Small project dump

No time to waste! Been keeping busy with some simple projects so I'll just go ahead and get into them.

Groovy!

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce, I have lost my sew-jo. For several months I've had no inspiration and feel so unmotivated, and my lack of drive sits like a lead weight in soul, keeping me immobile. It's like I've lost my passion, my one purpose in hahahaha can you imagine.

It's true that I've been in a bit of a sewing rut lately but I promise, I'm not in anguish about it. We all need breaks, even from the things we do in our downtime. I just felt like taking the piss and roleplaying as a tortured artist for a bit. Anyway, I wouldn't bother writing a post if I didn't have anything new to showcase, so here, the newest addition to the handmade wardrobe:

In the stars

Confession: I made a (admittedly noncommittal) new year's resolution to wear less black and, as you can see, it appears I've failed only three months into the year. Old habits die hard, don't they? But, but! It's glitter! Glitter should count as a separate color altogether. Yes, this is how I'll cheat the arbitrary rule I've set for myself.

A handy set of jammies

If only to showcase yet another thing a person can adapt from basic, tried-and-true patterns: I've made another matching set adapted from my button-up shirt and pants sloper. This time, it's a sleepwear set made from this quirky shadow puppet-print cotton flannel from Joann.

 

Three letters away from a clever Prince reference

 

 

Mid-pandemic, I think a lot of people discovered a newfound hatred for jeans and other such "hard pants" after spending weeks upon weeks of lounging at home in their pajamas. I know I did, doubly so after doing inventory on my pants drawer and finding myself utterly bored with my hip-high stack of plain black skinny jeans. Ugh, I'll never buy or make a pair ever again. Naturally I've pivoted so far in the opposite direction that I've decided all pants from now on must be as wide as the sea. My first project, after making such a decree? A pair of culottes with legs spacious enough to get lost in, in a colorful paisley print that's busy enough to... Um. Get lost in.

3 free patterns + 1 for fun

Mood Fabric's free pattern archive is impressively large and I thought I'd test a few out! I'm in the opinion that you get what you pay for, and you should expect to do some extra work if the cost is nothing, but I was willing to take the plunge. I'm real bad at drafting with negative ease in mind. Giving up and relying on a professional to do it for me would yield better results, I figured. Simple tanks and tees should be impossible for someone to screw up, given that they aren't me.

(All following garments were constructed using an overlocker, all hems were zig-zagged and all bindings were topstitched on a regular sewing machine).

Half in, half out

Here's a fun thing about me: I experience choice paralysis when it comes to my projects. I often agonize about which little details to include or leave out because I, conversely to many sewists' habits, normally resolve to only make one of any non-basic garment. Meaning whatever view I make has to have the optimal wearability, or it's probably going in the trash.

A coverall jumpsuit is just one of those things I'd feel weird making and owning multiple of. But I can see why a person would want more than one. Sometimes it's too hot and you don't want to roll up your cuffs, you'd rather have short sleeves to begin with. Sometimes you want to do the cool street style thing where you tie the sleeves around your waist and wear it like regular pants. So I took all that into account and made a convertible pants-to-shorts, short-to-long sleeve jumpsuit.

Or I would have, except I decided last minute to keep the top and bottom separate garments. More on why, later. It's a matching set, not a jumpsuit. Or it is a jumpsuit, just in two pieces. It's everything. It's nothing. It's art. It's... something or another.