Three to end ‘23

Another unintentional long silence, but here I am again! It’s been a rather crazy busy several months, with my first school year of trying to homeschool all 3 of my kids. Technically, I don’t legally have to teach my daughter until next year, but since I have a preschool program I like and she’s old enough for our co-op, we’re doing this. I’ve also been taking a larger role in said co-op, leading my younger son’s class. So much of my time to write is currently dedicated to preparing for those.

That being said, I do have a few finished projects that I wanted to share before the year ends. My sewing is still slower than ever, but I’m working it in when I can.

First up, I made a second pair of the Jalie Vanessa pants. Since the denim Tencel pair I had from before is still a good fit, I went ahead and made them in the same size. That may have been a mistake, since I forgot to account for the higher amount of drape in this olive rayon twill. The result is that they’re a bit baggy for my taste. I’ll need to think through options for what to wear on top, aside from this perfectly-matching Anthropologie sweater that I bought way back for some engagement photos, but I at least got a few wears out of them in the fall, before it got cold enough that I’ve been pretty much in my boots all the time.

The second is a refashion that I made on a whim for my daughter. She’s rather obsessed with the Frozen movies, and when I was meeting with some of the other moms in our co-op, the one who was hosting offered us first pick on some clothes that her daughter had outgrown. When I saw these two pairs of Frozen-themed pajama pants that had no matching tops, I instantly got inspired to turn them into a dress. The waffle-knit blue top was in there too. So I cut the pants into rectangles, inserted some triangles from some stashed white knit to give it maximum twirl — a very important factor for my daughter, along with the mandatory pockets– resized the top a bit, and added Elsa and Anna as appliques. She was thrilled with it, and has worn it several times since.

The last one is the Busan top, by Itch to Stitch. I’ve had a regular jersey knit that was gifted to me along with the pattern, when my mom gave it to me a few Christmases ago, and I’ll still make that up at some point, I’m sure. But I’ve also been wanting to make a new holiday party top, since the sequined one I made a few years ago lost a lot of sequins and really looks terrible now. I had this teal crushed velvet, and while it was a risk using it on an untested pattern, I figured taking the time to test it would mean I wouldn’t get it done until February. As it was, I still didn’t manage to get it done in time for either of the two annual parties I go to, or Christmas Eve, but I did get it done in time for New Year’s Eve! I’m considering reworking the neckline to a more open one, because this reads kind of 1980s to me and I’m not a fan of that fashion era. We’ll see what happens.

So, to revisit my Make Nine goal for 2023, I managed 4-5 of the nine. I’m counting the Busan as frivolous, and the pants as something for fall — I’m not sure it quite hits the wardrobe gap. As for the quilt, I did start it, and got as far as cutting all the blocks and figuring out the design. But then I set it aside. For one thing, my husband spontaneously repainted the room over this past year, and since I pulled fabrics from my stash with the old wall in mind, the colors don’t quite go anymore. Also, she told me she wants a Frozen bedspread instead. Lately she’s been asking about the quilt again, so maybe it’ll happen?

This did end up being a bigger quilting year than I anticipated, either way. My church started a quilt ministry to make blankets for local foster children, so I’ve been helping out with that around once a month. I did finish one lap-sized quilt top, and have a second started. And I did start a quilt top for myself with some panels I bought last year, though I don’t really have the design entirely worked out yet.

This is usually the part of the year where I post all my grand goals for the next, but this year, I’m keeping it simple. After all, this is likely the smallest amount of sewing I have to show for any year since I started this blog, except for maybe the baby years. So, while I have things I’d like to accomplish in 2024 (I’m looking at you, swimsuit fabric), the only goal I’m setting is to sew for at least one hour every week. There were big chunks of the year where I didn’t make a stitch for weeks at a time, and I’m feeling a need for more consistency again. Whether this makes a good dent in my ongoing stashbusting, or I do manage to get back to the wardrobe building outfit chains I’ve done in years past, or whether I only manage a few garments all year, it’s fine. At this stage of my life, I just don’t want to lose touch with a hobby I’ve loved for so long, and integrate that into the stress relief practices that I need to build for my health.

Mid year Make Nine Update

This summer is just flying by! Now that the year is basically halfway done, I think it’s a good time to revisit and reevaluate my Make Nine goal for the year.

I’ve managed a third of the grid so far, which is less than I’d hoped for. And only one of these projects was actually for me. So to recap: the “Something for winter” was my Malala sweater, and the “pattern stashed awhile” was a 2017 Ottobre shirt for my younger son.

The “Little girl skorts” were for my family’s annual tie dye day, and a commission from my mom. She’s not sewing these days, since she’s my niece’s full time daycare. It ended up turning into a skort and a dress each for my daughter and my niece, who are currently wearing the same size. For the skort, I used a pattern I’ve made multiple times before, the Chicka Chicka Bum Bums by Peekaboo Patterns. Since the girls are older than last time, I was able to use the shorts view underneath without the diaper cut. And I added patch pockets, since both girls (rightfully) appreciate having those. This is the best picture I’ve been able to get of my girl wearing them, along with a purchased tee she also dyed that day.

Silly girl.

The dress was from the March 2017 issue of Ottobre, called “California Surf” (or something very similar.) It’s really more of a beach coverup style than anything else, with a hood and a kangaroo pocket. My daughter was quite excited about both. This was mostly straightforward to sew, though a little fiddly with the binding at times. I ended up sewing it on my regular machine, rather than my coverstitch, because it was so narrow and the needle width isn’t adjustable on my coverstitch machine.

I did dye some things for myself as well, but since I haven’t had a chance to photograph them all yet, I’ll do that in a separate post.

Some updates about the other squares: I’ve made some progress on the quilt. No sewing yet, but all of the colorful squares are cut, and I’m about halfway through cutting out the solid rectangles. I’m at the point now where the kids occasionally let me do cutting work in the kitchen while they’re awake, though my daughter will occasionally try to “help”. So hopefully I’ll get some time to finish that part of the process too.

I’ve been making an attempt at the swimsuit. Though I already knew that I want to use the Jalie shorts and swim shirt patterns that I used the last time I did swimwear, I’ve been getting stuck on a third piece. It’s necessary, since the swim shirt has zero bust support, but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the tankini attempt that I did last time. And since I basically never use the suit without that swim shirt, I figured that maybe I can get away with more of a bikini type top this time. In the interest of using what I have, I decided to test out one of the older Seamwork patterns, the Florence bra, to see if it might make a decent swim top.

To be blunt, it was kind of a flop. Part of it could be my materials, since I was just using jersey scraps and leftover elastics from the nursing bras I made around 6 years ago. I didn’t have enough for the bottom, so I had to use fold over elastic for that, and it’s not exactly snug on me. Either way, it’s supportive enough to use for sleeping, but not for actually walking around in, since it doesn’t exactly hold anything necessary in place. And that was after taking the back in a full 2.5”! I also wasn’t thrilled with the construction, since I had to fiddle a lot to get the non-lace upper cup to lie flat. I ended up adding elastic, but felt that wouldn’t translate well to my swim fabric. To be perfectly blunt, I just don’t think I have the mental bandwidth to figure out all the changes I’d need to make, between getting the straps to work and lining it.

At this point, since it’s almost July and our summer hasn’t been as water intensive as usual — we haven’t even been to the beach yet— I’m honestly thinking I’m just going to shelve this project for now and give myself some more time to consider it. Feeling like I’m working past a deadline is leaving me uninspired and a little stressed, which is not what I need from what’s supposed to be my relaxing, self care hobby. I think I’m going to swap out that “something for summer”, too. As scattered as my sewing time is lately, I think it might be best for me to just start sewing for the next season. So here’s my slightly altered Make Nine grid:

I’m changing summer to fall, and the other to a wild card. We’ll see if I have to apply this retroactively to mending my boys’ pants or something!

Year End Wrap Up, Part 1

It’s been an exceptionally slow several months of sewing for me, as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t updated this since July. A lot of my time over the second half of the year has been spent on things like homeschooling my kids, since my middle child is in kindergarten this year and the demands are higher with two kids that are at the state-required age for “real” school. (Not that it’s hard in my state, since I’m only required to submit attendance, but I’m still trying to give them a quality education!) And I’ve been spending a good bit of time dealing with some health issues that have cropped up suddenly since the fall. So between that and my husband working a hybrid schedule that leaves me with less computer access, I’ve been struggling with less energy and needing to balance the things I need to use the computer for, namely school prep and the digital scrapbooking, since I’m still doing a creative team and trying to keep up with current family pictures while they’re still fresh in my mind. All that to say, my sewing time has suffered.

I do have two finished projects to show from the past season. The first is a Plitvice tee, from Itch to Stitch. This was filling a major hole in my wardrobe — there were so many times over the summer where I wished I had just a plain black tee to wear with skirts! So I finally got to it in the fall. I’ve learned over the years that solids don’t often excite me to sew, unless the pattern has some textural or seam interest. So the draped front of this tee was a good element for me. The pattern wasn’t a difficult one, though it still took me well over a month to construct just because of the lack of time. I’m pleased with the results, though, and would definitely like to revisit this at some point. The drape didn’t really photograph well here, so here’s a smaller shot of that.

The second is a simple refashion of the chambray shirtdress that I made largely during the 2020 lockdown. I finally had an opportunity to wear it in the fall of that year, to a cousin’s bridal shower. When I saw pictures from the event, though, I realized that I hated the way it looked on me, especially from the side. And just because I’m officially middle-aged now doesn’t mean that I want my clothes, especially the handmade stuff, to make me feel frumpy! So I took off the epaulettes, which looked too forward on my shoulders, and the belt. Those have been really hard to place for me since the pregnancies altered my waistline anyway. Then it sat in my closet for nearly two years while I tried to figure out what to do with it. I considered trying to turn it into a skirt, but in the end I kept it simple and just shortened it into a shacket. A good move, I think, since I got to keep all four pockets and I’ve already worn it more than when it was a dress.

I’d still like to go back and make a chambray shirtdress to be a wardrobe staple at some point, but I think I’ll need to choose a pattern that has a different style of waist definition. Belting just doesn’t work for me right now.

Since I’m using this as a year end wrap up, I do also have two other projects in progress. The first is a quilt that I need to finish cutting out pieces for the top. We ended up moving my daughter out of her converted crib toddler bed into a twin size bed this year. My mom made twin size quilts for both boys, and my girl has a crib-sized quilt from her, but my mom has even less sewing time than I do since she watches my niece full time and can’t do later evening sewing anymore. It’s going to be a more basic block top instead of the fancier appliquéd quilts that my boys have, but hopefully she’ll like it, when I can get it assembled.

I’m also making a Deer and Doe Fumenterre skirt that’s been in my queue for years. I’d originally had a whole autumn wardrobe chain planned around this skirt, but the time just got away from me this fall. I’m thinking maybe I’ll just make one coordinating top and then revisit this later next year. I recently managed the main obstacle (remembering how to do a fly zipper after nearly a decade, with sketchy instructions), so I’m hoping I can finish that before the end of the year. We’ll see how it goes.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I do like to reflect on the goals that I made and what I might want to do next year. So, to review my 2021 goals, here’s what I said:

1. Find a better time balance between sewing and scrapbooking, so I can continue to progress in both. This is still a challenge due to my life stage — sitting down at the computer to work on a digital page is still much easier while the kids are awake, than breaking out scissors and pins! But doing my 100 Day Project this year helped me realize that a good target for me is sewing 2-3 times a week, for 15-20 minutes. When I can get more, great, but that gives grace for things like kid bedtimes running late, or needing to prep school things, or my brain being so fried that I’ll have to pick out every wrong seam I sew. Or, you know, actually spending time with my husband.
2. Make some “cake”! I did make a few good, often-worn basics this year, like my black Jade skirt and the denim jacket. So I’ll say this one was accomplished.
3. But don’t forget some frosting. Did I get this one? Maybe the grunge print jeans, though I really did need some pants. Or my Carlsbad vest, which I would have worn more often if I’d had some more tees that aren’t geeky graphic prints. I had some more frosting planned, but I just didn’t get to it.
4. Figure out the “mom wardrobe” styling thing. This one is a work in progress for sure. But I do think that the chain sewing helped a lot, since I was thinking in terms of building outfits instead of one-off pieces.
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. I definitely have had some dry spells, and a big takeaway for me from this year is that I can easily slip into sewing droughts if I either don’t know what my next project will be when I finish one, or if I can’t get my next project cut out quickly. Usually the latter, since my life is the equivalent of multiple stars having to align to make that happen (and usually revolving around how quickly my kids go to sleep!

As for community, I’m still trying to figure that one out. One thing I’ve come to realize about myself over these past two years is that my introversion applies to social media as well. I thrive in smaller, more intimate groups, especially when I’m not always the one initiating. Obviously, in-person is ideal, and more than ever now that we all know what it’s like to have that taken away. Online is a good next best thing, but I need to put that in a healthy context. So The Sewing Sphere is still a good place for me, my only complaint is that sometimes it’s just too quiet!

And I’ve debated so many times over this year whether to close down my Instagram account. It’s too big, too much noise, too little feedback. I honestly miss the days when blogging was THE thing, and we all commented on each other’s posts and had actual conversations. Even though that’s unlikely to come back, I suppose that’s why I keep writing here— just my own quiet space to record my thoughts, whether anyone reads them or not. Anyway. That leads me to my first 2022 goal.

2022 Goals

1. Focus on what really matters. The more my family has grown, the more the online stuff has given me the “butter scraped over too much bread” feeling. I plan to keep writing here as I make things, and chatting in the Sewing Sphere. But it’s time for me to seriously cut back on the rest. My not so inner introvert will be happier that way.
2. Get back to some refashioning. I have an entire bin in the basement, not to mention some things that have been sitting in the closet for over a year, despite needing small tweaks (ok, and one major overhaul) to be wearable.
3. Make and/or build on two outfit chains. While I’ve learned that “make this many garments” or pre-choosing specific pattern goals doesn’t work well for me, I think this one might. Especially since it allows for flexibility in building capsules out of things already in my closet.
4. Stashbust! Admittedly, 2021 was the year that I’ve bought more fabric for myself than any other year since probably the Paris trip of 2014. But I turned 40 and had gift cards, so, why not? That being said, I do have quite the backlog of things like fabrics paired with specific patterns, so I think it might be interesting to see how many “chain reaction” pieces I can build with what I already own.
5. Make something that stretches me. I don’t know what, exactly, this will look like yet. Perhaps trying some lingerie sewing, since I’ve been wearing the same three nursing bras that I sewed five years ago, and they’re getting ratty. Perhaps trying a new technique, or mixing prints in the same garment, or trying to make a zero-waste garment. (Which would be a huge challenge, since a lot of what I see looks shapeless and that is not what I prefer to wear.) But I have 12 months to figure that out, right?
6. (Bonus!) Update my blog header. Seriously, as much practice as I’ve gotten with digital collage things over the past two years, surely I can come up with something better than that shoddy fabric stack photo!

2021, wrapped

All together, I made 17 projects this year – 3 Halloween costumes, 3 toddler garments, 2 pairs of pants (one being a test garment/ part of a pj set), 3 tops (one being another test and the second half of that pj set), 2 shorts, 1 skirt, 1 dress, 1 vest, and one jacket. I haven’t felt very productive in my sewing, but all things considered, that’s a good number!

Itch to Stitch was the clear winner in pattern company choices this year, largely due to trying multiple garments in her Sew Beautiful book. I have a long-term goal of sewing every pattern in that book, since her aesthetic is very wearable for me. Other companies used: Paprika Patterns, 5 Out of 4 Patterns, Sew Liberated, Hey June Handmade, New Look, Simplicity (for the boys’ costumes), Ottobre (for my daughter’s costume), and Peekaboo Pattern Shop (for my daughter and niece.) I’m hoping to at least start one more top before the year officially ends, but have gotten bogged down in the finding time to cut out part again.

Probably the most worn garments from this year were the Atenas jacket and Mountain View jeans. I still feel like pants are something that my wardrobe needs more of, so the ones I have are in frequent rotation. And the jacket was a useful layering piece. I really would like to make a second one, and have had the thought in my head all year that I’d like to make it from the pile of jeans in my refashion bin. The biggest hole remaining in my wardrobe (aside from the very sad state of the aforementioned bras) seems to be, of all things, a plain black tee. But I’m in the beginning stages of plotting my next wardrobe chain, and a black tee could fit perfectly into that.

In other DIY news, I totally failed at knitting again (I’m actually wondering if that cardigan is even worth finishing, since my sizing is pretty different after 3 kids than when I started it with just one). According to my favorite digital scrapping site’s gallery, I made over 200 pages on there this year. (I use a lot of templates to speed it up.) My husband and I have been working on intentionally developing some other skills to increase our self-reliance this year, so we’ve been spending more time on gardening in particular. We’ve also been experimenting with some toiletries. So far, we’ve gotten a lesson from my mom in making soap, and are perfecting a recipe for a more natural, aluminum free deodorant that seems to be working well for both of us.

So that basically sums it up! How was your year?

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.

A decade in review

I was catching up on some blogs, and saw a post from Doctor T Designs where she did a retrospective on her best projects from the last decade. Since I’ve been writing about my sewing for well over that, I thought it might be fun to do the same thing. Fortunately, I’ve long been a fan of the year end review, so finding my favorites from each year was easy! So let’s hop into the TARDIS and do a little time traveling to see the best 10 projects of the 2010s, shall we?

Burdastyle 5/2009, #110

2010: This was basically the Golden Age of my crafting life. I was single and working multiple jobs, but I spent a lot of my free time making stuff. So I was working a lot on improving my sewing technique. I was making jewelry. I was dabbling in screenprinting, and doing paper scrapbooks. I was also subscribed to BurdaStyle at the time, and as someone who grew up sewing the Big 4 almost exclusively, this was my stepping stone into the world of indie patterns. I was so proud of how this blouse turned out, and wore it often. It’s no longer in my wardrobe, as it was too fitted for all of the body changes that this decade brought me. Maybe I should see if the pattern is anywhere near my current size and give this one a reboot!

A multi-Burda hack job

2011: It looks like this was a year that I was really into experimenting. While trying to find the pattern for this pair of pants (which turned out to be 3 patterns), I came across a bunch of refashions. I seemed to have been rather into knitting that year, too, and finished my first sweater. As for these pants, they were directly inspired by a pair I’d seen from Anthropologie, which was a favorite inspiration source at the time. On a personal note, this was also the year that I met and started dating Doug, though not till the end of the year!

My first jeans!

2012. This was the year that I got engaged. This was also the year that I made my first successful pair of real jeans! They weren’t perfect, and haven’t fit since about 2015, but they were a great learning experience. I’d love to take on a project like this again.

The biggest sewing project of my life!

2013, and picking the project for this year was a no brainer! The first half of this year was almost exclusively focused on wedding planning and crafting. Including this little number, loaded with couture techniques and yards upon yards of fabric. I can’t imagine how much of that I would have needed if I’d done a train!

Vogue peacoat

2014 was a tough year to choose a favorite! I was sewing a lot of Sewaholic at the time, including multiple pairs of Thurlow pants (another pattern that I need to revisit). But in the end, I picked my heavy, nonwool winter coat. It’s still going strong 6 years later, and I cannot believe it’s been that long since I made it!

Maternity, or not maternity?

2015 was a game changer for me, for both life and sewing, as it was the year that my older son was born. So I did a lot of pattern hacking for maternity clothes, as most designers I knew of then didn’t start putting out maternity patterns until after. That includes this altered Simplicity pattern, which I still wear frequently as a non maternity skirt as well.

Cashmerette Appleton dress

2016 is currently kind of a blur in my head, between the toddler who refused to sleep through the night until the end of that year and ending up pregnant again more quickly than I’d expected! But I did have time to make a few things, including this hacked sleeve Appleton dress. I was pleased that it ended up how I’d pictured it in my head. This one is also still in my closet, though it’s definitely in need of some layering with the nursing factor!

Jalie Vanessa pants

2017: the year my second son was born, which meant a big learning curve in adjusting to being a mom to multiple kids! My best of the year for this one is a little surprising, as I was on the fence about whether the Vanessa pants were a win or fail in my top 5 roundup. But they’ve turned out to be versatile, at least for the warmer months, and I actually have fabric to make a second pair now. (A Deer & Doe Bruyere blouse was a close second.)

McCall’s 7350

2018: another year of trying new things (swimsuits! Pull up jeans! Using a coverstitch machine!) And this was also the year that I remembered that I still like Big 4 patterns as well, though indies dominated my decade. I thought about choosing the swimsuit, but this McCall’s maxidress was honestly my favorite project of the year. I’ve realized that since the kids were born, I’ve been very focused on practical clothing needs and learning how to fit all of the newer curves through multiple major body shifts. This project was simply for fun and because I liked it. I think I needed that. Though, on a practical note, this dress did work well for a few maternity wearings and is very nursing friendly, so it’ll get even better use this summer!

Grainline Archer

Which brings me to this year, and another one dominated by adding a baby to our family. Though I recently stated that the Pony Tank was my best pattern this year, I think the Archer was the winner in terms of stretching my sewing, especially after being necessarily knits focused for awhile.

So there you have it! 10 years, 10 projects. What was your favorite project or projects of the decade?

Sewing top 5: The Best-Laid Plans

Once upon a time, I had sewing goals for 2019. (And a knitting goal.) But then I found out that I was pregnant last New Year’s Eve, and my goals didn’t happen. The end.

via GIPHY

Ok, not quite, but that certainly threw a wrench in my plans! Just to review, here’s what they were:

1. Leave room for frosting. Yeah, this year has been all about necessities. Especially since I had virtually nothing to wear for my entire summer third trimester, until one of my cousins generously donated her unneeded maternity clothes.
2. Work on the “Mom Wardrobe”. I guess this happened in some way, it just happened to be mostly maternity mom!
3. Get creative with some #sewingleftovers. I guess I’m good on this one now, until my daughter has her own fashion opinions…
4. Work on my styling. Totally didn’t happen, since the first 3/4 of the year was “anything that fits”, and right now it’s “anything warm with nursing access.”
5. Finish up my Gnarled Oak cardigan for real this time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA… yeah. Haven’t touched that one in months.

So now that that’s out of the way, the upside to having all of my plans thrown out the proverbial window is that I’ve had plenty of time to consider what might be realistic goals for 2020. Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. Embrace the slow and steady. Besides living up to my blog’s music-inspired title, it just makes sense for now. Big chunks of sewing time don’t happen often for me in this life stage. Even the “Sew in 30” tag that I’ve seen about Instagram is often more than I can manage. So what I’ve been trying to do throughout the fall, and would like to carry into the new year, is aiming for a more consistent sewing practice. I know I can’t do daily, since I have some weekly evening rehearsals and sometimes the kids just don’t let it happen. But even only 10-15 minutes a few times a week add up.
2. Attack the refashion/scrap bins. I’ve missed refashioning, and I have a few obvious candidates to tackle — the vest that died in the wash, de-maternifying the shorts I made last year since the alternate waistbands are already cut and waiting– but I also have a bin of clothes to recycle that’s been largely untouched for a few years. I also have some rather largeish scraps that have been lingering in two other bins. It’s time to start paring that down and either get these textiles into my wardrobe (or possibly baby girl’s), or get them out of my house to make room for new things.
3. Bust some stash. As you may recall, I got a LOT of fabric for Christmas last year. Like 73 yards of it. And while several of the things I made were from that haul, since I thankfully had the foresight to look at some patterns that would work with the thought that I might end up pregnant, a lot more of it than I planned went untouched. I’m not going to say I won’t buy anything, since I’m sure I’ll need buttons and thread and such, but I do want to focus more on using up what I already have instead of buying more.
4. Have a plan, but hold it loosely. The #makenine feels a little restrictive for me at this point, especially since I have certain limits in place already (hellooooo, nursing wardrobe!) I like the other idea I’ve seen of the Seasonal Sew 3, and I think I’m going to aim more for that. But at this point, I think I’m going to play it like choose 2 projects at the beginning of a season, possibly one simple and one more involved, and then add a third depending on how my sewing time runs. I do know I have two projects with a deadline (a nursing-friendly dress for a family wedding, and the hopefully wearable muslin blouse I need to make first), so I’ll have to factor that in for probably the late winter into the early spring to make sure that gets done on time.
5. I’m carrying this one over from this past year: Work on my styling. Because I really didn’t have a chance to do that in 2019. I still feel like this is going to be a struggle for awhile, because I’m having a really hard time lately putting outfits together with the hodgepodge of nursing-friendly-enough/seasonally appropriate things in my closet. I’ve mostly been wearing jeans and the same 3 plaid shirts, and then wracking my brains every Sunday morning for something a little nicer that I can still nurse in, particularly on the Sundays that I’m up front with my flute. But since it’s easier to factor in nursing for clothes with wardrobe longevity than with maternity, I’m hoping that I can start making some intelligent choices to fill in the gaps, and finally get some of that wardrobe cohesion that I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. (You know, as long as I can still bust stash. And keep my prints.)

And maybe, just maaaaaaaaaaaaybe, I’ll finish that sweater sometime in the next decade.

via GIPHY

2019 top 5: Highlights

To continue this year’s top 5 series. I think that I’m going to skip reflections this time, since so much of my sewing was dictated by my pregnancy and I can’t really make any commentary about what it says about my style or anything. But I can talk about the non-sewing highlights. So here goes…

1. The baby, obviously. 2019 was all about the baby. This pregnancy was the most challenging of the 3 for me, since it combined the 9 months of near- constant nausea from my first with the breathing problems from my second (the problem was apparently all in my deep diaphragm-breathing flutist’s head, but that didn’t make me feel any less constantly out of breath), with the added challenge of 2 active little boys to care for. I spent most of the summer particularly feeling like a miserable lump, and had to go back to physical therapy for my previous pregnancy hip injury because it flared up again during my third trimester. But the actual labor felt rather empowering to me this time, since I was able to handle both calmly walking myself into the maternity ward while in full labor (9.5 cm dialated! Doug was parking the car, since things moved faster than anticipated again), and pushing her out without panicking about no time for the epidural. Our plan is for this to be the last baby, because I don’t think that I can physically or mentally handle another pregnancy. But this sweet little girl was worth every moment of it. (This is her modeling the Petal Dress that I made from all of the corduroy vest leftovers.)
2. School days. Can you believe that my oldest is preschool age? We decided to homeschool this year for many reasons, though a huge factor was the timing of little sister arriving right at the beginning of the school year. We didn’t think that our often sensitive boy would respond well to the combination of a new sibling plus suddenly being sent away from us for hours at a time. And the thought of dealing with an imposed outside schedule plus a newborn and toddler made me really stressed out! So far, it’s been working out well for us. We did sign him up for a once a week homeschool class to give him some social time, which he loves. And we’ve been working through the alphabet and some basic math, which we did already do once, but mostly just through reading books because that was all I could handle while sick. He had picked up on counting well before, and is starting to grasp the concepts of addition and subtraction now. And he’s recently expressed interest in learning to read, since he’s picked up a few words. (Mostly his name, and “poop”, from one of his dinosaur books. Yes, he is definitely fitting the 4 year old boy stereotype here.) And I’ve been including his little brother wherever I can, which I think he’s enjoying. This picture is a recent one from learning what 100 looks like.
3. The 100 Days Project. Speaking of 100… Even when I was feeling too sick to sew, I still needed a creative outlet! If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know that I’ve done scrapbooking steadily since I was a teenager, and last year, I started dabbling with doing it digitally. It’s been working out great for me, especially as something where all I needed to physically do was sit upright. So this year, I upgraded to a version of Photoshop that was actually made this decade, and dove in. I couldn’t quite manage doing it on consecutive days, largely due to an illness with a headache that forced me off screens for several days, but I signed up for the 100 Days Project to get some momentum going. And largely thanks to that, I busted through nearly the entire backlog of family photos that needed to be dealt with since getting pregnant with the younger boy, and have managed to stay almost entirely caught up on this year in the meantime! I’m not sure if the link will work unless you have an account with the site, but just in case, all of the 100 Days Project layouts are in an online gallery here, along with all of the other digital layouts I’ve made over the last year or so.
4. All the books. This was actually a pretty good reading year for me, and I beat my Goodreads goal of 60 books. (Granted, some of this was short easy reader chapter books that I read aloud, like the first few Magic Treehouse books, but I’ll happily count everything that’s longer than a picture book.) A few favorite reads this year: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Skyward by Brandon Sanderson (one of my favorite authors), The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King, The Woodcutter by Kate Danley, Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy, and the first 3 books of The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. (The 4th wasn’t available at my library and is currently out of print while they are reprinting with new cover art, the book I’m linking is currently on preorder for that set, so I’ll have to wait to finish the series.) Can you tell I’m a fiction girl? I’m currently working through a long historic fiction set in Renaissance Italy (Voice of the Falconer, by David Blixt, mostly during overnight feedings), and the next pick for the book club that I’m in (The Moment of Lift, by Melinda Gates).
5. Hmmm. I guess for this one, I’ll say family life in general. Doug is being very supportive of my need to get out for breaks, usually of the music rehearsal variety, and is great about getting things done around the house so it’s not all on me. And aside from daily struggles around dinnertime (extremely stubborn picky eaters), and some more recent very physical fighting, the boys are both at a fun age where they can usually play well together and communicate well with me.

So that pretty much sums it up! How was your year?

 

Sewing Top 5(ish): Hits and Misses edition

It’s the most wonderful time of the sewing blogger year! I always enjoy reading through people’s reviews of their year, and having a summary of my own to look back on. Though I may not be able to be quite so literal about the top 5 thing this time. I looked back quickly over my 2019 posts, and I only have 5 for the entire year! Granted, I often shared multiple projects in each post. Still, clearly, this was not my year for either sewing or writing about it. So, since I don’t feel like every project translated clearly into either hits or misses, let’s see how this plays out.

The definite hits:

1. My MVP (Most Valuable Pattern) of the year award goes to the Chalk & Notch Pony tank. I basically lived in these all summer long, between two that I made for myself and two that my mom made for me out of some of her leftover fabric. The one I’m picturing here, from this fun print featuring many of the British things that I love (tea! Beatles lyrics!) never made it to the blog, though I did share it on my instagram account. I finished it back around the beginning of July, and this picture was from when I was around 7 months pregnant. It’s too cold to take a new one now! I suspect this pattern will have some staying power in my life, since it’s a great breezy tank for our notorious summer humidity. Even when I’m not suffering through it in third trimester misery.

2. The other project that didn’t make it onto the blog: I finally made a wearable muslin of the Hudson pants, years after that bandwagon left the station. To give them a mini writeup: They’re from stashed ponte, originally tagged for a sewing dare that I never had a chance to complete. (Sorry, Gillian!) I added a wedge to the back rise, lengthened the legs instead of adding the bands to the bottom (I figured that would look better with the clunky, made for men sneakers that my extra wide feet often force me to buy), and I skipped the waistband stitching to make the drawstring channel. My reasoning for the latter is that I’m most likely going to be dropping some weight over the next several months, now that my “fourth trimester” is over, and I wanted less to unpick if I need to adjust the elastic. I need to figure out an easy solution to keep the elastic from rolling in the wash, because basting in some side seams didn’t work, that fell out in the wash. But for comfy mom pants that I don’t have to be embarrassed to run errands in, they’re definitely a win.

3. The overdue Archer shirt. It was on my to-make list for about 2 years in a row, and then by the time I finished it, I only got to wear it once before I outgrew it! But I’m making up for it now that I’m out of maternity clothes, since it’s one of the only warm nursing-friendly shirts I currently own. Also, it looks great with my RTW gold jeans, which are one of the only 5 pairs of non-Hudson pants that (mostly) fit me right now. (Of course, this is also the picture from when I was pregnant.) Now that I’ve been able to really test the fit, I’m much happier with the tweaks I made to the sleeves and the hips. I do wish it was a couple of inches longer, because I do feel like the proportions are a bit off on me lengthwise, but otherwise, I feel confident in saying this can now be a go-to buttoned shirt pattern for me.

A hit and a miss:

This picture pretty much sums it up perfectly! The wolf shirt that I recently made was a definite win for my younger boy. He’s worn it regularly since, and was very happy the other day when I hand-stitched the ears so they’d stay up. My older boy, on the other hand, has worn the shirt about twice, and never voluntarily. I finally ended up taking it out of his closet this week, telling him that if he asks me for it on his own, I’ll give it back, but otherwise, I’m setting it aside for when his little brother outgrows his. Sadly, he didn’t put up much of a fight about it.

The misses:

Aside from the wolf shirts, the vests that I recently made for the boys to go along with their daddy’s were a definite miss. They still haven’t worn them past the approximate 30 seconds during our hiking day. The younger boy may still get a few sewn things from me, but I’m thinking that unless he specifically asks me to make something for him, with the possible exception of a Halloween costume, I’m done sewing for the older boy until further notice. (I really wish I’d figured this out before I’d ordered a themed fabric panel for each of the kids, but at least I’ll have fun sewing up the baby’s. She can’t argue with me about it yet!)

2. On a similar note, my vest. Between the sizing issues that came from guessing at my size during the third trimester, and the shredded fabric problem, it’s just unwearable. I’ve currently got this hanging in the sewing portion of my closet, partially deconstructed and in need of picking a new lining fabric. I think that next time, I’m going to go for one of the cottons in my stash, because obviously the brocade was a bad choice. But since I have to take it apart anyway, at least I’ll be able to fix the sizing while I’m at it. It’s just a question of how long it’ll take, because I’ve got multiple projects in various stages of work that are currently higher priority to me.

Tied for third: these two refashions that I threw together back in the winter. The thing is, I just haven’t worn them since these pictures. I don’t think it’s a complete lost cause, it’s just that they’re both kind of in the “closet orphan” category right now, due to having surprisingly limited options of what to wear while I’m in the nursing stage. Also, I still want to dye the knitted shrug to better fit in with my wardrobe colors, and need to figure out what color. Maybe teal?

So, maybe it’s all of the hormonal craziness that’s been messing with my head all year long, but I’m kind of struggling with feeling positive about my sewing output this time. I mean, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do for myself during the maternity/immediate postpartum stage, which was a full 3/4 of my year. And it seems like it’s easier to see what didn’t turn out as hoped this time, but it was also a lot more dependent on, say, the whims of children under 5, since I did a lot more sewing for others than usual. So I think this is going to be a good month to regroup, finish up the couple of projects that I currently have going, and start with a fresh slate in the new year.