Wednesday 19 March 2014

KCW Prep - Spring 2014

Alright, I am determined to find the balance between sewing, blogging and managing my home business so I'm going back to the advance prep version of KCW. Here I sit, 19 days out from the start and I have 4 patterns selected to sew, a potential 5th and still trying to decide if I want/need to sew anything for the little guy. I hate to leave him out but realistically he has a closet full of t-shirts and a stack of shorts as tall as he is, so any boy sewing is really gratuitous...doesn't mean it won't happen but for the moment I'll try to maintain my tenuous grasp on what is achievable in a week.

For all the patterns I'm choosing to sew my intent is to have the patterns traced & cut, have the fabric washed & cut and edge finished as required. I'm aiming this season to get that gratifying pile of finished clothes by the end of the week. The past few seasons I seem to end up with a pile of mostly finished pieces or worse one or 2 pieces done and pile of fabric waiting on me.

The other conflict I have is time of day. Because my business is sewing I tend to prioritize the paid work and try to get through it in the first part of the day. That leaves me evenings to do my own sewing....not my creative time of day! I love reading about people who sew late into the night and have a pile of goodies for their littles in the morning, it makes me laugh because I literally become unable to sew at 9pm...there is a 90% chance that any seams sewn at that time of day will be ripped. Don't get me wrong, there is no one who would accuse me of being a morning person. You are just as unlikely to find me at the machine at 6am as at 9pm....I need a good couple of hours and a cup of coffee before I'm ready to sew anything. My sweet spot is 9am, that's when my studio is bright with morning sunshine and I find all my creativity.

Now for what I'm planning to sew, this season is all about the dress starting with an online tutorial & pattern: Striped Relay Dress. My daughter is a small size 5 so the size 5 pattern should be ok, but I'm thinking of adding an inch or so to the length just to keep it as a dress through the summer and not turn into a tunic. I have some fun knit fabrics from Girl Charlee that I'm excited to use, still need to narrow down which one will be used for this dress.

My next project is intended for this spring, the Piped Peplum Top. I'm thinking of a solid cotton with simple contrast piping. Something simple to "fancy-up" a pair of pants, who knows maybe she'll be more willing to wear them?!

My next 2 planned patterns are old school fabric store patterns. I learned to sew with these and when I saw my local shop clearing out their stock for $1.50-$2.00 ea I stocked up. So I'm planning on New Look 6202 and Simplicity 1670. I have a couple of modifications planned but my daughter has picked the view she likes best for each and I've agreed to let her come and pick out the fabrics so we're both looking forward to having a couple of dresses added into the mix for Spring.

So that is my list and I'm excited to get started, maybe a little fabric shopping this weekend, probably trying to talk myself out of the coat that I also have a pattern for and I'm dying to make....but mostly I'm trying to clear some space on my cutting table by getting all those other projects out of here so I can sew for myself while the sun is shining.