (hopefully before spring, I'm thinking for #bluefebruary)
•  The new winter coat (I'd like to finish this one before October, since that's when I may start needing it. I do need underlining and lining for this.)
• A Project Runway pattern that I've had bagged with pattern/fabric/notions for about 2 years now that I haven't gotten to yet
• The Reglisse and Darling Ranges dresses that I didn't get to last summer
• A black knit maxi-dress
• Espresso leggings. Especially since I figured out that the brown knit I've had for years that I was planning on testing this pattern out with will work for the costume I have in mind for Shieldmaiden March! 
• Also, Shieldmaiden March. More on my costume choice and research to come. Hint: it's not a traditional Viking. But you probably figured that out from the leggings (or if you follow me on Twitter).
• A couple more (less involved) costumes, which need to get done before Labor Day weekend, since there's plans in the works for a girls' weekend at DragonCon! (This will probably involve tweaking things from the thrift store for the most part, and shouldn't be too terribly hard to put together--for instance, one of my must-haves is an Amy Pond costume (from Doctor Who, for the uninitiated) and her clothes are pretty everyday wearable. I just need to decide which episode I'm coordinating with, since I have one friend who already has a particular River Song dress and another friend who wants to do Clara as "Souffle Girl".)
• A Cooper bag, which I should also try to get done before Labor Day, because I want to use it as a carry-on/day trip bag.
• I do need to make 1 set of curtains for the kitchen at some point this year, particularly so I can shuffle things around to look better if we do put our townhouse on the market.
• Other things bouncing around my head: I'd also like to make at least one more pair of jeans, a "real" Cambie dress, an Archer blouse, some pajamas (which I do legitimately need some warm-weather ones), and a Red Velvet dress.

Did I mention I have a problem with the ambition vs. time ratio?

Why are you stash busting?

Because my stash, as previously mentioned, is at ridiculous proportions. I want to downsize to a manageable level, so I can put more thought into my fabric purchases, create more cohesion in my wardrobe, and not feel guilty about buying fabric because I already have so much. I also want to make it easier to pack and move to a new space, since even if we don't manage to move this year, moving a little closer to our families and to a larger space is something that we would prefer to do before any kids come into the picture. (And if we do that, I very well might have to work with a smaller craft space, since bedrooms would be a higher priority.)


This month's theme for the Stashbusting Sewalong is "Itty Bits". The good news is, I already did this without realizing it, thanks to my Kindle case! I can probably also count the pockets for my pants, or is that pushing it?

Stash Diet 2014

Happy New Year, sewcialists! If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been spending a lot of time in my sewing/craft room lately, going through things and just trying to get it neat so I can start 2014 off with a cleaner slate. There's a lot of stuff that never really got put away after the move, so I'm trying to do it right this time! Though, as of last night (and with a little help from my husband), I have it at "good enough" for now, so now I can start making things again. Woohoo!

I've also been doing a lot of tracking of what I have, and have discovered that I have an embarrassing amount of stuff. I'd mentioned in my Hits & Misses post that I didn't feel like I did such a great job of buying vs. using my stuff. But it's all useful stuff, and the cheap frugal part of me doesn't like to get rid of things that are useful. Especially when I still like the fabrics, you know? But hubby and I are also talking about potentially putting our house on the market this year and moving back up north. (Which, in this state, means 20 minutes away from where I am now, and above the canal so we don't have to keep paying that stupid toll any time either of us go to work.) And that means the more I use, the less I have to pack, right? We're also going to be attempting to crack down on our budget this year, so me using what I have instead of buying new craft supplies will be a huge help!

Andrea and Gwen have started a Stash Diet initiative for 2014, and I think it's just what I need. I'm going to be doing mine for yarn, too, since I also have a lot of that. But I also need some ground rules, so here goes:

The basic rules:

1. I will allow myself one new piece of fabric for every 4 from the stash that I use up. I will include lining fabrics into "things used up", since I already added those into my yardage totals, but will not include scraps or muslin. Giving away fabric will also count, since that means it's out of the stash.
   
   Side note--since I do have several curtain-type things on hand, I will count home dec fabrics towards the yardage totals, but not for new fabric purchases.
2. I will allow myself one new yarn purchase for every 3 that I use up, proportional to the size of the project. For instance, I can't buy enough yarn for a sweater if I only use enough for a hat. (Note to self: need ideas for yarn leftovers, since I frequently end up with about half a ball after knitting something.)
3. I will allow myself one new pattern purchase for every 4 that I use. For the purposes of this project, reusing the same pattern multiple times in a row will only count as 1, like the Thurlows that I plan to make all at once. Using a previously used pattern for a different view or after a passage of time, like if I make another Tiramisu dress, will still count. (This way, I can still buy the hot new indie patterns that strike my fancy!)

Exceptions:

1. Fabric or yarn that I need to complete a project. For instance, I already know that I'll need to purchase both Thinsulate and lining for the winter coat I recently purchased fabric for, because the lining that I did order fell through, and I don't have enough yardage of anything on hand for that.
2. Same goes for notions--I'll use what I can where I can, but sometimes you just don't have the right color zipper or enough buttons.
3. Materials for gifts, if I don't have anything I can use. I know of at least one friend who will be having a baby shower this upcoming year, and though I don't know what I'm making for her yet, I don't really have much in the way of baby-appropriate options on hand!
4. Travel exception: If we can swing the vacation we're hoping for, or if something magical happens and there's a blogger meetup I can actually attend, I will allow myself up to 3 pieces of fabric/skeins of yarn.
5. If unforeseen life circumstances happen, I will make an exception as needed. I say this because the last time I tried to do a major stashbusting effort, I ended up needing to buy over 20 yards of fabric for ny wedding dress! So, given my stage in life, although we are not currently trying, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that I could unexpectedly get pregnant. It's also not completely out of the realm of possibility that we might decide to start that process sometime over the course of the year. If that happens, I'm sure I would need to buy some fabrics and patterns, because I definitely don't have enough knits or stretchy fabrics to make a cohesive maternity wardrobe! (But I would try to use what I had as much as possible.)

Here's where I'm starting at:
Fabric currently in: Approximately 333.5 yards, not counting scraps or muslin
(Edit: Make that about 339.5. I forgot to factor in a Gorgeous Fabrics order that I'd already made before seeing this post. Though, since one is to make a garment out of an otherwise too-small stash piece, one of those pieces does fit my parameters!)

Yarn currently in, according to my Ravelry stash: Approximately  19,928 yards. (Though this isn't entirely accurate, due to in-progress projects and some secret knitting.)

And this is how the shelves currently look. The 3 blue bins hold yarn, but I still had to leave a few projects' worth in a separate bag, not counting the bag of knitting projects I'm actually working on at the moment. The rest of it is all of the fabric, minus what's sitting in the basket in front--those are all of my Thurlow fabrics that I'm hoping to use soon. And there's also at least 5 pieces of fabric that are bagged in the closet with their corresponding patterns. And everything I've bought recently for coats and whatnot, which still hasn't made it in here from the laundry room. And anything for muslins, and scraps, and the several decent-sized pieces of fabric that had to get left in the scrap bins. Obviously, I need help!

What about you? Are you planning on doing any major stashbusting this year?

A Stash Confessional, part 1

You know, all things considered, I think I've been doing a fairly decent job with the stashbusting this year. I mean, sure, I've only sewn about 7-8 things this entire year. And I did have to buy fabric for the recent wedding gifts. And that dress. But aside from those two things, pretty much everything I've sewed this year was from things that I'd already had in the stash for awhile. I even managed to basically use up some yarn.

Of course, this doesn't mean I haven't bought anything recently. But I am trying to be more mindful of my purchases, and really think about how things will fit into my wardrobe. Either that, or they're for specific non-clothes purposes. I do need to go through sometime and figure out what my more recent totals are, since I've used up parts of yardage and acquired more, and I'll probably do that before the end of the year. But in the meantime, here's the more recent additions to my stashes, mostly as told through Twitter posts.

Check out my beach booty...yarrrrrrrrrrrrrn! pic.twitter.com/KHFxKvjUbv
— Becky (@sew_and_so) August 12, 2013

I bought some yarn back in August. There's this cute little yarn store down at the beach, and I went there with my cousins again this year. The orange yarn was bought specifically to make a scarf for this Craftsy class that I'm verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooooooooooowly working my way through. (And turns out to be a different color of the same yarn that I bought last year and haven't knitted yet, so I hope I like it!) I have ideas for the other two, but no specific patterns yet--I'm thinking the green could make a nice little triangular wrap/scarf thingy, preferably with a leaf-like pattern. And the blue-purple one....I just thought it was cool and unique. Ideally, I'd like to make a cowl with some kind of drop-stitch pattern so I can play with the dual texture of it (it can be used as a bulky or a ruffle yarn), but I haven't had any luck yet with finding one on Ravelry. I'm a little afraid that I might have to try to come up with a pattern myself, which is more than a bit intimidating when I'm also taking a beginner knit Craftsy class to make sure I taught myself right!

oh, right, photo. pic.twitter.com/iwzw8FbZai
— Becky (@sew_and_so) July 31, 2013

I also got this over the summer--I'd gone to Joann's to acquire some supplies for my friend's bridal shower, and this came home with me. In my defense, it was a lovely-feeling cotton. And 70% off. And it was screaming at me that it wants to be a Pavlova skirt. Which will hopefully happen sometime before the end of next spring.

Need to tidy up the room so I have space to work. So here's my last piece of Doctor Who sewalong fabric. pic.twitter.com/gq18JFhpVD
— Becky (@sew_and_so) August 22, 2013

Also from Joann's, and surprisingly soft and snuggly. Hopefully it won't lose that too quickly in washing. And I'm not saying exactly what I bought this for yet, but if you know the show, you can probably guess.

Was just given free fabric! Debating whether one would be an even better 10th Doctor dress than my original plan. pic.twitter.com/WdXj3AuKgA
— Becky (@sew_and_so) September 17, 2013

That's right, 3 more pieces of pants-like fabric. When I stopped by my parents' to drop off my flute before the retail job--I'm kinder to my instrument than myself when it comes to dealing with the temperatures there at my outside register--my mom told me that one of her quilter friends that she'd seen yesterday wanted to pass those along to me. She'd bought them for pants that she apparently decided she'd never get to. So this means if I totally screw up my hopefully wearable muslin of the Thurlows, I have another opportunity to make brown pants. And then figure out what to do with the other two pieces.

Aside from those, I've bought several pieces of quilting cotton. Aside from the shower gift pieces, which I do have small yardages left of, I got some to make Christmas stockings for us and one gift. But I don't have any pictures of those, particularly since I only bought the gift ones today and they haven't come in the mail yet. (And I may have purchased a sweater knit, too. But I needed one more piece to get free shipping from Fabric.com. And it was on sale for less than $10 total,  and the truth is that I'd rather pay for fabric than shipping. Especially when it means I might be able to inject some much-needed color into my winter wardrobe!)

Stay tuned for part 2, in which I try to figure out various possibilities for things that have been sitting in my stash for awhile. Which will probably wait until after Pantsapalooza, but since I have nothing to show for that yet...note to self, next time you host a sew-along, you might want to pick a time when you don't have multiple weekends solidly booked in a row, k?

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, wait, it is a bird.

Fun fact I learned on the honeymoon: apparently, the hummingbird is the national bird of Jamaica!

Another fun fact we learned: marijuana is not actually legal there. But we saw some growing in an herb garden there by the place we went bamboo rafting anyway. No, really. There was a sign and everything. But I won't post the picture that D took, because I don't really want to post pics of drugs on here, you know?

A third fun fact I just looked up on Wikipedia is that the plant used for hemp, while part of the same species of plant, is not actually marijuana. Which is good, since that's what I used to make my Hummingbird skirt.

So, on to the finished products, shall we? Starting with the top.

Yes, this is that top I was having a ridiculous amount of difficulty with last week. Thankfully, I'm overall pleased with the results. I got this fabric a few years ago from Mood, and while I was able to use the other piece from that batch fairly quickly (hey, a year is pretty good for me!), this one had me stumped for some time due to the large scale of the print. So this definitely took some thinking, and some tweeting, but I think I managed to handle the print and any potential chest-placement issues as well as I possibly could have!

Changes made to the top:

• I added a center front and center back seam, to accommodate dealing with the print.
• I rolled the facing under and stitched it down--it was just not working in this particular fabric. (Case in point, see left--this is literally as good as it would get.)
  
• As a result, I serged a rolled hem on the sleeves instead of the facing strip. I did this on the peplum hem as well.

Changes that I'll make next time I make this top, because I would make this again:

• Use a knit that stretches both ways instead of just one. I think this would have made the neckline work better.
• Shorten the top at the waist by 1". I used a 19" for the shoulder seam, and I think I measured it badly since it was pretty late at night when I did it and I was still tired from the honeymoon.
• Lengthen the peplum by 1" + hem allowance, because I do like the finished length of it.

I was pretty satisfied with the print matching on the back, but looking at it in this picture, the big green and black diamond shapes pop out kind of oddly! Overall, this shirt is kind of like a polka-dotted, multicolored Rorschach test, isn't it? But I kind of like it. I still have about a yard of this to use up, so I'm thinking I might just make some pajama shorts or something like that where it won't matter if I match the print or not!

Moving on to the skirt--I just barely managed to squeeze this one out of the hemp, since there was a huge chunk cut out on one side. I have a scrap that's most likely big enough for a small bag left, and therefore, I'm considering this piece stashbusted!

The one major change that I made to the skirt, which I need to remember to add to the pattern, is a bit of reshaping towards the top. Which, again, could have easily been bad measurements on my part. Thankfully, I had the foresight to just baste the side seams together before I tried it on, because it was huge! I ended up making the seam allowance at the top of the side seams 1 3/8" instead of 1/2", tapering back down to that 1/2" by close to the bottom of the pockets. I also took in the top of each of the seams surrounding the center panel and the top of the back darts in an additional 1/8" apiece. Again, those tapered back down to the original seaming. I did go ahead and just leave the side seams wide, since they were all nicely serged and everything. As a result, I also had to reduce the length of the waistband by about 4".

Let's have another look at that skirt, shall we? Along with an introduction to one of my two new sewing buddies! This furry little photobomber is Crosby. (His big brother, Malkin, is the one trying to knock me over in the back view shot. My husband had these two when I met him, and named them after two of his favorite hockey players.)

I think this picture nicely highlights the other change I would make the next time I make this skirt, which is to add an inch or so to the hem. I'm used to knee- or full-length skirts, so this one feels reeeeeally short to me! And wearing it outside of the house is definitely going to be a bit of a stretch to my comfort level. But hopefully I can work myself up to it, because I bet the hemp is going to be really cool and comfortable for the mid-Atlantic heat and humidity!

So there you have it, two new finished garments! If there's one thing I learned from this sewalong, it's that I'm a much slower sewist than I thought. So it'll be interesting to see what I can actually get done in 30 minutes a day, because pretty much every step took me nearly twice as long!

Pledge alterations!

So, now that I can actually sew other things again, and after the Swap Your Stash and moving the majority of my stash to my future sewing room at my fiance's house, I've been re-evaluating the stashbusting pledge that I made back in January. And I've realized that I may have defined things too narrowly, or put too many restrictions on myself to make this realistic. Especially after realizing things like I can't use the majority of my dress patterns with my current stash, because the yardages I have are literally not enough!


So, with that in mind, I'm going to alter my pledge. Technically, I haven't been able to start it yet, so I still can! I'm still going to keep the goal of using up at least 6 pieces of fabric. If I do more, great, go me! But I'm going to add the caveat that I will be allowed to purchase fabrics that are necessary to finish projects--linings in particular, since that is something I'm not likely to have on hand. In addition, I'm going to give myself the allowance that, if I so choose, I will be allowed to purchase one new piece of fabric for every 3 pieces that I use up--I'll still have more fabric out than in that way, and that way I can have some fun with stash patterns that I wouldn't be able to use otherwise. Plus, you know how it is--sometimes a girl just needs something new to keep the inspiration flowing! (To keep it fair, I'm using this allowance for garment sewing fabrics only, not things like the curtains that I already have fabric for!)

I'm also in the process of re-counting my current yardage count--I do have some leftovers from more recent projects, like the One Dress, that need to get put in, as well as the things I traded in the Swap Your Stash. So I'll be back soon(ish) with the new and improved stashbusting tracker. My ultimate goal is still to try and get my stash down to a manageable level, which would be somewhere around 75-100 yards. I'm probably somewhere around 250 right now, so I still have quite a ways to go!

Stash confessions of a fabriholic

As you know, I've been taking part in the Swap Your Stash, hosted by Kat and Anne, this month. As of now, I have four pieces of my stash that will be making their way to their new homes, where hopefully they'll find some better use than sitting around in mine! They've also been doing a series of interviews to show our stashes, and with Kat's permission, I'm borrowing the questions to do a little reveal of my own. (Plus a very first sneak peek of my future sewing room! Which is absolutely nowhere close to set up.)

How long have you been sewing and stashing? How big is your stash?
I started learning to sew when I was about 7 years old. Thankfully, I have no stash that dates back to that time, but given that I'm in my early 30s now *cough*, I've been stashing for awhile. As for the size, it's still hovering somewhere at 200+ yards of fabric!

Where do you keep your stash? How do you store it?
My stash is so big that it's in two different towns, haha! Just kidding--the real story is that even though I'm not moving in with my fiance until after the wedding, I am in the process of moving what I can down to his place now. So getting my future sewing/craft room set up was a logical place to start, since I do have this somewhat all-consuming dress project going on right now. So I'm in the process of moving things from the wall of shame (which refuses to post vertically for some reason--I guess it's appropriate, since it's rather precarious of a setup to begin with), where they are folded into plastic bins, or unceremoniously stuffed in wherever they will fit....


....to the new space. I haven't gotten a lot of fabric moved down there yet, it's been more scrapbooking/jewelry stuff/yarn so far, but I did at least get this one bin down. The plan for the new space is to fold the pieces around these letter-paper-sized comic book boards, so they're all nice and neat like this, and put them on shelving, kind of like this. 




(Second shelf down.) Except not in the closet, because the mostly wire shelves that Doug so kindly put up for me wouldn't hold it all. I'm thinking of getting something more along the lines of an Ikea Expedit. 
 
What is the oldest piece in your stash? What was your original plan for this piece and why hasn’t it happened?
Chronologically, the oldest things I have are a brown twill-type fabric and a tan stretchy also possibly twill-type fabric. Both of these were given to me for free by my mother, who in turn was given these for free by someone connected to someone at my church who was destashing. (She randomly gets given fabric sometimes by people who don't understand that not all fabrics are good for quilts, and I often get to paw through those leftovers.) I have no idea how old they actually are, and I obviously had no original plan for them but I'm thinking they will get turned into wearable muslins for the Thurlow and Clover pants patterns, respectively.  Also, I didn't take pictures of them because they're just solid colors and therefore not very interesting to look at.

The oldest things I bought myself are these two printed polyesters, both of which date back to my college years. I honestly can't remember if I even had a plan for the floral, I think I just liked it. I was thinking more of a 60s-style tunic top for the paisley, but I didn't have a ton of time to sew when I was still in school, and somewhere along the line, I realized that boxy 60s tunic tops are really not flattering on me at all. So neither of them have gotten used yet. I did have a thought of making the floral into a Burda pattern, but I'm thinking now that I might be better off using this one for some kind of summer PJs, since this really doesn't go with anything else I own.   

What’s your favourite piece in your stash? Where did you get it, what do you love about it, what do you think you might do with it?
 I have this lightweight floral knit print that my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago. I love the colors and the kind of old-world European look of it. And I keep going back and forth as to what to do with it--sometimes I think it wants to be a knit dress, sometimes I think I should make it into a top because I do wear separates more, but then I'll probably have a bunch left over, and therefore it hasn't gotten cut into yet.

Does the fabric you buy go straight into hiding or do you wash it first?

 I definitely wash it first. Ironing is another story.

How do you add to your stash? Do you buy with a purpose in mind, or is it fabric lust?
I've gotten better over the last several years about buying purposefully, and the majority of the fabric I've bought over the last year in particular were for specific projects that I had nothing on hand that would work otherwise--fabrics for curtains, waterproof fabric for a raincoat, and of course, the 20+ yards I had to buy for all the various layers of the wedding dress I'm currently sewing! Sometimes I'm given things, particularly by my mom, who likes to give me fabric for Christmas. (We have similar taste in prints, so this is not a problem.) Aside from that, it's generally fabric lust, because I am most definitely a printoholic, and have to force myself to buy solids that actually work with those fabrics.   
 
Do you have something in your stash that you cannot bear to cut into? Why?
 I have this suedecloth, which is from the same Christmas gift stash as the knit I mentioned earlier. I think this print is so fun, even though the colors are way more neutral than I usually go for--and I have absolutely no idea what it wants to be yet. So I don't want to waste it, you know?

Do you just stash fabric, or does the problem include patterns and notions?
I'm actually not much of a notions buyer--most of my excess buttons and such have come from intended planned projects that never happened for one reason or another, or were salvaged from old clothes that I was getting rid of. And I've seriously cut back on pattern buying. Most of the patterns I buy now are from independent designers, and those are way more expensive than the $.99 sales at Joanns, so that curbs my acquisition a lot!  (Plus I did a pretty major pattern clean-out a year or so ago.) What I do tend to also stash is non-sewing things, like yarn--it's hard for me to resist colorful yarns that are wool-free, since that's all I can use--or patterned scrapbook paper. Yes, I'm still a printoholic there too. 

I also have a large bin of clothes that need mending or refashioning, since I just haven't had time to get to it. I am guilty of thrifting clothes solely because I like the fabric and want to make something else with it, though I've managed to keep myself from doing that for the last several Goodwill runs. 

Have you decided to do a “stash-busting” resolution this year? If so, what have you decided to do?       
As regular readers of this blog know, I've been trying to do stash-busting resolutions for at least the last 3 years! I've even been tracking the yardage numbers, mostly--I do have a few pieces that I think I forgot to add. (I was doing pretty well with seeing the numbers go down, at least until I got engaged and decided to be insane and make my own wedding dress and a bunch of curtains!) As far as this year goes, I am taking part in the Stashbusting Challenge from Cation Designs, though I'm unable to be an active participant in the challenges right now. And I did already have to break my no-buying-fabric pledge, but those were extenuating circumstances.


So there's my stash! And a look in the new craft room closet, at least. Yes, the inside of the closet is painted--the room itself is turquoise. I hope you enjoyed taking a look--and I am definitely open to suggestions for how to use those fabrics that I showed!

2012 in review, part 1: Life happened.

I know it's not quite the end of the year yet, but since there is going to be absolutely nothing that changes anything I'd write in this post between now and New Year's, I thought I'd just get this out of the way early. (Gives me more time during the Christmas-New Year's week to focus on actually, you know, working on my wedding dress.)

One of my long-time favorite quotes is this one, from a John Lennon song: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." I think he hit it pretty spot-on there (even if I tend to not like his post-Beatles music). Obviously, this year did not go as planned--but in the best possible way. If you'd told me this time last year that I'd be engaged, I probably would have laughed in your face. So since I generally review the goals and plans I made at the end of the previous year in this traditional post, I'm going into this with the disclaimer that life definitely had other plans. On with the show!

Since I basically have nothing crafty to show right now, in order to avoid this being a massive text-only post, I'm breaking this into two parts. So this part is basically a review of my goals from this year, and looking ahead to the next.

Part 1: My 2012 goals, as stated here: 
1. Continue chipping away at the fabric stash. And whatever other stashes.
 The verdict is: Mixed success. On the one hand, I did use up several pieces of fabric, including several that had been around for years. (The lining being the piece in the latter project.) On the other hand, I did end up purchasing several things. They're mostly things that will get turned into curtains for the townhouse, since I haven't really been in the habit of stashing home decor things. And, you know, yards and yards of fabric for a rather unplanned wedding dress. I'm ok with that, because like I said, these are special circumstances, and these high-yardage projects will take huge bites out of that total all at once. (After the dress, it's back on the wagon for sure!)

As for those other stashes--I think I used up one type of yarn. I did get rid of some beads by giving them away. So that counts, right? 

2. I have a handful of specific projects I'd like to sew. #1, the jeans. It WILL happen this time. #2, a jacket or two. #3, the Lonsdale dress I've been envisioning for at least six months. Aside from that, I want to leave things flexible for seasonal sewalongs and the like.

Now this one I totally nailed! Exhibit A) Jeans!! Exhibit B) Two jackets (and a raincoat!). Exhibit C) Lonsdale!

I guess it's a good thing I left that flexibility loophole in there, since I am now on month 3 of total sewing monogamy.

3. On the reconstruction end of things, I've had an idea simmering in my mind for a couple of months now. Since I'm already an Anthropologie fan, I'm setting a little mini-challenge for myself. Once a season, I'd like to choose a garment from the current catalog, and make a recycled piece inspired by it. Perhaps even with a tutorial, if the interest is there. (I was originally thinking once a month, but again, I'm trying to avoid over-committing myself. And once every 3 months sounds reasonable.) Also, I'd like to reconstruct often enough to stay a part of the Refashion Co-Op.

Total fail. Not only did I not do this mini-challenge at all, I got shuffled out of Refashion Co-Op months ago. Oh well.

4. Continue working on my knitting. Specifically, I'd like to make something with a cable that actually looks like a cable, something with multiple colors in the same project, and at least start that afghan that will take me years to finish.

I did not make a cable project. But I did make a striped hat.  In the most technical sense of the word, I did start the afghan one night.... I just had to rip the entire thing out because the gauge of the yarn was waaaaaay off with the size of needles that the original pattern had called for, and I haven't gotten smaller needles with a big enough cable yet.

5. Keep chipping away at the scrapbooks as I feel inspired to.

I did finish a couple of pages here and there. So I'll call this one a win.

6. Get better at picking projects that will help me make complete outfits. (I have a couple of orphan pieces that I still love and I want to wear them.)

I kind of feel like I haven't really had an opportunity to test this one out, to be honest. But I do think that things like Me-Made-May and my "fashion diet" this fall and winter has made me much more aware of what holes in my wardrobe need plugging.

7. Make some more things for others. I can be a terribly selfish crafter.

And for the most part, I still am. I did make a few gift projects this year, though, and I did spend some precious sewing time resizing t-shirts for my bestie and crafting a skirt for my sis-in-law (which is nowhere remotely close to being done, since I've only worked on it when she's been around.)

In 2013, I'd like to....

1. ...finish my wedding dress, obviously. Nothing like an immovable deadline and the pressure of everybody that I know being aware that I'm making it to motivate me! There's also other handmade things planned as far as reception decor goes, so I'll lump that in here too. 
2. ..find a way to work craftiness in on a more daily basis. As I was preparing to write this, I was struck by how few things I've made this year, compared to every other year since I started this blog. I understand why, because I've never faced a year where I was dealing with starting a new relationship, getting engaged, starting the biggest sewing project of my entire life, and having virtually no time to sew for an entire season due to regular 6-day workweeks. But it still saddens me a bit. I know that things will get crazier right around the wedding, and I may not have time to sew or craft at all then. Aside from that, I think I'd like to try Tilly's thought about just taking 15 minutes every day. Surely I can do that, even if it's not necessarily sewing. (It'll probably be way more than that for awhile, now that I'm almost done with the retail job for a few months and will be sewing like my life depends on it so I can finish as much of The One Dress as possible before that starts up again. So this is more for when I go back to more regular work.)
3. ...get my craft stuff organized. It's pretty much a necessity, since I'm also going to be moving all of my stuff within the next 6 months. Some things, like the majority of my jewelry-making supplies, are already at my fiance's townhouse. Thankfully, I do get an entire room, and a guy who actually thinks organizing is fun and is excited about the challenge of getting my stuff in there in a way that is both neat and functional. (He already spent hours of evening time getting all of my beads organized and consolidated into a few containers, even though I told him that if he'd wait a few days until we could hang out again, I'd help him...did I get a great guy or what?)
4. ...make the townhouse ours. It's already started, since we've repainted several of the rooms, and as I just mentioned, I did move a few things there that I don't foresee needing before the wedding. I am looking forward to having a place to decorate, and already have fabric for two rooms' worth of curtains--as well as plans to reuse some stuff so I don't have to make all the curtains. So yes, I'll probably be talking decor a little more than usual, at least for a little while. Hope you all don't mind.
5. ...still keep chipping away at those scrapbooks. Which will probably be easier after the wedding, since we're setting up the closet in my sewing room to be a scrapbook/jewelry-making nook. Complete with a table so I can leave half-finished layouts out on it instead of putting everything away all the time!
6. ...sew a few basics--or cake, if you will--that will help tie various parts of my wardrobe together. I'm thinking specifically about some pants of the Thurlow variety, assuming that the pattern works on me, since I am in dire need of some pants that aren't too short for me. And maybe another pair of two of jeans, since I very well may wear these jeans out within the year from constant wearing! (I already have several pieces of fabric stashed for this purpose, so I shouldn't need to buy too much there.)
7. ...as mentioned before, get back on the stashbusting wagon. Some stash purging will definitely be in order!
8. ...IF time permits, try another mini-wardrobe. I'm thinking specifically for the honeymoon, and that I'd like to pull it together using mainly pieces that I already have in my wardrobe. If I finish the dress in enough time, making one or two things would be great. (You know, since I basically have zero pairs of shorts that fit me and we're going somewhere tropical. Thurlow test, anyone?)
9. On the knitting front--I started this sweater months and months ago, kept picking it up and putting it aside because it was giving me all sorts of issues, and finally just put it into complete hibernation once The One Dress came up. I know that if I can just get through this top part (enough to make sure this will look good), it will be a great learning project. So I would like to either finish this particular sweater, or find another use for that yarn that will work for me. (Either way, it would be nice to get through one sweater next year.)
10. On the blogging front, I really would like to make some changes around here--a new blog design, if I can figure out how, and most definitely improving my photographs. I know that's a huge weak point, and I'm hoping that having a little more space (and a better chance of having a photographer on call) will help me out there.

That seems like a lot, doesn't it? But I do know that at least some of these things will happen out of pure necessity. I'm trying to leave these goals mostly open-ended, since I don't really have much way of predicting what sort of effect this sort of Really Major Life Change is going to have on my crafty life!

Next part to come later this week...