Cleared Worktable

On Friday night I started pottering at my worktable, slowly picking bits up and working out where they should go. Nothing too serious. Just as I went past each time, which admittedly is pretty frequently, as I walk past it to get to my computer, I'd pick something up and sort it.
Yesterday I did a little bit more. I was even able to start seeing the table top. You can see how covered it is in this photo (yes, same photo as in my last blog post)

Worktable used as dumping ground

And that photo is after I'd spent some time sorting things on it. Previous there wasn't space for the black and white bag at the front. 

This is what it now looks like:

Tidied worktable

All that is on it is my overlocker, a basket of craft bits that need new homes (most have new homes, they just need to get there), and a tray with my priority UFO's. I think there are 4 in there. 

I don't think my worktable has ever looked this clear, apart from the day it got moved into my sewing room. It's definitely going to make it easier to work on my UFO's for the next month as I do my '31 Days of Unfinished Projects.'

31 Days of Unfinished Projects, Take Two

Last year I participated in Nesters 31 days blog challenge. Here is where I started talking about it last year. I've decided that I'm going to do the same again this year. Partly to once again give me some motivation to work on my UFO's. The other part is I've been pretty slack in the blogging department for the past few months, I keep saying to myself, 'I'll do it tomorrow', and then don't. This means I have to do it today, and will hopefully get me back into the habit.

I still have a cupboard full of UFO's. Plus a box of cross stitch ones in another cupboard. Plus a few on the (very cluttered) worktable. I'd like to say I have less UFO's than last year, but looking at my list from last year, too many of them are still UFO's. But that's okay right? They say that good things take time.

I have a quote on the wall behind my computer, no idea where it came from, but I really think I need to embrace it a bit more, 'Let go of projects that feel like obligations not opportunities.'
I know I finished a bunch of last years UFO's, as I wrote about here, but not as many as I would have liked. I was tempted to challenge myself to finish more UFO's this year, but I've just started a new job this week, and am still getting my head around that. I think it will be enough challenge to work on UFO's and blog about it daily.
On a side note, I'm glad I've gone back and read that, it's reminded me of something I wanted to do differently this time, writing in the morning about the progress I made the previous day.

My mostly un-usable work table

 I can see 3 UFO's in that photo. In the stripy bag is a knitted baby wrap that needs sewn up and buttons added. In the black/white bag at the front is the Hungry Caterpillar dress that only needs buttons sewn on. It also contains my underbust corset that needs the binding sewn on. That bag is going with me to social sewing tomorrow, so progress will be made. I also know that at the end of the table are a couple of cut but not sewn wetbags which I really should finish.

My UFO Cupboard

 This is my UFO cupboard. Sorry for the bad photo, there is an ironing board and a worktable in front of the cupboard, so I can open it, but there isn't much space to take a photo of the whole thing. But you get the idea. There is another shelf below the three that you can see. As you can also see, it's a mess of unfinished projects. They're all just kinda crammed in there.

Cross stitch box

All my cross stitch supplies are stored in one box. Except for the thread, there are three thread boxes for those, they're on another shelf as they won't fit in the box. There are kits, pretty much all of which I think I've started. Plus a whole bunch of fabrics. Fox Collections used to do packs of 10 pieces of random aida for $25, and I might have bought two of them, back when I was doing a lot of cross stitch. And when I say back when I was doing a lot of cross stitch, I really mean about 10 years ago.... The rational part of my brain knows I don't need all that fabric, and knows I could easily replace it, but it's still hard to get rid of it, as it's aida I would use if I started another cross stitch. Which I really shouldn't do until I've finished some of the ones currently in progress.

You know, I'm a bit ashamed of just how many UFO's are in that cupboard, and how much of a mess it is. Please tell me I'm not the only one with a space like that.... Makes me realise just how much of a good idea this will be. Only 3 more days till October. But that doesn't mean I can't start work on UFO's now. Well, not now, I'm going to bed now. But tomorrow....

Belated Cape-Along

It's been a few weeks, and not for lack of anything to write about. I spent the first four weeks after my last post making things and preparing for an overseas trip. The past three weeks have been spent overseas with my little family. The past three days have been spent home sick. Not nearly as much fun, but glad it happened as I was heading home from holiday rather than heading on holiday.

One of the things I made before I went away was a cloak for my little one. Actually, I made two cloaks, as I made one for myself, but I'm going to ramble about the little one's one first.

Over at The Monthly Stitch the August challenge was making a cape. Now, I know I made a cloak, and it's not quite the same. But with all that I had to do before going away I wasn't going to have time to make myself a pretty little cape, so I'm totally counting what I did make.

We went to Burning Man. My husband has a large cloak he wears, that keeps him warm as he wanders the nighttime playa and doubles as a blanket. Plus when you wear it on the plane it counts as a jacket and doesn't take up luggage allowance. I decided I was going to make one for myself and for our daughter.

For Guinevere, I found a neon yellow fun fur on clearance. I had some polarfleece I'd gotten in a 40% off sale, enough for the middle layer of both our cloaks, plus some rainbow swirly satin for her, just like her Daddy's cloak. I also had some calico for an additional, velcro out layer, that would have EL wire sewn to it, to provide light when wandering around at night.

Guinevere telling me how she thinks I should lay out the pattern pieces

Guinevere attempting to cut out the fabric using her little scissors

Guinevere happily snuggled up on the couch wrapped in her cloak and grinning at Daddy (who you can't see, but is wearing his cloak)

I don't actually have any photos of her wearing it at Burning Man. Two reasons, one, I didn't take very many photos. Two, the cloak turned out to be impractical for wearing, she kept taking it off, which is no good when I was using it to light her up. So I sewed EL wire onto her little jacket, and used the cloak as a blanket in the wagon we were pulling her around in. She did spend about 30 minutes one evening running around the camp in it, but as soon as we went to head out, off it came. It wasn't helped by it being quite a warm burn, usually in the evenings she was topless under her jacket. Previous years she would have needed a layer or two of merino under it. 

My cloak, which I'll share photos off when I've taken some, didn't get worn at all, it was just too warm at night. Most nights I was still in just a t-shirt by the time we made it back to our RV for the night. 

So, blogged about a bit later than August, but still made in August, so I'm totally counting it. 

Finished: Scarf for Mum

Mum taught me to knit when I was five. Unlike sewing, which neither of us remember her teaching me, we just remember me being allowed to use her machine, I remember her teaching me. I still have the scarf I knitted, somewhere. It's about twice as wide at the end as the start, is made up of multiple colours and different yarns, even has a block of a different colour in the middle of one stripe. You can totally tell it's a beginner piece. But you have to start somewhere.

So, where I'm going with this ramble down memory lane. I like making things for other people, but only people who appreciate the effort it takes to make something for them. Mum is one of those people. I don't think I've made her anything since a knitted pair of socks 6 years ago, (my first pair, still being worn) and thought it was time for something else. I know she likes scarves, so I decided to knit her one. But plain was no fun, so I designed an eyelet zigzag, which it turns out I really like. Very tempted to make myself one in the same design, different yarn of course.

In my 'Little Dresses' post I posted a photo of me working on something for my Mum. Now I can show the whole thing. Well, as much of it as I photographed as it was just over 2m long. It took ages to knit, but nothing worse than a scarf that's too short, so I'd checked how long Mum wanted it.

Mum's zigzag scarf

So here is the finished product, well, both ends of it. You'll just have to trust me that the middle section looks the same. 

Mum likes it. Says it feels nice and is warm too. I'm hoping she'll send me a photo of her wearing it. Or wear it next time I'm down. 

My Day Friday

One of the things I'm trying to do currently is take some time to myself. I feel like I have so many projects that I should do, both unfinished and planned, plus everything around the house. It's overwhelming at times.

On the trip up to Levana (I haven't written about it, but two of the others in the WSBN have, read about it here and here) I went up with Elisabeth of The Sewphist. There was much chatting on the drive. One of the things she mentioned was on Friday's she makes things for herself, even if it's just a cocktail, as she's blogged about here Which I thought was a fantastic idea. After a week of mulling it over in my mind, I decided that I was going to declare Friday's as My Day. This meant that I would only work on projects I wanted to, nothing that I felt I should work on. This included housework. Time for guilt free selfish sewing. Or just guilt free relaxing. And if I wanted to start a new project rather than work on an unfinished one, well that is fine too.

The first Friday I did this I ended up with Gynn home sick and a friend visiting. And you know what, I still drafted the pattern for my cloak. Then cut out two of the three layers. By then it was nearly time to go pick up the little one from daycare. I still need to cut out the lining for my cloak. It's a striped fabric, pale lavender and black, reminds me of Beetlejuice. I need to work out how I'm going to do it, mainly if I've got enough to try and pattern match the stripes, which I didn't think of when I bought the fabric, I just loved the colour/pattern. Even though it's going to mean more work and more time, I'm hoping I can pattern match, as it should look better that way. If I can't, I think I'm going to cut the panels going in two directions, so that it looks like it's not meant to match.

Cloak fabrics

The pale stripes are more lavender in real life, compared to the pale pink they look in the photo.
I can't decide if I'll work on the cloak or my Cake top tomorrow.

And I'm Back

I just realised it's been over two months since I wrote anything on here. Life got a bit overwhelming when my depression decided to rear it's ugly head. So while I've been crafting, even completing projects, writing about them has just had to take a back seat as I've only got so much time and energy to go around. I'm slowly trying to build more balance and supports into my life, plus somehow rewire my though processes.

I thought for a while that my UFO pile was going down. Actually, it was going down, I've finished a bunch of them. But we're going to Burning Man in less than 5 weeks. There is a whole bunch of things I need to get made before then. Like some merino clothing for myself and my husband, it gets cold in the middle of the desert at night. Thankfully my wonderful mother in law has already outfitted Guinevere in merino for this winter. I've got cloaks to make for myself and Guinevere, 3 layer affairs, with a fun fur outer, a polarfleece inner and a satin lining. Nighttime warmth plus blanket for when we get back to camp. I think there are about 15 things on the list.....

I want to write about all the awesome things I've finished recently, especially the scarf that arrived with Mum today. But I think I'm going to curl up on the couch tonight instead. I'll try for more rambles tomorrow.

I'm a little plagueling....

So this past week I've been a little plagueling, something my darling husband has called me when I get really sick. Guinevere got it first, a virus with a bonus ear infection. Then after a night of me barely sleeping as she was coughing and had gunky breathing, I started coming down with it too. Just as it hit me full force, the little one was happy and healthy again, with lots of energy and wanting to do all the things. I just wanted to sleep. Gynn was down with it too, he was sleeping so he could recover and get back to work.

I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. The house didn't turn into too much of a bombsite while I was sick. I have a few hours cleaning to get it where I'd like, it's livable. Still using Guinevere's daycare days to catch up on sleep. Last night was bliss, she slept right through without waking, for the first time in I don't know how long. Part of me was wishing I hadn't set my alarm and had woken when my body felt like it and taken her to daycare late.

This has meant that Me Made May '13 has taken a backseat. I've been wearing jeans, tee and top since my last post. I kept thinking that if I repaired my handmade PJ pants, I could count those, but I just wasn't motivated to do that. So instead I made slow progress on a couple more skirts for myself. I have worn my purple panel skirt for the past two days. I had to wear it yesterday as I'd mentioned it to a friend, and she said she hadn't seen it. Turns out she had seen it, she just hadn't realised I'd made it. Got to love it when that happens :)

I have managed to spend a reasonable amount of time in my sewing room, as I can do things sitting down and in small bursts. There also seem to be lots of things in here which will distract Guinevere....

Guinevere playing on the end of my sewing desk

She's worked out how to climb onto my sewing desk and get to the bits on the windowsill. Thankfully she can climb down too. Plus she'll sit there while I sew. I think that makes it mostly good.
My main worktable is somewhat clearer. My sewing desk is clear. My computer desk is mostly clear. Two small knitted projects were finished, all they needed were the ends woven in. Progress has been made on several projects, two of which were paused due to lack of matching thread. A situation which has now been sorted.

I also sent a parcel to a friend, adding some bits of fabric I thought she might enjoy. Four more pieces that are out of the stash.

Fabric that was gifted

 I managed to make a project from start to finish one evening. Just a little drawstring bag. I was sending a birthday present to a friend and didn't like any of the wrapping paper I had. So I thought I'd wrap it in fabric. Then decided it would be prettier to make a little bag. This was the result. Also, yet another (small) piece of fabric used up.

Present bag for a friend

My favourite project that I've been working on is my Epic Purple Skirt. More about that when I finish it. I've only got the hem to go. Which I know doesn't take long, but it's something I can do with Guinevere home, so I'm working on a UFO that I can't do with her around. Best thing about the skirt, is it's made from stash fabric, so totally counts towards my stash-busting challenge.

Guinevere 'helping' me cut my Epic Purple Skirt