Summer holidays

We are on summer holidays for a week. It is going to be lovely.

Although I didn't manage to finish any sewing for myself before we left - my shorts are two thirds done, but my saltspring remains a dream, I have packed some knitting.

I usually give myself a choice of projects, but this time the box of yarn was in a tricky spot, so I took the easy option if picking what I could reach.

I've been knitting for a very long time, but I've never really knitted anything for myself. I'm choosing not to count the practice cables that became the world's smallest scarf. I picked the yarn and this jumper about 18 months ago. I loved the summery feel.

Then I started knitting it. It is a very basic lace-style pattern that creates a mesh look. Unfortunately if you make a mistake the whole  thing unravels - quickly. I know because it has happened to me twice. The second time I was so disgusted I put the whole thing away, then I got pregnant again and thoughts of this completely disappeared.

Now we're at my parents' house At the beach and I love to sit on the couch and knit with my Mum. So I'm giving it a go again. I don't like to admit defeat, but I do feel if I don't finish this soon, I really should give away the yarn to someone who will actually use it.

Progress so far is just rib, but slowly slowly...

The Monthly Stitch January: New year = New skill

So in my plan to sew along, I thought I'd try keeping up with the Monthly Stitch. After all, the theme is for an entire month and I think mostly I can either use it as inspiration, or fit my sewing within the theme.

The challenge for January is a new skill. Being a short term sewer (sewist? clothier? seamstress? person who owns a sewing machine?), this is pretty easy for me. There are plenty of things I haven't done before and would like to have a crack at. However, I thought for this one I'd do something that I've wanted to figure out and have the fabric and plan for, but have just been too chicken to attempt. Until now. For me, my new skill is shirring.

Not fancy, not particularly tricky, but I haven't done it before, so new skill. I wanted to make my daughter a little shirred summer dress. I have this lovely birdie fabric and I have the elastic, plus it's bloody hot and she has decided she wants to learn to use the toilet, so dresses it is!

I started off using this tutorial from ikat bag. I really like her blog, I stand in awe of her crafting and sewing. Then I found this one from Make it and Love it which focused much more on the shirring, which was the part I was afraid of and it was easy after that. I kept my dress quite long with a deep hem, in the hope that it can make an appearance again next summer.

Look! Shirring! Also birdies

Honestly, the hardest part of the endeavour were the *swear jar* straps. They were just a bugger to turn, I'm not sure why. Once, turned out all was well, but it took some lateral thinking and a break between straps (seriously, they just did not want to turn).

Should I ever be pregnant over summer or just lazy and want something that can stretch no matter what I eat for lunch, I think a shirred skirt or maxi dress could definitely be a plan. Nothing like a sewing plan that involves rectangles of fabric and sewing in straight lines.

Rocking the strapless unhemmed dress - paired with trousers no less

The wearer of the dress was so pleased that she refused to take it off after I popped it on her to gauge strap length. So it was initially worn strapless (not a look a toddler can pull of easily). The straps are still a little long, so I'll fix them tonight when small people are in bed.

New skill mission accomplished!

Finished! The shirred birdy dress

Little clothes for little people

This will be brief because our internet is on strike with a technician on his or her way, so I'm on my phone.

These were cut out last night

Monkey pants are three quarters complete and I've wound the elastic to attempt to shir  the birdy dress and that's about it.

I tell a lie, I've also changed the over locker thread, eaten banana bread and watched Grand Designs, as well as paying passing attention to my husband. It's all happening here.

2014 Stashbusting Challenge

So I have two blogs. This one to document my sewing, the other one, my attempts to get my stuff under control. This is one of the few points where they will overlap. Whilst I generally need to get things organised and get rid of things, my fabric is fairly out of control and I certainly have more than I can sew for the time being.

My pledge: I, sleepyerin, commit to using 20 pieces of stash fabric in 2014. I also commit to not buying any new fabric, patterns or notions unless a garment cannot be completed without them until Cyber Monday 2014. Unless a truly awesome opportunity presents itself and I have the money ready to go :)

I still like most of the fabric I bought, not all, but most. So it seems silly to have it there sitting unloved and unused, because truly, fabric unsewn is fabric not truly loved. I know that people like to stroke their pretties and worry about wasting it, but truly, like cake that doesn't get eaten, or books that lie unread, fabric unfulfilled is sad.

Plus it's a bit of a waste of money. I'm trying to curtail my spending this year. I am lucky enough to spend an entire year at home with my babies after I have them, but part of that means that I get paid at half pay, which is great to be able to do, but it does reduce discretionary spending and fabric is most certainly discretionary for me. Also books and internet shopping (I'm weak, weak!), but this is about the sewing.

I took some pictures to chronicle by broader reorganising bent. I appreciate that I don't have the beautiful fabric collections of others and certainly I need to rethink storage (curating?), but also, I need to start using it.

Let me paint a picture of a stash that 12 months ago was completely under control and stored in two large containers. That was then.

This is now

Note fabric in tubs and lying around amidst other various things

Table where sewing machine and overlocker should live, note their absence, currently residing on kitchen table. Oops

Obviously not all the mess is sewing but this is where I want to be able to store my fabric. The cupboard in the study. In order for the fabric to fit, along with other crafty things and I think my violin (that's right, I think somewhere in these photos is my violin), I need not only to clean out and reorganise this space, but I need to use fabric and wool or else dispose of it some way (sew, sell, donate, accept when something is just rubbish).

Cupboard where I would like to store fabric and other assorted crafty things
Also used to hide things from small people

So, the stashbusting challenge questions

Why do you sew?

I started sewing about 15 months ago, because I couldn't find the clothes that I wanted for my daughter or when I did they were exorbitantly priced. I had always enjoyed hand sewing as a child and I've knitted for a long time. I wanted to be able to make unique items for my children. Then I realised, as a person who does not readily fit into ready to wear clothes (shape more than size issues) that this was an opportunity for me to make myself clothes that I liked and that fit.

Why are you stashbusting?

I want to be able to have a tidy and organised stash and it's current proportions don't enable that readily. I also want to prove to myself that I can sew through what I have already bought and own. Other than a few pieces of special silk (gifts from my mother), nothing I own is particularly special or original, just prints that I like. And a lot of jersey knits.

What's on your list?

I think I might do a month by month list, so I'll put up a new one each month, rather than get bogged down in an annual list that grows without achievement.

For January

• Monkey big butt baby pants for the young gentleman in my life
• Shirred birdy dress for the young lady
• Boxers for the leading man
• A dress for me, hopefully a saltspring maxi to enjoy before summer is over
• Toy elephant for the young lady
• Toy giraffe for the young gentleman
• gifts for childcarers (the young lady is about to move rooms)

Really that's probably more than I will get done, so I'll leave it at that for now.

Getting 2014 under way

I feel like a thief. I read lovely inspirational sewing blogs, but almost never comment and clearly have been a rubbish blogger myself. Hopefully things are about to change.

I have sewlutions this year. I want to blog once a fortnight, participate in at least one sewalong and I'm going to participate in the stashbusting challenge 2014. That aligns with my overall plan to only sew from my stash (self imposed shopping ban), to sew regularly and to work my way through my patterns.

I'm also going to shift my blog reading from the RSS feed in my email to a blog reader that will facilitate commenting and engaging with blogs and to make my reading of those blogs more public and less covert (I wasn't aiming for covert when I set up my feeds, it's just ended up that way).

So, on to the sewing. I did some sewing before Christmas, santa sacks and the like, but I'm not ready to put my children's names on the internet, so I think I'll start the year with my last project of 2013, a By Hand London Victoria blazer for my beautiful sister.  I ordered and received it very quickly from Stitch 56.

My sister is a lithe and beautiful size 10. Sometimes a size 8, but very tall. So I cut her a 10 in the cropped blazer, hoping that any sizing issues can be ignored because it's a nice slouchy, relaxed fitting blazer (very relaxed because I can fit my chubby self into it, although it doesn't look nice and relaxed when I do). My sister (and I) has quite long arms, so I figured the cropped sleeves would be handy there too.

I wanted a fresh and nice look for my sister to wear with summer dresses. Plus she's a teacher in Sydney, so I figured the blazer would be handy for her, but it was important that it be fairly lightweight, because she lives in a humid place. So I chose a white sand washed linen for the shell and a floral voile for the lining and contrast cuffs.

Fresh and floral Victoria blazer

Lovely lining, not just flowers, but also butterflies 

Cuff close up, a bit washed out alas, stupid flash (or bad photographer?)

The pattern came together really easily. I must admit to being intimidated by the dart/neckline thingy. So when I came to that I read the tutorials, got confused and put it away for a few days. When I picked it back up, the stars aligned and I had my a-ha moment and it was easy peasy.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out over all. I still haven't seen my sister for Christmas, so not sure if the fit will work or if she will even like it, but as it was my only homemade gift, I really really hope so. I know you should only make things for people who will appreciate them and my sister fits that bill. Plus it's a way I can show her how much I love her. So hopefully she likes it. Unfortunately the linen is less opaque than I thought, but I'm hoping she can live with being able to see the lining a little bit.

So that's one garment down for 2014, it's not from my stash, but it is using a new pattern (to be fair, having only been sewing for 18 months, that's not exactly an achievement) and it was finished relatively quickly.

Now I've just got to finish assembling her birthday presents (from July) and I'll be ready for her visit next week.