Friday, August 1, 2014

Goodbye July! Hello August!

Well, another month has rolled by, and sadly I have not made much headway in my unfinished sewing. I had a fabulous vacation though in St Thomas. I was able to wear several outfits I made.  Although only one for the Pattern Stash contest.  Needless to say I didn't complete the most.  Actually didnt even upload the picture.  Here it is! 



I liked it so much, I made a second one, which I couldn't enter into the contest, but was fun to make nonetheless.



August, here I come.

Monday, June 30, 2014

June

Well we are more than halfway through this year, and I haven't made a lot of progress on my unfinished objects. I have to double my effort the rest of this year. In the meantime I did complete a summer blouse for my travels this year. I have to bring the unfinished back into focus!

Monday, May 12, 2014

May Madness!

I returned to my blog today, to utter shock that I have not posted since February.  I thought for sure I had posted in March!  Well, I have been quite busy sewing many items.  Looking back, I think it all went haywire when I found a wonderful blouse pattern that i thought I would enter in the pattern review contest.  It is a vintage pattern that seemed easy enough, and the the contest would end on March 31st.  I sewed it up just in time, and was going to take the pictures I needed to enter the contest when I realized I needed set in sleeves on it for it to be eligible.  I was a little disappointed, but I enjoyed making the pattern.  
So along comes April, and I get an Ipad mini for my birthday.  I needed a quick cover for it, so I made my own using a couple of fat quarters I got from Tuesday Morning.  It was fast and easy, and I got the pattern and tutorial from Charmed Liebling site. The tutorial is free and easy to follow, and there is an option to pay $2 to download the PDF.  I chose the free option and had no problem.  
You can find it here:
 http://www.charmed-liebling.com/home/free-sewing-tutorial-how-to-make-an-ipad-case

 I liked the Librarian blouse so much, I whipped up another one in some discount fabric from Joann's. This is a well fitting blouse, and very easy to make!  This would have worked for the Pattern Review contest.


 Then I got back to my original plan of finishing UFO's, i racked up another $10 for finally completing the Sew Fast Sew Easy jacket.  I guess I wasn't too happy with my topstitching, so I set it aside.  But having finished the jacket, I love the way it hangs so I will make another one and just change the collar to points rather than rounded.  I saw one example like that, and I loved it. 
Additionally, I made a pair of white pants.  I needed a little more room as it seems I continue to put on weight.  No picture of those yet, I have a minor repair to make, as the dryer did a number on the band. 

On another note, had a party for my granddaughter, and fell in love with this lighted sign I initially found on Pinterest then surfed to the Oh Happy Day site for the free tutorial.
http://ohhappyday.com/?s=diy+vintage+sign  

Decided to make the sign and it came out great!  I could have added one more string of lights to it, but overrall, I was happy with it and got a lot of compliments! 


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Two more unfinished objects

Chalk up another $20, which brings my total to $40 in my self imposed $10 for each completed item quest.  So, there were a couple of purses which I started on last year that went into the UFO bin.  The pink and black is an evening clutch by Burda.  I am not sure why I stopped working on that one, I was very close to finishing.  In fact, all I needed to do was attach the flower and a snap.  It took no time at all.  It will be a fun purse for a night on the town. 


The second purse is a fun weekend purse, Butterick 5109.  I made things a little hard for myself on this one by working with pleather accents.  I am not entirely happy with the outcome, but hey, another UFO bites the dust. This is getting to be fun.  I am still working on the Vogue knit blouse that I mentioned a couple of posts back.  I am sure it will happen eventually.  I am not happy with the fit, so I may have to unpick it and sew it more before I can complete it.  




Finished my Little White Dress

Evening look

Daytime Look
Little White Dress

What fun! I entered my first pattern review contest! I have been a longtime member and have never entered before. The contest required entrants to take a minimum of 3 shots of the dress.  It proved to be more versatile than I thought.  The funny thing is, I don't believe I have ever owned a white dress, so I am not sure why I decided to enter this, but I am glad I did! I am already looking for the next contest! Meanwhile, I still have quite a few unfinished objects to complete. At least the little white dress was not added to that bin.

Friday, January 10, 2014

So far so good, $20

Well, this whole paying myself to complete unfinished objects is working so far!  I have another project (small though it may be) completed.  This is another bag that I just got burned out on making.  I had made two of the larger bags and just didn't have the motivation to finish this one.  And so it has set in a bag of incomplete projects for about 5 years or so.  It's funny because it really only took a couple of hours to complete it.  I am excited about closing out these unfinished objects!  the next one is a blouse that's only been around for about a year and a half.  And I have $20 in my completed UFO envelope too!  This is getting to be fun!
I'm not sure what I will use this for, but I will come up with something.  I am always losing things in my purse, so maybe I can put something useful in it.  It's a little big for things like my cardkey and trainpass.  Oh well, on to my next UFO.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Get the year started right!

Happy New Year! Happy to see yet another year! I am excited about what this year will bring. I saw a wonderful idea on the heirlooms creations site. it is a strategy to complete UFO's! Although I am not geographically close enough to participate with them, I decided to adopt the idea on my own. so I have made a list of my UFO's. there are 37. (I know, excessive) but, the first step is to acknowledge there is a problem. Worse yet, some of them go back five years. Yikes! I will say that another site had a contest for oldest ufo's, and someone has had an unfinished quilt since 1969. They have me beat... Still five years is too long and nothing to brag about. so, my plan is to tackle these unfinished objects this year. This should keep me away from the fabric store, and give me some sewing satisfaction and closure. I am going to pay myself $10 for each UFO Completion, and buy something special with the money.
I put together an excel spreadsheet to document each UFO. I put the pattern company name and number, the approximate start date, a short description and any notes on where or why I off, and who the recipient is. I can tell that I stopped on some because my sewing skills were not at the level to complete the project. Some I just never got around to after cutting the pieces. Some I needed specialty notions or interfacings and some, well, I just got bored. I have to admit, it was interesting going back down memory lane, and because my granddaughter has outgrown some of the outfits, charity will receive a few items.
Now, this will not stop me from starting new projects, but I will have a focus on these UFO's. Happy sewing!
Well, I did finish my first UFO today.  I don't know how often I will do this, but I am happy to take one off of the list.  This was a grocery bag I started about 4 or 5 years ago.  I had completed about 3, and just ran out of steam.  It is nice to take one off of the list.