Well, here it is, July, and thanks to Too Much Marking and General Laziness I'm just now getting around to reflecting on my Me-Made May and making future plans. This post is stupid long, so if you're not interested number-crunching but want to see what I'm going to sew this summer, skip a bit.
Previously, on PGOTLMMM14: (The answers to the Where in Toronto is PhysicsGirl game are in the mouse-overs.)
I realized that I forgot to add my geeky stats for the last two weeks, so here is the final tally.
Warning: Here be data!
Total sewn: 29 items over 22 days; crocheted: 7 items over 7 days; jewellery: 12 over 12 days; refashioned: 11 items over 10 days
Most worn
sewn: Swoon patterns scarf-neck cardigan (4 - and it's only so low because I made it so late in the month), followed by grey linen Thurlows and the Lekala spiral jeans skirt at 3 each
crocheted: Saturn sweater, which is still missing buttons so is still un-blogged (3)
jewellery: chunky fluorite chandlier earrings (3)
Ye Olde Table of Number-crunching
What to take away from this? I met my goals for this year's MMM (wear something me-made everyday, with something sewn or a crocheted sweater at least 5 times per week, and sew a new garment by the end of the month), but I need to sew more separates. I knew this beforehand, of course, but looking at all those dresses that I wore only once (because students will mention it if you dare to wear a dress twice in the same month), and thinking about all the non me-made spring clothes I kind of miss wearing during MMM because I have enough me-made tops or bottoms to go with them, and due the fact that I'm sort of tired of planning out what to wear on which day... wait, where was I? Oh yeah. I need to sew more separates. That way next year's MMM will feel more like the rest of the year, except where I go off to exciting locations everyday and take a picture of myself. So that's my next goal.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me recap the past few months. I sewed 6 dresses: 4 #sewDollyClackett dresses (two of which are technically UFOs because of gaping v-necks), the underdress for the 20s outfit, and a yet-to-be blogged Tiramisu; the SwoonPatterns cardigan; the Lekala spiral gore jeans skirt; a yet-to-be blogged Belcarra; and 3 yet-to-be-blogged pairs of Measure-Twice-Cut-Once Mary knickers. This flurry of activity was brought to you by the realization that the lab benches at school make perfect cutting tables, and also by a couple of sewalongs that I thought I would participate in for prizes and glory. I cut the Tira and Belcarra in May, but while I finished them in between piles of marking, I didn't have time to take pictures. I'll blog about these makes eventually; for now here's a sneak peek:
Crochet-wise, I started, frogged, restarted, refrogged, then finally stopped a wrap; maybe I'll get around to finishing it in the fall. I nearly finished a Lady Sybil cloche in time for the Downton Abbey exhibit at Spadina House, but I have to finish sewing the appliqué. And I finished crocheting Aged P's westie. Jewellery-wise, I only made one pair of earrings, the burgundy Rhumba earrings; stupidly, I did not do the shake test and several links fell off, so I need to fix those.
Last December, I laid out a schedule for finishing UFOs; this was not quite as successful as I'd hoped, but I did get most of the sewing finished. Mostly. The biking flares on the eyelet dress are in, the Victory dress is finished -- although my dirty little secret is that the belt was not finished in time for the sewalong deadline but held together with pins. It's still only partially done. The grey linen Thurlow trousers are finally finished. The shorts, which have been ostensibly finished for over a year, need the hardware moved over to fix the gaping waist; the blog post for these is in progress, I swear. As for the crocheted items? Nope.
So, like last summer, I'm setting myself a challenge. I have 8 weeks of vacation and about 16 projects planned. Which seems silly, given last year's vow to only plan one item per week. Ah, but that was before I had my secret weapon.
You see, the thing that takes the most time for me is the cutting out, because I have a tiny living room floor and I take far too many, too long breaks to rest my back. When I realized that I could be using the lab benches after school, it changed everything. Suddenly it only took me an hour or two to cut out. It was amazing, but what would I do over the summer?
Once marks were in and I didn't have students coming to see me after school anymore? I cut projects like a maniac. I got 11 projects cut (this includes two tops I'm now not planning on sewing until the fall). So that will help a great deal in the getting sewing done. The other thing is having a specific event or external deadline to finish by. So that's what I'm gonna do.
So here are my ain't-gonna-lie-these-are-ambitious plans:
ridiculous ambitious amount of sewing, especially when you consider that I also need to do some mending and just-one-more-things on a few items in between each new make. It goes into crazy when you consider that I've also got plans to do some carpentry and sort out my office by the end of the summer. And help at Aged P's house. As well as, you know, be completely lazy.
Oy.
Maybe you should just wake me when school starts in September.
Previously, on PGOTLMMM14: (The answers to the Where in Toronto is PhysicsGirl game are in the mouse-overs.)
I realized that I forgot to add my geeky stats for the last two weeks, so here is the final tally.
Warning: Here be data!
Total sewn: 29 items over 22 days; crocheted: 7 items over 7 days; jewellery: 12 over 12 days; refashioned: 11 items over 10 days
Most worn
sewn: Swoon patterns scarf-neck cardigan (4 - and it's only so low because I made it so late in the month), followed by grey linen Thurlows and the Lekala spiral jeans skirt at 3 each
crocheted: Saturn sweater, which is still missing buttons so is still un-blogged (3)
jewellery: chunky fluorite chandlier earrings (3)
Ye Olde Table of Number-crunching
| Item/Category | Dress | Top | Trousers | Skirt | Sweater | Other |
| Sewn Refurbished | That Million Dolly Look (1) | Vanilla Sorbetto (1) | Grandad (1) | Koi is coy (2) | Swoon cardi (4) | |
| Down in Distant Electric Ave (1) | Black Sesame Sorbetto (1) | Thurlows (3) | Lekala spiral (3) | |||
| LGRAB (1) | Blueberry Sorbetto hack (2) | White DEB (1) | ||||
| Death is now my neighbour (1) | Cherry Sorbetto hack (1) | Black peau de soie (1) | ||||
| Pistachio macaron (2) | M*A*T*H tank (2) | |||||
| Definite Prob. of Macaron (1) | Math cheat tank (3) | |||||
| White Butterick (1) | Black waistcoat (2) | |||||
| Eyelet Dress (1) | Blue tee (3) | |||||
| Crochet | Sylvia (2) | Blue skies scarf (1) | ||||
| Saturn (3) | möbius scarf (1) | |||||
| Jewellery | Timeless teardrops (1) | Cherry blossom (3) | Provencal bike (1) | Square hoops (2) | Bruised candy apple (1) |
| purple Eva (2) | Chunky fluorite chandeliers (3) | rhumba clusters (2) | Tea earrings (1) | ||
| Wooden danglers I | (1) Wooden danglers II (1) |
What to take away from this? I met my goals for this year's MMM (wear something me-made everyday, with something sewn or a crocheted sweater at least 5 times per week, and sew a new garment by the end of the month), but I need to sew more separates. I knew this beforehand, of course, but looking at all those dresses that I wore only once (because students will mention it if you dare to wear a dress twice in the same month), and thinking about all the non me-made spring clothes I kind of miss wearing during MMM because I have enough me-made tops or bottoms to go with them, and due the fact that I'm sort of tired of planning out what to wear on which day... wait, where was I? Oh yeah. I need to sew more separates. That way next year's MMM will feel more like the rest of the year, except where I go off to exciting locations everyday and take a picture of myself. So that's my next goal.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me recap the past few months. I sewed 6 dresses: 4 #sewDollyClackett dresses (two of which are technically UFOs because of gaping v-necks), the underdress for the 20s outfit, and a yet-to-be blogged Tiramisu; the SwoonPatterns cardigan; the Lekala spiral gore jeans skirt; a yet-to-be blogged Belcarra; and 3 yet-to-be-blogged pairs of Measure-Twice-Cut-Once Mary knickers. This flurry of activity was brought to you by the realization that the lab benches at school make perfect cutting tables, and also by a couple of sewalongs that I thought I would participate in for prizes and glory. I cut the Tira and Belcarra in May, but while I finished them in between piles of marking, I didn't have time to take pictures. I'll blog about these makes eventually; for now here's a sneak peek:
Crochet-wise, I started, frogged, restarted, refrogged, then finally stopped a wrap; maybe I'll get around to finishing it in the fall. I nearly finished a Lady Sybil cloche in time for the Downton Abbey exhibit at Spadina House, but I have to finish sewing the appliqué. And I finished crocheting Aged P's westie. Jewellery-wise, I only made one pair of earrings, the burgundy Rhumba earrings; stupidly, I did not do the shake test and several links fell off, so I need to fix those.
Last December, I laid out a schedule for finishing UFOs; this was not quite as successful as I'd hoped, but I did get most of the sewing finished. Mostly. The biking flares on the eyelet dress are in, the Victory dress is finished -- although my dirty little secret is that the belt was not finished in time for the sewalong deadline but held together with pins. It's still only partially done. The grey linen Thurlow trousers are finally finished. The shorts, which have been ostensibly finished for over a year, need the hardware moved over to fix the gaping waist; the blog post for these is in progress, I swear. As for the crocheted items? Nope.
So, like last summer, I'm setting myself a challenge. I have 8 weeks of vacation and about 16 projects planned. Which seems silly, given last year's vow to only plan one item per week. Ah, but that was before I had my secret weapon.
You see, the thing that takes the most time for me is the cutting out, because I have a tiny living room floor and I take far too many, too long breaks to rest my back. When I realized that I could be using the lab benches after school, it changed everything. Suddenly it only took me an hour or two to cut out. It was amazing, but what would I do over the summer?
Once marks were in and I didn't have students coming to see me after school anymore? I cut projects like a maniac. I got 11 projects cut (this includes two tops I'm now not planning on sewing until the fall). So that will help a great deal in the getting sewing done. The other thing is having a specific event or external deadline to finish by. So that's what I'm gonna do.
So here are my ain't-gonna-lie-these-are-ambitious plans:
- Various Belcarra blouses. Already cut is a grey & black vertical stripe, which I plan to wear shopping on Monday. Due: July 7. Also cut is a blue poly version, to be worn to the Fringe's Chasing Margaret Flatwood. Due: July 9. I originally meant to cut the grey & black horizontally and messed up, but there's enough fabric left to do that if I like the way the first one feels, in which case I'll wear it to the Fringe's Slut on Thursday. Due: July 10.
- I really, really like the Anna bodice and plan to make a white linen top out of it. I'll wear it to Ari's planetarium talk on Friday. I've realized I also need to plan my jewellery makes or they'll never get done. One roughly biweekly. So: aquamarine Eva earrings to go with the Anna top. Due: July 11.
- I had enough grey linen left over from making the Thurlow trousers to make a pair of shorts, which I'll wear to the Fringe's Love's Labour Lost on Saturday.
- Have you heard of #Oonapalooza? Another awesome sewing blogger with distinctive style.
Gillian sewing-dared me to wear an Oona outfit for the Toronto Sewcialists meetup, so I'm going to make another Belcarra top. I should have just enough white cotton eyelet to eek out a short version. I'm not sure whether I'm going to underline it yet. This is not terribly Oonatastic by itself, so I plan to turn this yellow embroidered sari I got last May into a maxi skirt by draping it on my judy, Oonastyle. How hard can it be? If I can get enough leather or other suitable fabric, I might also make an obi belt to go with it, but I'm definitely going to fix my burgundy hoops for the outfit. (See also: scouting appropriate alleyways for pics.) Due: July 19. - I'm going to make this blue & blue striped Alma to wear to Monty Python Live (mostly); alas for me, I will be watching them on a movie screen and not actually live. UFO: Saturn sweater. Due: July 20.
- After a few weeks of furious sewing, week 3 will be a bit of a break. The DC is taking a week off and we're going to be tourists in our own city. We're going to the ROM on the Tuesday. After so many separates, I'll cave and sew a dress. I'd like to wear the McCall's 8789 sheath in the cream and tan check I used for my first Thurlow shorts. Due: July 22.
- The jeans situation in this household is getting dire. Lizzy from Sew Busy Lizzy is hosting a Jeans in June and July sewalong, and it's the kick in the pants I need after having the pattern and denim for many months. I'd like to wear these to see Titus Andronicus in High Park.
I'm going to break it down into several manageable bits over the month, which will make it seem less daunting. I hope. (That's what we're always trying to do as teachers, right?) I may use the Workroom's cutting tables at this point. And what goes better with jeans than twisted silver hoops? UFO: Death is Now my Neighbour dress. Trace pattern due: July 13. Cut fabric due: July 20. Final project due: July 30
So that's July taken care of. On to August! This will be slightly more troublesome deadline-wise, given we don't have quite as many fixed plans yet. These dates may change depending on circumstance.
- The DC and I are thinking of going to Montreal for the August long weekend, and I had enough black & gold (which I am calling bronze) knit to cut out another SwoonPatterns scarf-neck cardigan for fancy-schmancy evenings out. Due: August 1
- No, I do not really need another white skirt for Dîner en Blanc, assuming it happens this year, but I thought I had enough white linen to make the Gabriola. Which I nearly do, except for two more side panels. We don't have a date for DeB yet, so I'm guestimating. I'm also planning on crocheting a pair of sandals. UFO: LGRAB dress. Tentatively Due: August 7
- Aged P's family usually hosts a summer BBQ, and I have enough of this polka dotted cotton/silk to make views B/E of the Simplicty 2451. UFO: Koi is Coy skirt. Due: August 17
- I'm planning on picking up a lot of white cotton knit for T-shirts so I can finally replace my current less-than-pristine crop. I might try out a few patterns, like Cake's Bonny (or the free T-shirt pattern from when Steph was just Three Hours Past the End of the World) I'll wear one of them with the polka dot skirt. Due: August 17
- I'm going to make a second attempt at fixing the silk chiffon dress I bought in Paris. It would be great to wear on a bike ride with the DC. Due: August 24
- During August, I'll be making a second pair of jeans by following the Jean-ius Craftsy course. This will help reverse-engineer my favourite pair of jeans. I'll wear them to something. Due: August 29
- The last two weeks of August, I'll be ramping up to go back to school... which means that school will be open and I can access the lab benches again. Perfect time to finally get around to stamping the silk for the Giraffe Marfy top. So this will be a Marfy week. I've already cut the muslin, so this is when I'll sew it up. Then I'll make two final versions: the giraffe and a version out of the rest of the red and white polkadot silk. I'll wear the polka dots on the first day of school and the giraffe on the second. I also want to finally restring my beaded key lariat. Muslin due: August 25; R&w due: August 20; giraffe fabric stamping due: August 27; steaming due: August 27; final giraffe due: August 29
Five items in one weeks seems like a lot, but since all but one are already cut out and I've made each pattern before, the tops will only take a few hours each to sew up. The shorts might take a little longer. UFO: Sylvia sweater. On to week 2.
(I really want to make a maxi Anna in an Oonafabulous fabric, but I don't currently have said fabric. I'll keep my eyes open. If so, it would be terrific to wear it to the Beaches not-really-JazzFest. Hypothetically Due: July 24.)
Oy.
Maybe you should just wake me when school starts in September.
Oh. My. Gawd. That is a seriously ambitious list! So many great ideas though - Good luck! Maybe we can find an alley to pose in together on the 19th!?
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