Advice from Pooh

“Organisation is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.”

A A Milne

I am loving this, I worked out how to add a page (all by myself, no help from my boy) and wrote my Achievements List for 2012. It's only August and I've made masses of stuff, I feel like I'm my own cheerleading squad, 'Go Jacq!'

It was a real mindshift for me to go from To Do lists to Achievements lists but it is really making a difference. I have To Do lists at work, why did I ever think that would motivate my hobbies? Of course, I need lists, but positive, under my control ones!

It goes hand in hand with my new 'judge myself as I would a friend' approach, which admittedly I'm finding hard to do but am determined to get the hang of.

Now, if only I could get the hang of blog buttons ...

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A Learning Curve

I know I'm not alone, I really struggle to buy stuff when I think I can make it myself. I drive my husband bonkers because I'm stubborn and take on far too much not always realistic about what I can achieve in the time I have available. I'm working hard at being kinder to myself, cutting myself a bit of slack, and that means choosing my projects a bit more carefully. Apparently overloading yourself with craft projects is not a sensible way to deal with being overextended in other areas of your life! Who knew?

So, what I don't need is another 'project' but a 'quick win' is a different kettle of fish.

I saw a dress in a shop in Whitstable and really liked it. P said 'treat yourself', I said 'it's just 2 rectangles' - so we popped in the fabric shop (twice, obviously, I'm an Olympic standard ditherer). I like to support the local shops - I just prefer to be buying the raw materials. The lady in the shop was very patient whilst I draped bolts of fabric over myself trying to figure out how much I needed.

I knew I'd recently seen something similar at cationdesigns blog but I wanted to add some shirred details like the dress in the shop. Actually, with hindsight I should have stuck to her design and fabric choice exactly but I was thinking of the dress in the shop. I thought of all the time I'd save that I'd usually spend tracing pattern pieces and cutting out - no pattern, just need to keep holding it up to figure out placement, piece of cake.

So, as a beginner, what did I learn from my first try at completely winging a garment for myself:

Totally over estimated the fabric width, even allowing for the gathering once shirred, so back to the drawing board. I do this every time, make everything too big, not sure why I'm getting it so wrong but measuring correctly would save me so much time and aggro. I actually ended up cutting my original Front in half length ways to make front & back which was much better.

5 lines of shirring at the waist did not work but that gave me masses of fabric at the chest so I ripped those out to replace with shirring under the bust, much better but led to another issue. The positive is that sewing, unpicking, and re-sewing endless lines of shirring means I got much better at it and figured out the best set up for my machine when using elastic.

I should not assume that liking a dress on the hanger means it will suit me once on, why did I do that? I would never just buy a dress in a shop without trying it on, I think I felt guilty about trying on something I had no intention of buying but it would have saved me some time.

Empire line styles don't really suit me, what was I thinking? I know this. And if masses of fabric at the bust is not a good look, why would shifting it downwards help? This would make a perfect maternity dress, not the look I was going for! So I should spend my time sewing stuff I will actually wear, that should just be obvious.

However, I'm not counting this as a total loss. I learnt such a great deal.

Pattern: None

Cost: 2.5m of fabric @ £10; thread 50p (staggeringly I did not have anything like a match in my stash, which proves that my stash is totally under control)

Made it myself saving: ??

Time taken: Totally stopped counting, I am clearly not good at winging it!

Satisfaction level: Mixed.

• I don't have the sundress I was planning on but I learnt a great deal
• I remembered some things I already knew (but ignored because I got carried away!)
• The dress is a perfectly acceptable beach cover up and I will definitely use it for that, the cotton is cool and it will work fine over a bikini
• I only used half the fabric, so I have enough for a blouse or dresses for my nieces
• I will feel less resentful of the time I spend tracing and cutting pattern pieces in future, it is obviously time well spent

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Little Wanzer? There's old ... And there's old!

We popped in to see my in-laws last weekend, we're helping them with their new iPad. At 80 and 75 they're doing pretty well, certainly better than they were with the old pc they had, which finally gave up the ghost. I always thought I was quite good at explaining stuff but I realised I'd pitched it wrong very quickly. Small steps, and this week we're practising forwarding and replying to emails.

Totally out of the blue my FiL, B, said he had something for me, used to belong to a Great Auntie Edith (there were several 'greats' but we couldn't establish quite how many). Just wow ...

I think it is a Little Wanzer Time Utilizer machine, but don't really know much at all, having just searched a bit on the internet.

We made a family tree album for my FiL a couple of years ago and, given the info B has I think the machine dates to about 1870-80. We know from the census that 2 ladies in the family were milliners at the time. Given the cost of sewing machines (equivalent to buying a car now) this would have been a really considered purchase which seems more likely if it was to earn a living.

I honestly feel overwhelmed to have this - and it works! A very big Wow :)

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