Wow! I completely forgot to post updates about my self imposed No Buying Clothes for a year challenge! I guess I’ve had other things on my mind for the past couple months with moving and settling in, so here we go with the latest update for June and July.
First off, I consider the challenge to be a success so far. I managed not to buy any clothes! Although, does a t-shirt that Shaun bought for me count? Shaun got me a t-shirt to support Fort McMurray wildfire disaster, which I promptly refashioned and have been wearing proudly. However, I don’t think the t-shirt sabotaged my challenge since it was both a present and bought to support a good cause, right?
I haven’t had any cravings to buy clothes yet. If anything I have really been noticing the short comings of some of my RTW. I have been ruthlessly weeding RTW tops out of my wardrobe for the past month or so. Don’t get me wrong, they are great pieces and I love them, but I have never realized that they didn’t fit me well until I started wearing more of my own makes. I am tall, 5’10” to be exact, and I noticed that most of my t-shirts and tops just don’t look right on me. They are a little too short. Some are uncomfortably short and some simply aesthetically not pleasing short. As in, they sit at an off spot on my hips, not doing anything for my shape. It’s minor of course, but the difference is really noticeable when I wear something that is long enough.
I still crave comfy cozy sweaters, but having realized the shortcomings (ha! short!) of RTW, I am definitely embracing the fact that I may not be buying many sweaters after all. I am exploring my options and looking for variety of knit fabrics online and I am happy to be finding lots of options in the US, even if the delivery may be pricey. I am also open to finding nice oversized sweaters in consignment stores that I can re-work into well fitting sweaters for myself. I am excited for all the possibilities!
We have successfully moved into the new house! This time proved to be a little more stressful then expected, with a couple other things happening as well. They weren’t anything major but needed to be dealt with right away. Seriously, Life, your timing is awful! But thankfully, everything seems to be settling down and stress is slowly fading away.
I took the downtime on Friday night to set up my new sewing space. For now I am going to be using dining room in the new house. We are planning extensive renovations to the house over the next 3-5 years, so eventually I will be moving into an office space at the far end of the house. At this time though, Shaun and I both feel that the office is too far away and we will be too separated from each other. I guess we still like each other, so that’s good considering we’ve signed up for years and years of mortgage together.
There is not much space for my fabric stash in the dining room, so most of my fabric is still in boxes. I will just have to pull out the fabrics that I will actually be working with and store the rest elsewhere. That’s okay though, hopefully it will teach me to control my fabric addiction. Fingers crossed!
Finally, taking this moving enforced leave from sewing has kicked my sew-jo into high gear, and as soon as I was ready for some sewing I came up with a very unrealistic sewing plan for myself for the rest of the summer:
There is a total of 21 items on the list! There is no way I will do it all, and I do not want to impose this expectation on myself. Also, this is more of a guideline, what if I decide I simply must create something else that is not on the list? H0opefully though, I will take a sizable chunk out of it. I already managed to finish 5 items this weekend (the ones that are crossed out). So there is hope after all! By the way the items with the asterisk next to them, are the next on the list. Everything is also organized by thread color so that I don’t have to change thread in my serger if I don’t have to. I am lazy!
So here it is, my NBC Challenge and life update. Now I need this rain to stop so I can finally photograph all my new makes!
Love,
Anya
Glad you guys are getting settled in the new house! Absolutely love your temporary sewing space. Plenty of light and space to be creatively messy. My summer sewing list looks very similar, except that I got distracted by testing calls for shorts and now have been avoiding looking back at the list to see all of what I haven’t done yet. Luckily for me, it’s practically always summer weather here in Barbados, so anything I make (whenever I get around to making it) from the list will still be needed to deal with this heat.
Thank you! I really enjoy it too. It’s really nice to be able to work and look out of the window 🙂
Oh the testing calls! I get distracted by them as well! Oh nice! I am so jealous of the perpetual warm weather and no changing seasons 🙂 You have plenty of time to catch up on your list. Besides, that’s the beauty if it, you can add to the list or change it up! I find mine is very rarely set in stone.
I’ve never seen a list organized by threat colour before – genius! And I’m looking forward to seeng your Colfax dress, it’s on my radar… Glad the move is done and your sewing space is looking pretty settled.
haha I think it works when you don’t NEED to sew things in certain order and can wait a little for everything to come together 🙂 I have really been enjoying it though! I don’t mind changing thread on my machine, but serger…. it always feels like such a chore! It certainly seems like everything is going much faster now that I don’t have change the thread.
I am hoping to photograph it this weekend! It hasn’t been super warm this week here and I am so sad I haven’t gotten a chance to wear it yet.
Did you just say you e finished FIVE projects over the weekend!?! I doff my cap to you; that’s outstanding! Wishing you and Shaun lots of happiness in the new place xx
I did… I think I was so thirsty for sewing that they just happened! And they were well put together too. I doubt I will be able to keep up though! Thank you!! Thank you so much! 🙂 xoxo
I’m so looking forward to seeing how to tackle sweaters in the fall, I always struggle with making those!
Me too! haha I am excited and scared. I find that having a serger helps, but what really makes a good sweater is quality knit. Finding those I think will be the biggest challenge 🙂
I can’t believe you whipped up five projects over the weekend! That’s amazing! I love your list too, you’re so organized! I am planning white morgan jeans too – so great for summer I think! Are you going to keep the denim natural or bleach it out?
Me neither! I must have been very desperate for some sewing… But also, they were more or less easy projects, and it was a long weekend 🙂
Usually I am not this organized, but when I find myself lost with too much inspiration and ideas I find making a list really helps.
Are you going to use the natural denim from Threadbare Fabrics?? It’s so soft and luscious! I am thinking I will leave the color as is, I really like the natural shade. It’s lovely. I was also thinking Ginger jeans instead, as the denim is super stretchy
I do have the natural from Threadbare, and I love the natural shade, but I just threw some in with some bleach in the washer to see if it lightens up at all. I really want to use it for Morgans, but I’m not sure how it will work because it does have a lot of stretch, but maybe sizing down will work. Either way, it feels so nice!!
I love how bleaching worked with that fabric! That white looks amazing. I agree… I was trying to figure out how to make them work for Morgans, but ended up convincing myself to try Ginger since I haven’t made that pattern yet. Now I am trying to convince myself not to buy more of that fabric. It has been difficult so far.
That is one serious to-do list there! The same thing happened to me. I had been making note of certain things that I want to make before the end of the year. I finally matched the fabric to the patterns and realized I’d been thinking of up to 20 separate items for summer and fall. In a week, I’ll be publishing the completed “mood board” images so everyone can join in laughing hilariously along with me…
Thank you! It is, isn’t it! Now I have to finish most of it before I get distracted by other fabrics/ patterns.
Isn’t it fun to plan it?? I love matching fabric to patterns. It gives me so much satisfaction! I can’t wait to see your mood board! And I won’t be laughing, I’ll be cheering on 🙂