How do you deal with no sewing motivation?

My sewing year for 2015 was pretty poor and having recently emerged from a long spell of no sewing motivation I was inspired to post about this. 

Understanding why your mojo has disappeared.

There so many reasons that this happens but the ones that I hear the most are the following:-

• Stress  - work, personal or just feeling out of sorts

• Being busy – being away with work, holiday and not managing to fit into the day

• Working on projects that are uninteresting or not going well

• Feeling overwhelmed by your stash and/or works in progress

My recent bout of no sewing mojo was due to a combination of all three. I had a huge amount of work related travel in 2015 and particularly towards the end of the year. That combined with being out and about in London and a succession of wadders ground my sewing to a halt. 

What to do when you are lacking motivation?

1. Just because you are sewing less, does not mean that you are not sewing

When the motivation to cut out or sew projects is low I take the time to do sewing related activities. I also count this as time spent sewing whether I have my sewing mojo or not! 

These include:-

• Re-organising your fabric and pattern stash 

• Making a list of projects that you would like to sew for the season ahead

• Making a wishlist of patterns that you would like to buy or techniques that you would like to learn

• Preparing yourself for projects. Go shopping for your zippers, buttons, elastic and any other notions that you might need for when you get back you sewing mojo. I also count pre-washing my fabrics as sewing! 

2. Surround yourself with fun sewing related activities 

Despite having nothing to show for 6 months I really enjoyed attending LDC meetups to see what everyone else was working on and empathising with others that were feeling the same way and were struggling with a lack of sewing motivation.  Attending fabric swaps, fabric shopping trips, attending fashion exhibitions and reading other sewing blogs to keep up to date with sewing trends made me feel as though I was still engaged with a sewing community.

3. Don’t put pressure on yourself

Understand that you may not always have as much time or inclination to sew and that is ok. For me if I am sewing when I don’t want to I am bound to make a mistake so I just have to step away from my sewing machine. This also allowed me to become fully immersed in my new hobby of cross stitching. I found that it was pretty mindless and could even take it travelling with me.  

Remember - If you sew as a hobby it should be something that you do because you enjoy it, not because you feel guilty for not doing it

Keeping up sewing motivation

I am very aware that if I have a long spell of no sewing it can be difficult to get back into the habit of sewing regularly. Over the years I have discovered the following:-

• Understand what hits the spot

For a long time I tried to get my sewing motivation back by sewing really easy tried and true patterns. I found that this didn’t challenge me enough and easily lost interest. For me now, I always tackle a new simple pattern that is likely to have minimal fit issues (for me this is usually a stretch knit dress). However for other people a Tried and True sewing project is the only thing that gets them back on track. Take time to think about which past sewing projects you have enjoyed and why. 

• Sew with a purpose

Take time to decide why you want to undertake a project. I find that I am 10 times more likely to finish a project when I do this. 

• Make sure that you have everything you need for a project

Nothing is worse than feeling like you want to sew and realising that you don’t have enough fabric or that it isn’t wide enough, or that you have no interfacing or are missing the zip for that work in progress you finally feel like tackling. It’s worth spending a little bit of time organising your projects so you can really enjoy sewing when you feel the urge to do so. 

It would be great to hear what other things people do when they have lost their sewing mojo! And are there any LDC members or otherwise that can relate? 

Sew your own luggage

I am about to fly with Ryanair to Italy with my partner to walk the Grande Anello dei Sibillini
Doing the trek means that I and my partner have to carry everything with us in a rucksack,  a total of two and a half weeks worth of luggage as after, I hope, completing this trek I will be doing some sightseeing and relaxing. We are only taking cabin luggage so we have one rucksack each within the size limit of 40cm x 55 cmx 20 cm. We are not camping, thank goodness, but have booked a place each night in a rifugio or albergo, all of which provide hearty meals. 
Ryanair now allow you to take an additional bag, as well as your main cabin bag, into the cabin provided it is no bigger than 35cm x 20cm x 20cm.  When I went to Italy in 2015, to sightsee with my Canadian cousin, we flew with Ryanair and I made a fabric handbag from some furnishing cotton to these dimensions to use for a day's sightseeing.

It has an outside pocket to the front and back, closed with a snap fastener, and long  straps so that it could be carried over the shoulder.  There is a central tie across the middle of the width of the bag, which helps to keep the contents secure, but it is hard to make them out in the above photograph.  It could easily take a towel and costumes for the beach etc.  I designed it so that it could also be carried in the hand by knotting the fabric straps.

There are two further sets of ties, which are discernible in the above photograph that, once tied, form a gusset at either end of the bag, making it more compact in size.
For the impending holiday I decided to make as the second cabin bag a small drawstring bag that could be worn like a rucksack .  I had some waterproof fabric that I used as the outer fabric. Although this bag is not intended to stand up to torrential downpours I did want it to have resistance to a certain amount of rain.  For the base I cut a square, 20 cm x 20 cm, for the back panel a rectangle 35 cm x 20 cm and for the remaining sides a long strip 35 cm x 60 cm.  A 1 cm seam allowance was added to all these dimensions.  I also cut a large circle to form a flap over the top and strips to form the channels for the drawstring cords to run through at the top and as tabs to hold the cords at the bottom of the bag.
Sewing was very straightforward, joining the panel for the sides to the back panel, sewing the tabs at the bottom of the bag into the seams at the same time, and then sewing the body of the bag to the base.  I made a lining mainly out of some fabric I had abandoned from a failed project but, as I did not have enough of this for the back panel, also from some leftover white toile fabric.  I ironed some stiff fusible interfacing to the back of the lining base and put two pockets, left over from the failed projects, on the back panel lining.  Here's the lined inside of the bag.

I found it difficult to photograph the inside but I hope you get the idea.  Then I sewed the lining and outer together  when I stitched  the channels for the drawstrings over the top edge, I think you can just about see these channels in the photograph above.  The photograph below, with the drawstrings in position and the flap sewn on, should give you an idea of the construction.  Everything used was in my stash except for 2.5 metres of nylon cord at 30p a metre from Simply Fabrics in Brixton.

And now here it is in action.

Want to know what's in it?  I spread the contents out on the table so you can see, the list is below.

 

Goretex hooded rain jacket, purse, torch, mobile phone, First Aid kit,box of plasters,washbag of toiletries, knee length shorts, 2 pairs of hiking socks,2 bras, 4 pairs of knickers, 1 pair of sandals, long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, fine wool polo neck sweater, V-neck pullover and a 2 cm thick book.  I could have squeezed a bit more in even but I don't intend to load it like that in real life.  I just thought it would be interesting to see how much I could get in it.  The measurements when thus loaded are about half a centimetre inside the Ryanair requirements.

When not in use the bag folds up and I have photographed it on top of a sheet of A4 paper.

It is folded into a polythene bag  but, at some point, I think I will make a pouch for it, maybe using some more stash !

I LOVE - old sewing books

I went to a 2 day workshop on Patchwork and Quilting for Beginners at the Exeter Sewing Machine Company (more of this workshop in a post to come).While sipping my morning tea before we began, I noticed the book shelves.

There were some gems from the 1930's and 40's amongst the more recent volumes.

And inside were items such as these, with instructions on making the pattern to size.

And how I love this blouse from a 1940's manual, which had very good instructions on fitting problems.

This is the book and the illustration shows a dress and a suit for which there are pattern cutting instructions, along with instructions for other clothes for women, men and children..

I could have spent the 2 days just browsing the shelf.  I checked out on the internet another interesting out of print book with pattern cutting information found on that shelf  - it was on offer for £177.00!!

Tracing pattern and creating a toile in one go

OK, you would be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled upon a gardening blog because this is a roll of horticultural fleece, currently available at Wilco for the princely sum of £3.45 for 8 metres of 150 cm width.  That works out at about 44p a metre.  I had heard mention that this fleece was useful for tracing patterns so decided to give it a go.  So here is an account of my experience trying it out on a pattern for a edge to edge jacket with a two piece raglan sleeve.
The neat little roll, once unwrapped, expands into a vast cloud of white stuff.  It is difficult to stop it from creasing and you need to get it smooth to trace.  I found the easiest way to do this was to cut off an amount appropriate to the pattern you wish to trace and press it  with a very low heat and a sheet of paper over the top, I used greaseproof paper (my previous pattern tracing favourite).  You must treat it gently otherwise it will melt.
You can then smooth it over your pattern and weight it down.  In the photograph below you can probably see that the second from innermost line is darker where I have traced the outline but look how easy it is to see the pattern underneath the fleece.

I found that the easiest pen to use was a brush tip felt pen, intended for use by children, although the colour did fade somewhat after a couple of days, I think it is intended to be easily washed away if the kids manage to get it all over themselves and the curtains as well as their colouring book.  Pencil and biro dragged the fleece too much  but the colour was stable.  Any suggestions as to a non-fading alternative would be gratefully received.  I just used what I had available at the time.
Then I used the pieces I had traced (all of which had the instruction "Cut Two") to cut out the second pieces and copied the pattern markings.

Next stage was to mark the seam allowances, using a seam gauge and a different colour felt tip.

And then pin all the pieces together for pin fitting.

As you can see the jacket seems to fit my old Adustoform dummy quite well.  I am showing you the back because the front fits well.

But, although the bust, waist, hip and back length of the dummy are adjusted to my size, it is not me as you can see from the next photograph  where you can see that I will need a rounded back adjustment and the shoulder curve reducing.  I also need to try it on over a thin blouse instead of a thick polo neck jumper but it was too cold today! 

So there you are, your pattern traced and a cheap as chips toile as well.  Agreed, it will not be in the same weight and drape as your intended actual fabric.  However it does have the advantage that you can see through it and thereby get a better idea of what it is about your body that may be causing any problem than you would have when using an opaque fabric.
Have you any suggestions to have about inexpensive ways of tracing patterns and creating toiles?

Guilt...and Gratification

I knew it was going to be difficult for me to stick to a resolution not to buy any more fabric when I headed, with LDC member Joy, for the Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts show at Excel on 7 April.  It only took us 45 minutes to get there, 45 minutes of non-stop sewing chatter.  In fact, we were so busy talking that we went straight past the entrance to the show and had to turn round and retrace our steps.
Once inside we headed to book some of the free workshops available.  We both signed up for one on ribbon embroidery techniques and Joy also bagged a place on one just about to start and headed off to take her seat in the workshop area.  That left me with about 40 minutes before the start of a talk by Wendy Dolan on the techniques that she uses for her textile art, techniques that I thought might be useful for dress making embellishment. Should you have the chance to hear Wendy talk and show how she creates her work then take it.  She showed some wonderful examples and the lace she created for a wedding gown, using only sewing machine stitching, is just amazing.
Those 40 minutes led me into temptation and by the time I met up with Joy, who had spent the time being very creative in her workshop, I had 2 metres of jersey knit in my bag purchased from the stall of Lili Fabrics .  I had not been able to resist  the dark blue, grey and tan colour way,  as I knew it would go with many items in my wardrobe but I still felt Guilty for breaking the resolution yet again.  The plan was to make a simple knit dress using a pattern that was in the May 2016 issue of Prima magazine.  It had to be something simple because I have had two frustrating makes in the past few weeks, one being a disastrous pair of trousers and the other a dress, which turned out well but caused a number of headaches in the making.  I needed some easy sewing Gratification to restore my confidence.
The yardage requirements for the pattern were stated to be 1.80 metres but the length was just under 20 cm shorter than I wanted so I bought 2 metres.  I should have remembered that in the past I had found that Prima overcalculated the amount I would need and so it proved.  I decided to make a skirt and top instead, giving me the chance to wear them together or separately.
The top was taken from a pattern that I bought in the 1970's  and had made previously.  In fact I still wear the top, now even more fashionable than when I first made it as it is in a quilted knit.  It is worn by the middle figure on the pattern envelope - and check out the flare on those trousers!

The skirt was View D from New Look 6164, bought a couple of years ago in a closing down sale of a Brixton fabric store.  It has an elasticated waist and a centre back seam with a slit for ease of movement.

I made only two adjustments to the skirt pattern , the first was to lengthen it and the second was my usual one for flat buttocks by pinching out an amount from the centre back seam accross the pattern along the hip line, graduating  the amount of the reduction to nothing at the side seam.  I do it by slashing the pattern across the hipline and pivoting it the required amount, then taping it in position.  If I don't do this my skirt side seam will swing forward because I do not have enough derriere to support the shape at the back.
Fortunately for me and my sewing sanity, all went smoothly, the only hiccup being that I cut the top sleeves separately and was just about to cut the second one when, in the nick of time, I realised I had failed to reverse the fabric and was about to cut another left sleeve.
I am pleased with the result.  I am not a fan of elasticated waists but it certainly gives a quick and easy result and is easily disguised with a belt or by a top worn over it plus no worries about overeating as the skirt waistline expands with you.  My only niggle is that the centre back slit seems rather high for modesty but it does mean that I shall have no worries about there being enough leg room for bicycling.
So here it is, top and skirt worn together.

 And taking a leaf out of the book of member Pia, who writes this inspiring blog , I have attempted to coerce my partner into taking some other photos to show the two items worn in other ways.  First the casual jeans mode-

 and next the efficient secretary at work mode-

I wore the top and skirt on 12 April to the Monthly LDC meetup at Ev's, where almost everybody was wearing great examples of their makes- jackets, skirts, blouses and dresses. I can see that I will wear these two pieces a lot as it doesn't crease and can be dressed up or down.  I don't feel quite so guilty now and got so much gratification that I am likely to make these again soon using some knit fabric from my stash to take part in the sewalong starting on 22 April, details here , thus allowing me to feel very virtuous.