Halfway There

I decided to take a look back at my New Year's Goals and see how I've been doing!

General:

        1.  Have a baby!  Did it!

Household:

        2.  Do everyday chores everyday- Mostly doing this - it's harder with the baby, but I'm doing a good job not letting everything go to hell, so that's a win, right?

        3.  Stick to a better schedule for the large cleaning jobs. Not so much

Hobbies:

        4.  Actually finish projects. I have finished every project I started since January, except Ryder's nursery which really isn't a hobby, so I'm going to say this is a total win.

        5.  Stop accruing endless amounts of fabric.  Fail! in my defense, I can't sew much right now because I haven't lost all of the baby weight, but don't worry- I've got plans for it all.  Also, all of my post-pregnancy sewing has been stashbusting!

        6.  Knit something. Nope, but I have looked at knitting patterns, so that's a step in the right direction.

        7.  Take more photographs.  Ryder has helped out with this goal. :)  Not quite what I meant of course, but it'll do.

Athletics/Fitness:

        8. Workout more consistently during pregnancy.  A little bit.

        9.  Stick to planned workout routine after pregnancy and run a race this summer.  No because my knee hurts.  I'm starting a non-running routine this month since it's become clear I won't be running much til I clear up the knee problem.

        10. Fit into my normal work clothes when I go back to school in the fall.  We'll see in September!

Garden:

        11. Plan my vegetables better- Excellent planning this year, but poor execution.  Ryder was born the week I was supposed to start everything.

        12. Can more tomatoes!  Bread and butter pickles were a big hit too.  Pickles this week, we'll see about the tomatoes in September.

        13. Fill in more permanent landscaping in the flower gardens- especially trees and bushes.  We're looking at a new picket fence, some hydrangeas and rhododendrons and a magnolia tree.  Fence is in, bushes and trees will probably be next year.

Long weekend of ... cleaning

This weekend was a long weekend for me and I spent the vast majority of my 3 days off cleaning and organizing.  I wasn't locked in the house, Janda and I went to a friend's Saturday and Sunday evenings, Emma had a little birthday party on Sunday and Janda and I did a little shopping- mostly house and baby stuff.  Come to think of it, this was a really packed weekend!

I spent 2 days cleaning and reorganzing the kitchen and mudroom.  Then today I got to work on the sunroom which now holds my sewing room, desk and some of Janda's toys.  There is a substantial amount of recycling in our bins, trash in the can and assorted items to be given away.  Not a bad cleanout.

Hopefully now that my sewing space is organized I can start attacking my stash and making baby stuff.   Here's a look at the sewing space:

The dresses hanging on the door can't be finished until I have a waist again, but they are mostly done.  Underneath them is a tote with maybe a third of my stash- mostly wools, linings and heavy fabrics.  On top of the tote is a pile of UnFinished Objects and mending to the left and a pile of knits to the right.  Hanging on the wall are 2 awesome sequin fabrics I got from fabric.com- hanging b/c the sequins get out of place when folded.  On top of the cutting table are my three maternity projects- 1 skirt and 2 pairs of pants.  The 2 three drawer cabinets holding up my sewing table are chock full of fabric- woven cottons, more knits and assorted quilting/craft fabrics.  I tried to count how many cuts of fabric I have and stopped  at halfway-ish and closing in on 50.  I NEED the stash busting sew-along!

Here is a close-up of the sequin fabric hanging on the wall.  I got aqua (big surprise) and there is a dark grey hanging behind it.  Really awesome.  I can't wait to embellish some projects with a bit of these 2 fabrics.

I am planning on using every 50% off coupon that I get from Joann's between now and the baby to get PUL fabric for diaper covers.  And all of my mom's coupons too!  How cute are these monsters and dinosaurs?  This boy is going to be fashionably diapered!

Stashbusting Sewalong 2013!

I'm excited to be joining the Stashbusting Sewalong proposed by Cation Designs and EmSewCrazyfor the year of 2013.  It's not going to be super easy, since I have a baby coming in 3 months, but I plan to do the best I can.  The Sewalong promises to be fun, with a flickr group and contests- not that I can be sure that I'll be up to participating!  ;)

I am pumped to be making a long term plan to diminish my stash, though.  I don't even want to estimate the yardage that is stowed away in my sewing room!  It falls into 3 main categories: lightweight cotton for summer dresses, skirts and tops, wool for work-style dresses, skirts and trousers and knits for t-shirts and dresses.  Of course, I have other miscellaneous cuts, but those 3 categories have to be at least 80% of my hoard.  I have/had general plans for each fabric that I have purchased, it's just a matter of matching up fabrics to patterns.  I would like to get at least 1 project in a month, but we'll see. 

Part 2 of the challenge involves buying less fabric.  That shouldn't be too hard at far as the 3 categories above are concerned, but I will need to get some baby fabrics since I plan to make my own cloth diapers and covers.  My main focus is sewing up the fabrics and patterns that I have and if I buy more fabric, I'll be ok with that.  Hopefully I'll be too busy with the baby to buy more!

My first project is going to be a maternity skirt made from tan corduroy that came to my stash via my grandmother's stash.  Since I have almost no bottoms to wear, I need to get moving on the skirt!!!

Holiday Season

I was planning on writing my resolutions and putting up some holiday photos around the New Year, but unfortunately I caught the stomach bug that has been going around.  I only was seriously nauseous for about 24 hours, but my stomach didn't feel right again for a week!  And then the next week I spent catching up on sleep.  Maybe I'm caught up now,  or maybe when you're pregnant/have a small child you never catch up; at any rate, I feel better.

Michelley helping test out the white lights that never went up!

Kong hanging out by the Christmas tree

 A family photo; there was a way better one but it was blurry!  Do you know how hard it is to get a picture with three cats!

 In case you were wondering, I'm still getting bigger.  Here I am at about 24 weeks.

I have, as have many others, been doing some New Year resolving lately.  I actually makes resolutions all the time; I try my best to keep them, but I usually don't.  They are more like goals I guess.  Someday I'll do it all!

Until then, here are my New Year's Goals:

General:

        1.  Have a baby!

Household:

        2.  Do everyday chores everyday- that way they don't become large cleaning jobs.

        3.  Stick to a better schedule for the large cleaning jobs.

Hobbies:

        4.  Actually finish projects.  I think I finished about half last year.  The rest are waiting to be completed, but then I got pregnant and can't fit any of them.  Oops.

        5.  Stop accruing endless amounts of fabric.  

        6.  Knit something.

        7.  Take more photographs.  The past couple of years I have hardly taken any, aside from trips.

Athletics/Fitness:

        8. Workout more consistently during pregnancy.  At least 5 days a week.

        9.  Stick to planned workout routine after pregnancy and run a race this summer.  6 days a week, cardio + lifting should add up to 60 minutes- basically getting back to pre-pregnancy routine.

        10. Fit into my normal work clothes when I go back to school in the fall.  Only having a few (lackluster) outfits to choose from is frustrating when you have nice clothes in the closet.

Garden:

        11. Plan my vegetables better- I had too much of some and not enough of others last year.

        12. Can more tomatoes!  Bread and butter pickles were a big hit too.

        13. Fill in more permanent landscaping in the flower gardens- especially trees and bushes.  We're looking at a new picket fence, some hydrangeas and rhododendrons and a magnolia tree.

13 goals from 2013.  That seems like enough!  None of them are hard or expensive, so we'll see how I do.

A Handmade Spring/Summer Plan

Even though I haven't finished my winter projects (since I spent the last week studying), I figured that it would be a better, I mean more fun, use of my time to plan out my spring and summer projects. Taking pictures and looking at patterns always trumps hand-sewing in my book. ;) So here's my tentative plan for Grainline's Handmade Wardrobe Spring 2012:

For the wedding that Janda and I are attending this summer, I splurged and got a couple of yards of Valori Wells Wildfield Voile. I can't wait to make this, although it might be the last project since the wedding is at the end of July. I chose Butterick 5491 even though it is supposed to be for knits. I'll just make sure there is enough ease and add a zipper.

I already made a wearable muslin of these pants in corduroy. It was interesting. I had to do a lot of alterations, which I made note of and transferred to the pattern, so hopefully the next go around will be easier. I'm planning on making a pair of jeans and capris with the cotton.

For the striped jersey fabric I'm planning on making a simple self-drafted maxi dress for our road trip this summer. I'm hoping to get more proficient with super stretchy knits and make some tank tops and t-shirts out of those rib knits.

These three cottons, an aqua batiste, a pinky-purplish eyelet and the purple floral will become those three dresses (in order): Butterick 5490, New Look 6067 and Vogue 8184. I've already made the Vogue dress once in a cheap fabric and loved the fit and style and look forward to making it in a better fabric.

These four fabrics, another Wildfield Voile, a Lisette cotton from Joann's, an aqua/blue seersucker and a cute quilting fabric called Scribbles, will become those two skirts. Which fabrics become which skirts depends on how much I can eek out of each piece.

Here are all my new projects, lined up and waiting with their patterns!

Is anyone who knows me surprised by these 9 fabric choices???

I guess I should go do some hand-sewing now.

Forget the works in progress!

Well, not really, but since I'm just finishing up most of my winter projects time to start thinking about spring! As I finish the winter projects in the next couple of weeks (all that I plan to finish anyway) I'm going to plan out my spring/summer handmade wardrobe! I've got fabric for jeans, a couple of skirts, definitely a couple of dresses- one for a wedding, and some knit tops. I'll have to make a plan so that I can be ready. I ran across Handmade Wardrobe Spring 2012 on Grainline and figured that I'd get started! My goal is to finish up everything else and start the weekend of March 10.

Progress Report

Well, my goal of sewing those 8 items over the winter may actually come true. Well, it might if I can ever get out of my truly rotten habit of finishing everything but the handsewing on a project and then leaving it in my closet unfinished forever-ish.

Where I'm at:
Vogue 8594 Made the muslin (ie the lining) and it needs to be re-fitted- annoying.

Vogue 8685 This one is almost done- but it is tight!! I can let out the seams a little and hopefully that will do the trick. I love the fabric and everything except the skin-tightness.

Simplicity 2648 Just need to tack down the sleeve facings and hem.

Simplicity 2146 This is my favorite one- haven't started yet though.

Burda 7531 This one is almost done, just needs a hem.

Butterick 5249 This one is now off the list. I'll come back to it at a later date- it's cute.

Simplicity 3775 This one's almost done, just the handsewing left.

New Look 6909 I made this one before and love it, but I forgot that I shortened the side seams at the hips and didn't do it on the muslin (ie the lining). I have to let the sides out and also, the sleeves are tight!!! I have to figure something out for the long sleeves.

Vogue 8675, Simplicity 3775, Simplicity 2648

Lining/muslin Vogue 8594 and New Look 6909

Close-up of knit dress Simplicity 3775- my first knit!

Close-up of the knit fabric for Vogue 8685- love this fabric! Needs to be let out. :(

View from my sewing room window- you can see how lovely the water has looked this winter. (Ignore our fence-we're replacing it this spring!)

You might have noticed that all of my linings are the same. There are 3 linings made up in the pictures and 2 others that I made this fall. I bought 5 yards of the pink fabric on super sale at fabric.com and I think that it will make one or two more linings! Plus I have the added bonus of an exciting inside to all of my clothes.

Can I do it?

I have a lot of projects in my sewing queue- way too many really. It's time to start sewing them and instead of hoarding patterns and fabric. I'm hoping to get these 8 done over the winter.

Vogue 8685

I have a very pretty dark blue knit with pink, purple and aqua flowers for this one. I'm definitely making the short, straight skirt and then I'll see what sleeve length I can eek out.

Vogue 8594

This one's going to be a brown herringbone wool. I'll be making the short version (which will probably be long on me!) with the slit at the neck.

Simplicity 2648

Black stretch wool for this one, with short sleeves and a V-neck.

Simplicity 2146

I chose a taupe wool that will show off the pleating details for this dress. I love the short-sleeved, V-neck with the inset pleats.

Burda 7531

This skirt will be a khaki corduroy, good for work and weekend. I love a good box pleat.

Butterick 5249

I have a black and gray pinstripe waiting for this pattern. I'm leaning towards the straight skirt with flounces at the knee, but I'll have to see how the pinstripes work for that.

Simplicity 3775

This easy knit dress is going to be a super-soft dark turquoise. I'm planning on making the long-sleeved, V-neck version.

New Look 6909

I'm planning on making the long sleeved version of this dress in brown wool.

If I get these all done, my work wardrobe will be all set. I already have two dresses made, but not finished, so if I get all these pieces finished, I will be awash in stylish work dresses!