February Goals

I'm not sure how enticing my goals posts are to the general public, but I really find them helpful for me to be accountable to anyone who reads my posts.  So, I'm going to continue on with them.  I'm not going to go back to my last goals post since it was so long ago, nor will I do a recap of my 2018 goals for the year.  I'll just jump in and outline my goals for February 2019.

Sewing & Quilting

1. Finish Warm Winter Sudoku wardrobe
2. Plan the next capsule wardrobe - this one will be an athletic wear wardrobe
3. Finish Baby Girl F's (my granddaughter!) Mermaid Quilt and crib sheets

Knitting & Spinning

1. Finish M'Agatha sweater - this would be perfect to coordinate as an extra with my Warm Winter Sudoku Wardrobe!
2. Finish the orange baby sweater for Baby Girl F
3. Finish last pair of 2018 socks
4. Start Monkey Socks
5. Knit a pair of socks for my grandson, Deklan
6. Finish Deklan's Toronto Maple Leafs sweater
7. Sew together Augusta cardigan and finish!  This would also coordinate really well with my Warm Winter Sudoku Wardrobe!
8. Spin 15 minutes a day (when I'm not travelling)

Reading

1. Finish current Bruno, Chief of Police, Book #2 by Martin Walker - I am absolutely loving these easy to read novels about Bruno, a former solider turned police chief in St. Denis, France.  
2. Start & finish Bruno, Chief of Police, Book #3 by Martin Walker
3. Start Bruno, Chief of Police, Book #4 by Martin Walker
4. Finish 9 Minutes on Monday by James Robbins
5. Choose next business book to read

Health

1. Continue cycling training program.  This includes cycling four-five days per week (I'm currently using a pretty plain-Jane stationary bike I bought in mid-December).  I'm finding the biking really boring, but try to make it more exciting by using the time to catch up on video podcasts.  I'm loving how strong I'm already starting to feel.
2. Aim to be in bed by 10 pm, lights out by 10:30 pm 

There you have it, February goals.  Let's see how hard I can crush these!

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know it's February.  Today, however, is the Lunar New Year.  I had a friend over on the weekend for a Sewing Day and we got to talking about how we didn't really live up to our expectations for ourselves for this year (aka we totally sucked at some of our plans only one month in).  We decided to use the Lunar New Year as a turning point to reassess and make some adjustments in our plans for the coming year.  We also decided we're going to be accountable to each other for some of our plans.

The past six months or so for me have been somewhat of a blur.  An amazing blur, but a blur nonetheless.  Work has been crazy busy, with a change in positions. It's been an adjustment but it's working out very well.  I enjoyed a vacation that saw my entire family together celebrating the wedding of my brother to my favourite sister-in-law.   My daughter and her spouse announced that they are expecting their second child, and my first grandchild has grown in leaps and bounds (literally and figuratively).  I travelled A LOT. I spent one weekend in September at Disney for a very close friend's birthday.  I spent the following weekend in New Orleans for work. I also travelled a lot for work in my home province, essentially I only spent at most two nights in a row at home through the entire month.   As a result, I was sick as a dog in November with sinusitis, bronchitis and an ear infection that took a lot out of me.  As soon as I recovered, December was in the full Christmas spirit swing, seeing the usual round of social activities, parties and family get-togethers.  I rang in January with what is now happily becoming my traditional Sewing Retreat.  In all honesty, I'm not really sure where January went, but it's been cold and snowy.  And here we are, February and all caught up.

I've been sharing some of my makes on Instagram (I have a private account, but if you've got sewing or knitting or something related in your profile, I will approve your request to follow me), but am very aware of how little I've shared on this blog.  I'm not going to apologize, but I really do miss the accountability factor that sharing my goals and planning blog posts bring to me.  I can't promise how much I'll actually be posting, but I really do enjoy interacting with my sewing friends online.  So...let's get on with the most recent post!

I have been sewing like someone obsessed, because...well...I am! Ringing in the (calendar) New Year with a sewing retreat reset my creativity and made me really want to spend some more dedicated time in my Atelier.  I'm currently working through some planning that I did a few weeks ago and have almost finished the capsule that I planned. 

There are a lot of options for planning a capsule wardrobe.  For this one, I chose the Sewing Sudoku method as the basis for this wardrobe.  You can find a free printable here:  Melly Sews Wardrobe Sudoku Planner. I have a work trip at the mid-to-end of February and thought this would make the perfect opportunity to work a few new things into my wardrobe.  The Sudoku method sees four tops and four bottoms coordinated with four pairs of footwear/shoes and four accessories.  For this plan, I am including all layering pieces rather than accessories as it is COLD in Canada in the winter and I need the extra pieces in my wardrobe to stay warm. I LOVE my accessories and will be adding them in, but not in a formalized plan.

My plan is this:

WARM WINTER SUDOKU WARDROBE

Tops
Top #1 - Butterick 3124, Sandra Betzina Today's Fit with cowl neck (view A), in olive green stretch lace


Top #2 - McCalls 5536 Twist Top (view C & E), in espresso brown rayon/lycra jersey


Top #3 - Butterick 3124, Sandra Betzina Today's Fit shell (view B), in cream stretch lace


Top #4 - Sew Over It Pussy Bow Blouse, in cream lightweight polyester textured crepe


Bottoms
Bottom #1 - Vogue7607 asymmetrical skirt, in olive green textured faux leatherette


Bottom #2 - Vogue 8202 wide-legged jeans, in espresso brown fine wale corduroy


Bottom #3 - Simplicity 4596 pleated skirt (View A), in greige textured faux leatherette


Bottom #4 - Closet Case Ginger Jeans,  in rust orange lightweight stretch denim


Layering Pieces
Layering Piece #1 - Vogue 7764 military style jacket, in olive green cotton velveteen


Layering Piece #2 - New Look 6013 vest, in a heavyweight sueded olive green knit


Layering Piece #3 - Vogue 1517 jacket, in brown wool blend suiting

Layering Piece #4 - McCalls 7257 cardigan jacket in loosely woven fabric in cream, rust orange, khaki, and burgundy


Shoes
Shoes #1 - Brown faux alligator heeled pumps
Shoes #2 - Khaki boots, similar in styling to faux Doc Martin
Shoes #3 - Cognac low heeled riding boots
Shoes #4 - Cognac suede booties

I'll have to buy a few notions but this plan uses mostly items from my stash - even some vintage stash! 

I love planning wardrobe capsules.  I love new clothes and I love being able to have a highly wearable wardrobe when they're completed. 

June Catch-Up and July Goals

Well, its a new month and I simply cannot believe how fast this year seems to be flying by.  I guess the adage about time moving faster as you get older is true!  In reviewing my June goals, it would appear that I set some pretty big ones for myself that may now in retrospect have been unattainable.  BUT... the great thing about crafting goals is that you can simply review, assess and make new goals for yourself.  I'm a super achiever, but crafting is supposed to be fun and a stress reliever for me, so beating myself up about not reaching my goals is not ok.  So I won't beat myself up, but just move on!

Here were my goals for June:

Knitting

1.  Finish Cupcakes in Vienna socks - these are my current mindless knit which are awesome for my jet lagged mind, and I'm loving The Yarn Jar's base and colourway.  You can find her shop here.  Also the memory of knitting on them on the rooftop terrace in Vienna, overlooking the spires of the Mexican Cathedral is inspiring me to finish. Done!
2.  Continue working on the second sleeve for the Custom Comfy Fade Cardigan.  It's currently too bloody hot to wear this (or even knit on it) but I will need (and want) it at some point this summer, and just can't wait to wear it when it's cool enough. I haven't touched this yet - it's been just too hot to work on this.
3.  Continue working on my April Switcheroo Socks - I need to recover from jet lag first as I do need to think a little while working on this pattern, but maybe I can get them done before July rolls around. Done!  These were actually easier than I remembered and I was able to finish them quickly!
4.  Start my May PSC socks - the yarn was wound before I left...Done!  Not only did I start these, I also finished them!

What wasn't on my list but what I did was to pick up one of my long languishing projects and work on it.  I'm feeling rather overwhelmed with all of the projects I've got on the go and would like to clear off some of the needles before starting anything new.  I've picked up the Traveller project (link to my Revelry works in progress is in the sidebar) and am working on this instead of a plain vanilla sock.

Sewing

1. Sew a pair of cropped Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers - these would make the perfect summer pants in a medium weight cotton, IMHO.  They would go very nicely with the new ballet flats I've purchased.  Plus I've got these on my #makenine2018. Nope.  My sewing mojo was limited in June because of the shirt dress project I chose.  
2.  Sew a Sew Over It Ella Blouse to coordinate with the aforementioned SOI Ultimate Trousers.  I have the perfect fabric picked out already, I just need to find some coordinating fabric for the pants.  Also on my #makenine2018. Also nope - see excuse in #1.
3.  The Beverly Bikini by Named Clothing.  While packing for my recent trip, I discovered I was woefully short on bathing suits I want to be seen in public in.  This would be perfect for a beach trip (yet to be scheduled, but now I've got an incentive for both!) I pulled the pattern and it's sitting on my  cutting table with fabric, so it's a start!  I needed a boost with a TNT project after my shirt dress disaster, and chose a bikini out of a modified Orange Boylston bra and Ohhh Lulu Sophia panty.  The bottoms are done and the top just needs the back closure.
4.  McCalls 7387 shirt dress.  While in Europe, I noticed SO. MANY. DRESSES.  I've wanted one of these shirtdresses forevahhh, and even have fabric already pulled. This is the fated projected that sucked my sewjo and ended up in the bin.  I'm crossing it off, despite not really finishing it.

Reading

1.  Finish the third book in the first Gail Bowen trilogy (Joanne Kilbourn mysteries).  I've got the next anthology on hold from the library, but who knows when I'll get it...Finished!  I've even downloaded the next anthology and have started reading it.
2.  Finish Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.  Anthony, I'll miss you.  You've got an amazing point of view on life, food and travel that I discovered only a few years ago.  I devoured your TV shows and now I'm working my way through your books.  Thank you for all you've shared.  I'm so very sad you struggled and couldn't carry on. I'm still working my way through this book.  I often read at bedtime, but going to bed late has made it difficult to do much reading.  That being said,  he writes so similarly to how he narrated his many TV shows, and this book is very enjoyable to read.
3.  Start another book by Anthony Bourdain (I purchased a few upon hearing about this death) I'll carry this over to my goals for July.
4.  Read Sisi by Allison Pataki.  Sisi was a beloved yet eccentric Austrian-Hungarian Habsburg Empress whose apartments I toured when in Vienna recently.  I read the first book about Sisi by Allison Pataki, called Accidental Empress and couldn't wait for the next book, Sisi, to be released.  Seeing her apartments reminded me of the release of the book, which I also subsequently purchased. I haven't started this one yet since the next Gail Bowen anthology came up for borrowing from the library and I started that one instead.  If this book was anything like the first one, it will be a quick and easy read that I'll start when I'm done the Gail Bowen books.

Health/Fitness

1. Continue yoga 3x/week. Accomplished!
2.  Start kickboxing and kettlebells workouts.  Dragonboat season is upon us and I really need to kick up the core workouts (see what I did there?! Kick...kickboxing...haha) Nope.  Didn't do any of either...
3.  Focus on incorporating more vegetables into my diet.  I am typically woefully short on them in my daily diet, and summer is the perfect time to enjoy them. I did well when I had time.  Then work got crazy and I relied too much on fast food/Skip the Dishes for eating and my veggie intake suffered.

Miscellaneous

I'm going to quit saying "Purge L'atelier."  It's starting to become one of those "Shoulds."  I want to enjoy the time in my sewing room, and sewing because I "hafta" isn't a reason to continue on with this hobby.  Yes, I have A. LOT. of stash.  Do I love it?  Mostly.  Will I use all of it?  Maybe.  So, I've decided that if I come across something I no longer love, I'll use it for a toile, or get rid of it without any guilt.  Mostly, I just want to sew when I'm down there. Ironic given the troubles I had with my sewjo this past month!  No worries, I'm gearing up for a great month!

Okie dokie.  Here are my July goals!

Knitting

1.  Finish Traveller project.

2.  Start and finish June PSC club socks.

3.  Start July PSC club socks.

Sewing

1.  Finish Boylston bathing suit top.

2.  Sew Beverly twist bikini set.

3.  Plan and start sewing Bonjour Ete Sudoku capsule wardrobe.

4.  Choose pattern and fabric from stash for my brother's wedding in August, and sew mockup/toile.

5.  Sew Deklan a beach coverup.

Reading

1.  Finish Gail Bowen's second anthology.

2.  Finish Kitchen Confidential.

3.  Start Sisi.

Health/Fitness

I'm going to stop listing yoga on this as a goal.  It would seem that I've managed to make this a habit.

1.  Some type of core training 3x/week, whether this be kickboxing, ab workouts, or plank challenges.

2.  Weight training 2x/week

That about sums it up.  Not sure if these are realistic or not, but that will remain to be seen!  What about you?  How are your summer goals coming along?

Sewjo is a Fickle Thing

After completing the Spring in Prague SWAP, I was a little lost as to what to sew next.  I hadn't lost my sewjo, but just really couldn't choose what to sew next.  Does anyone else feel this?  It was probably a combination of too much sewing stimulation while I was on holidays, as in "I want to sew ALL the things!" because I actually had time to browse blogs, but had no access to a sewing machine.  Combine this with jet lag and no real plans, and it turned into a full-blown analysis paralysis situation.

I took the proverbial step back after realizing it was the end of June with the start of July being very near (How did that happen?), and we were more than the halfway through the year.  I made some goals at the beginning of the year that I hadn't reviewed for a while and decided to pick my next project from the #makenine2018 list I had made.

While I was on holidays, I was struck by the number of gorgeous dresses I saw women wearing. Dresses, in my opinion, are the perfect answer to hot weather, especially if they have no defined waist.  Due to the unseasonably hot weather we've been having recently, I chose McCalls 7387 from my #makenine2018 list for my next project.

I decided on a cross between View A and View C, using the sleeve bands, and the style of hem from View A, but the length of View C.  I also opted not to include pockets.  I chose a black cross-weave cotton-mystery blend fabric from my stash.  I thought that the mystery fabric was mildly stiff but should relax with washing.  If it didn't relax as much as I want as quickly as I wanted it to, I figured I would wash it with some Coke.  It turns out that I had the perfect amount of fabric for this dress.  I cut size Large, and didn't do any of my standard adjustments - I figured that it was a pretty relaxed fit with plenty of ease, so I hoped it would be okay and just went ahead and cut.

I started sewing it with high hopes, but then my sewjo just took a dive.  I couldn't figure out why at first and came up with all sorts of reasons as to why I was avoiding the sewing room.  It was too hot.  I was too tired.  I worked a 14 hour day.  It was too early to go into the sewing room.  There was too much stuff on the cutting table.  I had laundry piled on the ironing board.  It was too late.  The dog ate my homework...you get the idea.  I had a sewing retreat planned with a friend of mine and really needed to figure this out!!

This past weekend was our sewing retreat and I was still sort of "meh" about this project, but it was my current project that was already in progress.  My machines were threaded up with the right colour, and had the right needles, and I really wanted to finish the dress just for the sake of finishing it.  I told myself that pressing will make the dress better.  The fabric will get softer as I wear it over time.  I had hangups about the back pleats and how the fabric sort of stuck out from my butt when I tried it on, as well as the shoulder width feeling much too wide, but I just told myself it would be magically okay if I kept working on it.  So, in spite of all of this, I soldiered forward telling myself I couldn't make any judgements about this garment. 

I kept merrily sewing along, to the point of the directions for the front "fly," front "band" and front "facing."  Things did not go as planned, and I ended up with a very nicely executed backwards opening front hidden placket that seemed significantly lower than what the pattern illustrations indicated.  When dissecting the instructions to figure out what went wrong, my sewing friend kindly pointed out that I had been kvetching about this project for the entirety of the time we were in my Atelier and that maybe I should just ditch the whole thing and start fresh.

Which is what I did.

And I'll be damned if it didn't feel good!

Of course, this coincided with the end of the sewing day for us, so I very happily poured myself a glass of a celebratory glass of wine for the return of my sewjo and delved into plans for my next project*. 

The moral of the story is that sometimes it's just best to cut your losses and move on! 


*I'm pleased to announce the sewjo has returned with a frenzy and the cutting table is currently littered with fabric and patterns for my next capsule wardrobe!

My Current Favourite

While scrolling through my photographs recently, I realized I had a couple of finished items that I haven't yet posted about.  I felt compelled to write a post about this particular finished object because it really is fast becoming one of my favourite things to wear. It truly is a multipurpose dress (that's a Kinsey Milhone reference for those who enjoy Sue Grafton's novels as much as I do!). It can be dressed up or down, depending on the accessories.  It has no defined waistline, which for me at the moment is great - hello winter of too much lazing about combined with changing hormones!  That also means it is super cool and breezy to wear in the heat of the summer.

My current favourite multipurpose dress is the shorter version of McCalls 6559.



I've made this dress three times now, once as the maxi and twice as the shorter length.  While I love the maxi, I feel too warm when I wear it in the summer.  I honestly also feel rather disproportionate with the swath of fabric emphasizing my long legs and shorter upper body (I'm 5'9" with a 35" inseam).

The shorter versions, though, have been worn a few times a week.  I'm also gravitating towards them when I come home from work and need to get into something comfortable.  I made a black one a few years back out of a cotton/rayon/lycra jersey.  My most recent make is out of a chartreuse green microfibre jersey.

 

This is great fabric.  It feels so dressy and sexy to wear, it skims the curves and just hangs so nicely.  I had some trouble with the photographing of this dress, as you can see - the photographs came out in all sorts of different colours.  The truest colour is the photograph of the back view on the right.

I finished the neck and armholes with strips of self-fabric cut on the cross-grain.  I cut the strips 2" wide and just shorter than the length of the opening.  I joined them in a circle, then folded them in half, wrong sides together and stitched them to the right side of the openings.  A light press with the iron finishes them off.  I think it is just a more professional finish than the turn-and-stitch hems often recommended in the pattern.

I also made the longer cardigan that is included with the pattern out of the same fabric.  I opted not to hem it at all because the topstitching of this fabric was giving me FITS.  It was easy enough to do, I used a rotary cutter to cut it out and make the seam edge very even and clean.  It made the cardigan a super-quick project.

 

I wore it a lot on my recent vacation, including a dinner at the Zofin Palace in Prague!

I'm sure I'll be making more of these this summer - in fact, I already have some treasured souvenir fabric from my vacation last summer pulled for this!