Monday, January 04, 2016

Laziness or SWAP?

I enjoy living vicariously through other bloggers' SWAP (sewing with a plan) posts.  In contrast, my wardrobe and sewing planning revolves around minimizing serger thread color changes. ;-)

I place my mending/refashioning/sewing projects in trays, sorted by color and stored in a cabinet of the sewing island.  DD's Fall wardrobe, Halloween costume and birthday outfit superseded my other sewing plans in the past 4 months.

My cabinet of pending projects overflowed. There was no escape from plowing through the stacks. In one week, my serger sported four colors before I ran out of time.

I cut the projects out on Sunday afternoon and rethreaded the serger in the mornings by daylight, before going to work.  After work and weeknight dinners, I was ready to sew.  10-20-30 minutes to sew in practice!

In one super-busy week, I hemmed a 3-pack of ribbed tanks to curve over my hips, cut three bias striped jersey scarves, repaired a fraying bath towel, refashioned two thrifted t-shirts using Kwik Sew 2555, made a pair of PJ pants from Vogue 1146, repaired a thrifted turtleneck and hemmed two RTW pairs of pants.

These are not the most glamorous makes, but they are needed makes.

I barely touched my 2014 and 2015 sewing goals and lists*.  A new job and subsequent inter-state move; home search, renovation and second move; and family work took precedence.  But, it's nice to dream of a future with more spare time, which I can devote to exploring new directions in making.

In 2016, I resolve to resume my dyeing experiments.  Anyone in Boulder want to participate in a tie-dye party?

* The lists will be rejiggered and serve as reminders and motivators instead of sources of guilt.

8 comments:

  1. You accomplish a lot of sewing! Ice dyeing has captured my interest, and this Denverite would enjoy driving to Boulder for a tie-dye party. I could stop at Colorado Wholesale Dye Company to pick up supplies, if needed.

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    1. There's a dye supplier in Denver? Wow. I'll keep you posted about possible dye dates. Jan is filling up, but I'm optimistic about Feb.

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    2. Colorado Wholesale Dye Company is not far from Colorado Fabrics, maybe 2-3 miles, just off Littleton Blvd.

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  2. Here's to dreaming of SWAP! I'm currently bogged down sewing a coat. Sometimes mending/refashioninhg is the most productive way to go. And it is a good project for those 10-20-30 minute sewing interludes.

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    1. A coat is quite ambitious, especially with a baby and a FT job. Kudos!

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  3. I actually like that shade of blue - it is the Pantone rose quartz that is so dull. Also dyeing, I have a yearning to try it as I saw a dip-dyed dress sewn by my pal Meg last year (Made by Meg) and it was so cool. But it sounds messy? will have to investigate.

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    1. Dyeing is not difficult. Dyeing with predictable and reproducible results is hard.

      Dharma Trading can ship to the East Bay quickly and inexpensively.

      I've gone back and tagged my old dyeing posts with tags for both dyeing and tutorial if they contain how-to information.

      Dharma has good basic dyeing instructions on their website and also sells booklets for more complicated visual effects. Really good help and fair prices for supplies.

      I used to joke that, for my BS in Chem from Berkeley, I needed to pass a tie-dye test! (Cal has a campus-wide swim test for graduation.)

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  4. What at interesting post. Especially the imagined SWAP. I have always had too much to do, but now my kids have grown up I am much more in control. I still can only make one in four of the SWAPs that I create in my imagination. I love dying and wish I lived near you so I could join in what will be so much fun.

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