2014 Sewing Goals and Resolutions

Robin, I think it is natural to place pressure on yourself, especially if you feel pressured by the activities of others. It is very sound advice to slow down – alot of us need to heed it!

I don’t tend to make resolutions, life is tricky enough without setting myself up for a fall.

I am pretty happy with mine, I have not always stuck with my ‘rota’ system as sometimes things crop up, but on the whole, pretty happy.

I have all-but-stopped buying fabric unless it has a ‘porpoise’ (as Tildy would say) but I will admit to having a good scratch through the remnant bin.

Turning 40 was liberating for me, I sew what I want to/need to, admire what others do but I certainly don’t get hung up on it.

I am more likely to feel regret that I am not earning big bucks working outside the home.

Working mums, they leave me in complete awe!

Nicole, I should think anyone who can single handedly raise 5 – going on 6 – lovely children is plenty awe inspiring. I don’t know what the culture of work is like in Australia or in rural communities, but one of the greatest myths in urban America today is that any one person can do it “all.” Or that some moms work and others don’t work. Based on my experience and anecdotal evidence from dozens and dozens and dozens of moms I have spoken with over the last 8 years, I strongly believe that all moms work. Some of them make big enough bucks to pay others to care for their children and house while they work somewhere else, some care for the kids all on their own without any help at all. But it’s all work. There are only so many hour a in the day, after all, and even the best of us can’t change that.

Melanie and Sarvi, thank you so much, goodness me.

How true Melanie, we all do our jolly best don’t we?

I really agree with the “slow down and enjoy yourself” mentality towards sewing. I feel like all too often I’m in a race with myself to sew things faster then I can think them up. I’m never going to catch up on the sewing list so really I need to quit trying! Having said that, I want my kid’s wardrobes to be entirely handmade. Hmm.. conflicting resolutions? Lol!

My reflections on how I achieved the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Overall I’m very pleased 🙂

1. Sew from my stash and make do!
I sewed up 255.6m of fabric this year! 63.65m of knit fabric, 163.1m of woven and 26.7m of fleece.
Since overall I bought 121.05m of fabric this means I used at least 134.55m of fabric from my stash! In fact I used more as some of the fabric I bought has not yet been made into anything 🙂
I noticed I need more knits in my stash as there were a number of times when I wanted to make a knit garment and didn’t have an appropriate fabric 🙁

2. Add to my stash!Knits, bottom weight fabric and basic poplin weight.Mainly from op shops (thrift stores).
58.15m of the 121.05m I bought this year came from the Op-shop (thrift store). The 58.15m cost $47.50 from the op shop while 60.9m from spotlight cost $245.50!
I was also more thoughtful about what I bought and stuck mainly to the pain colours, knits and plain bottom weights.

3. Learn/improve my free motion quilting
I did a little bit. I have improved . . .
4. Finish the pieced quilts!
But I discovered that stitch in the ditch completes the quilts much faster 🙂 I got 2 of the 3 finished! Only one to go.

5. Have gifts finished before the deadline or event!
Definitely managed for Christmas! In fact they were done by Christmas Eve morning 🙂
I still need to improve with birthday present deadlines but overall significant improvement.

6. Sew more for myself
This year I sewed myself 34 items! My most worn used items are my Mabel skirts and matching self drafted leggings. I now have them in black, teal and burgundy! They are fantastic for mixing and matching.
I also worked on getting a tshirt pattern that fits. I have one, it still needs some tweaking but fits well.

Other: This year I decided to keep a record of all the things I made. I kept an Excel document noting all the information I wanted. This is where I got all the numbers for my reflections 🙂 It has been a fantastic record and a real eye opener about how much I really sew!

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by with love Heidi.