Goals, goals, goals

Do I need to rethink these posts? After all, last year, I commented that I made a bunch of goals and got derailed quickly by pregnancy and a newborn. This year, I made a bunch of goals, and then got hit by a global pandemic and a massive loss of desire to sew. But it is helpful to see how these turn out, so here goes…

To review last year’s:

1. Embrace the slow and steady. Well, I got the slow part down. Not so much the steady.
2. Attack the refashion/scrap bins. I did make one scrapbust project, but didn’t do much with this otherwise.
3. Bust some stash. Given my generally low output this year, I’d say that I didn’t make much progress on this. Though I did get to some things within a year of when I acquired the fabric, which is very good for me.
4. Have a plan, but hold it loosely. Or, you know, throw it out the window and read a book instead?
5. Work on my styling. After the fit- induced closet purge, my entire wardrobe is a mishmash and full of holes. So this was a big nope.

But with this in mind, here’s my hopes for 2021:

1. Find a better time balance between sewing and scrapbooking, so I can continue to progress in both. I definitely want to make a more intentional effort to get sewing in on at least a weekly basis, even though digital scrapbooking is admittedly easier for me to work in with the minions running around.
2. Make some “cake”! My wardrobe is overall lacking in basics at the moment, between the closet purge nd a lifestyle that is fairly different (read: even more casual) than it was at this time last year.
3. But don’t forget some frosting. Seriously, I stare at my closet for way more time than I should when I need/want to dress up a little, like for church or even our homeschool co-op day.
4. Figure out the “mom wardrobe” styling thing — more on that in a moment.
5. Mostly, I just want to regain the joy that I used to have in sewing. And what community in that looks like for me now, since I’ve been feeling quite disconnected from the larger Instagram community. I am enjoying the Sewing Sphere so far, and Elizabeth from Elizabeth Made This recently started a Facebook group that I’m liking as well. I did also end up joining a more local Facebook sewing group (!) near the beginning of the year, but haven’t been too involved with that yet since I honestly just haven’t made much/little kids prevented me from attempting any of the pre-March meetups.

So about that styling thing… even though I didn’t sew nearly as much as I’d hoped this year, I did spend some time doing research. (I’ll admit, I was that girl who secretly enjoyed research papers in high school and college, I really love deep diving into a topic that interests me. I even spent two summers of college doing paid music- related research projects through a program at my university. Geek alert, right?) I finally read The Curated Closet, and am strongly considering adding it to my collection. I would like more time to actually work through the exercises at some point than the library allowed, but things like trying on a bunch of different styles at the thrift store just wasn’t doable this year. I also spent some time reading Life Styling, after finding it via my library’s Hoopla collection. My short review of this one is that the color analysis/palette chapter was quite interesting and helpful, but I honestly didn’t finish this one because I couldn’t relate to the second half of the book at all. And I found that I had a year long outfit guide specifically for moms buried on my Kindle, from a book bundle I bought years ago. I’m still trying to figure out how helpful this will be, since it’s basically a lot of outfit “formulas” for a largish capsule wardrobe, and I feel like I’d have to basically draw out a set of paper doll clothes to fiddle with in order to make that work for me. The palette is far enough outside of my own (soooooo much neutral and solid) that I’m having a little trouble visualizing how to bring my beloved prints into it, but I do think it could be useful in plotting out some styling options.

I have other thoughts floating around, like making Halloween costumes again this year (there’s talk of a potential Star Wars theme), I’d like to make something for the girl to play with smocking while she’s still young enough for it to be cute, and the boys could really use cases for the new Kindles that they got from my parents for Christmas. I also got the new Itch to Stitch pattern book, and want to make basically everything! So I do need to narrow down some project options for after I finish my current cut out project. I did spend some time earlier this month purging some old patterns that I’ve sized out of or won’t work, and am hoping to curate my fabric stash better soon. So that should help.

Looking back, looking forward

Now that the end of 2020 is in sight, I figure it’s as good a time as any to do some reflecting about the year and my sewing life.

I didn’t really feel great about my sewing productivity this year. I felt the same about the outcome much of the time, but writing this out actually helped my outlook on it. Here’s the list of everything that I’ve managed this year, starting with the things I’ve showed:

• Visby Henley (Itch to Stitch, fairly successful. I think it could use some fitting tweaks, but I overall liked it.)
• Mila shirt (Itch to Stitch, successful)
• Mimi G chambray shirtdress (McCall’s, flop. I wore it once and it’s been sitting in my refashioning pile since. )
• Lucy dress (Peekaboo Pattern Shop, successful, though not for its intended purpose. The update is that I used it for an at home first birthday photoshoot, since the opportunity for her baptism still hasn’t happened yet.)
• Colorblocked Pony Tank (Chalk & Notch, one of my most worn me-mades for the remainder of summer)
• Shenanigans Skort (5 Out of 4 Patterns, successful, though could probably use a bit of a fuller butt adjustment)
• Chemainus top (Itch to Stitch, see last post.)

And a couple of things that I didn’t show here yet:

• Two Blackwood cardigans, from Helen’s Closet. I already knew that I liked the pattern fit, though I haven’t worn my first iteration much due to the extremely light weight/ limited coordinating options. I had fabric for two more that I got last Christmas, and sewing them up within the year is actually good, for me! I cut both out near the end of winter. I made the charcoal one from a hatchi knit, near the end of summer, while my serger was still appropriately threaded. The ivory one is my most recent make, from this cabled quilted type knit. In retrospect, I should have added a little more ease to the sleeve on this one, since it doesn’t have nearly the stretch that the hatchi does. But it’s still quite wearable, and so warm!
• I made dinosaur tails for the boys, instead of full Halloween costumes since I wasn’t sure if going out in any form would be an option. We ended up cobbling together costumes from things on hand for our church’s trunk or treat, and a spaced out Halloween parade with our usual trick or treat buddies. The Harry Potter costumes from a few years ago made a reappearance. And though I seem to need to add a little more velcro on the waist ties, the tails have seen some use for play at home. Also, not pictured, the boys were so excited about getting to pick out the fleece for their tails that they also requested blankets. So they each have one of those no-sew tied edge blankets made from these fabrics, too.

As I said, I haven’t been feeling great about my sewing, largely due to the timing/time suck of making my big flop of the year. But realistically, 10 projects over 11 months with 3 little kids in the house really isn’t bad!

There are other factors, though. There’s been a lot of grieving this year, and it’s definitely affected my enjoyment of this craft. Thankfully, everyone I know personally who got sick during the pandemic has survived, including an aunt who caught it while working as a hospital nurse. My entire immediate family has stayed healthy, thank God. But my flute teaching career vanished overnight, since neither of the two remaining students I had after my last maternity leave were situations that worked virtually. At this point, I still don’t know if I’ll get any students again, or if the tentatively planned involvement I’ll be allowed to have in my community orchestra this season will even work. I’ve never lived in a world where simply being a musician makes me considered to be dangerous. And since there’s always been ensembles to play with for the entire time I’ve played the flute, there’s been a lot of mourning over that loss, as I try to figure out how to learn to enjoy playing alone. (And trying to brush up on the piano, as the kids let me.)

My husband also lost his job suddenly. That one turned out for the best, as it was a constant source of stress for him, and he’s since found a new job that he’s much happier in. But it still caused a lot of uncertainty.

I’ve spent a lot of time on school this year. I’d already been doing preschool at home with my oldest, and had already planned to continue with him for kindergarten. It’s a good thing, because my state ended up being completely noncommittal to a plan for the current school year for a really long time, like until 2 weeks before school started, and I know I would have been panicking if I’d had to make the decision about what to do at the last minute. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, and it’s not all idyllic days at home, but I do think it’s been the best choice for us. We’ve also still been able to meet with our small co-op community in person, and that weekly interaction with other kids has been so good for him.

There’s been other stressors, too. Our remaining golden retriever died, and we’ve been having to adjust to not having a pet for the first time in our marriage. (Hopefully in a few years, but we want to wait until we’re done with diapers.) I didn’t see my closest friends in person for over half a year. The kids have obviously been affected too, as I’m constantly being told that they miss going to playgrounds/library storytime/playdates. It’s just a lot, as I know it’s been for everyone.

More specifically about sewing, I also had to get rid of a lot of favorite things that just don’t fit anymore, and it’s left me struggling to put outfits together on a near daily basis. I realized that a huge portion of what I sewed was for things like church and teaching, and both of those were gone for months. On days we’re just at home, I’m mostly just being the stereotypical frumpy stay at home mom in joggers and tees, because that’s what fits and can hold up to messes. But I’m not really enjoying getting dressed these days, which is having a major impact on my desire to do the thing that will help me fix the problem. Go figure.

To be perfectly honest, the Instagram sewing community was a tough place for me this year, too. Between the endless chatter about masks back in the spring, and all of the shaming of people that wanted to keep politics out of our sewing, I had to take a big step back from it. Frankly, I think it’s inexcusable to shame people for needing one place to have a break from all the chaos, given how many of us use sewing as a mental health aid, and I’m still irritated about it. I’m not entirely sure where this will lead, as I’ve still had very little desire to spend much time on my sewing Instagram account, though I’m still using my private one regularly to share photos with family and friends. I do know that I’m feeling more of an urge to write here instead, like I used to. I started this blog more as a project journal for myself, and the interaction was a nice perk. It’s hard to get that on Instagram now anyway, with algorithms and the hashtag disabling they did, so I haven’t missed being on there like I once expected to. I’ve also been helping my friend Brooke to get a new community off of the ground on Locals, and while it’s not very active yet, it’s been nice to have that smaller community feel again. What can I say, I’m an introvert, I get overwhelmed by all of the crowd noise. But I’m still hoping that it will pick up.

So in lieu of sewing, and aside from the obvious things like raising kids and homeschooling, I’ve been reading lots of books. I’ve gotten really into digital scrapbooking this year, to the point where our family album pages are pretty caught up most of the time and I’m starting to work on redoing some of my old paper albums. I also got asked to join a designer’s creative team on Pixel Scrapper, which is where I’ve been sharing my pages. So that’s been a fun challenge, and a good craft for me on days where I don’t have much brainpower at the end of the day, or want something creative to work on that I can do while the kids are awake and I can’t have sharp objects out.

I think this step back was needed for me, since this year has basically been a forced midlife crisis for me. (No, really, as I’m turning 40 in a few months.) I’m beginning to feel more motivated to get my wardrobe back into a better place again, that hopefully fits both my new stay at home lifestyle and my personal style. I’ve also been taking baby steps to get myself physically in better shape, since between the last sedentary-out-of-necessity pregnancy and quarantine weight gain, it’s not been a great combo. I have plans formulating, and I hope to share more soon.

The Chemainus Event

For my most recent finished project (finished in October, I just haven’t gotten around to adding the pictures until now), I did something unusual for me — I got so smitten by a newly released pattern that I bought it and sewed it up almost immediately. Or, at least what passes for immediately in my slow sewing world!

My one decent photo that I managed before the minions showed up…

The pattern is the Chemainus top, from Itch to Stitch. I think that by this point, I can safely call ItS my favorite current indie pattern company. It’s nice to have one again, since I haven’t fangirled so regularly over any pattern company since Sewaholic essentially vanished overnight. I’ve been wanting something along the lines of a loose woven tee for awhile, and this one caught my eye for both the pattern/ color blocking possibilities, and the nursing friendliness. (Of course, by the time I finished, Baby Girl was weaned! But I’m admittedly not sorry to be done with that life stage.)

Also pre-haircut, since by this point, I hadn’t managed one in about 13 months.

One thing that did slow me down a bit was that my finished top is my second attempt. I initially decided to play with this border print crepe that a friend gifted me with ages ago, thinking that it might work well to highlight the print. I was hoping that it would show more of the black, gray, and ivory. It didn’t work out that great, though. The polyester refused to hold a press for the neck binding, which made it quite fiddly. And when I tried it on, aside from sizing issues, all I could see was the taupe framing my face. Now, I have very strong feelings about taupe, and none of them are positive. So I called it a wearable muslin and moved on.

And the photobombing begins!

For my second try, I used a rayon challis that I’d bought for a dress years ago, but never got to. It’s probably for the best, because I would have had to fully line it if there had been a skirt involved, but as a top it doesn’t seem too sheer.

In the crepe version, I graded two sizes larger for the hips, based on my measurements. That turned out to be huge, so I slimmed it down approximately one size in the rayon. I ended up having to rip a large section of the side seams out and take it in even further. Also, oddly, the dart placement seemed fine in the first version, but I had to move it up nearly 2″ in the second one! (Which was admittedly good for my ego, after 3 rounds of breastfeeding.) That meant the top leg of the dart is basically in the armpit curve now, but it’s probably one of those things that only I notice when it’s on. It’s not affecting the comfort, so I’ll roll with it.

Overall, I like this pattern enough to keep playing with it, though that will likely wait for warmer weather plans. I think it’ll be a nice breezy style for wovens for our hot and humid days. And there’s definitely fun potential for stripe placement, though I botched that on this one. (Note to self, cut on the regular grain instead of the cross.) I think next time, I’ll do an entire size smaller overall, and check the dart placement again. I’m also considering both narrowing and shortening the placket. As it is, it’s ending at my navel, so I think it could benefit from going an entire button shorter.

I do have some leftover yardage that I need to figure out a plan for, too. I don’t think this will be a good candidate for a mommy and me look, given that my daughter has steamrolled into the toddler stage over the last few months, and a basically white dress would never survive her messy ways!