Thoughts on sewing and having less stuff

This isn't a post with a new project in it - it's for me to marshal my thoughts on having too much stuff and how that relates to sewing/crafting/ making (for me at least).

Like a lot of other bloggers (Katie blogged about it here) I read and enjoyed the Marie Kondo book (not an affiliate link so click away!). I was inspired to start clearing out quite a lot of stuff, starting with my wardrobe as she suggests. She says this is a good place to start as you aren't so emotionally attached to your clothes. I'm not sure this is true of people who make most of their clothes but I actually didn't find it hard. 

The pile of clothes that went to charity (and even prior to this I went through stuff fairly regularly - I wouldn't say that this was years worth of clutter that was purged):

A year on, my wardrobe still looks much like it did and my drawers have never been tidier! Its far easier to keep my clothes in order and see what i have.

Since then i have worked my way through books, CDs, fabric and notions, make up and toiletries and paperwork. My husband and daughter are both complete hoarders so i am still working on them although hubby is coming around to it, seeing how much tidier the house is! We have no junk drawers any more and have got rid of a couple of pieces of furniture we just don't need for storage anymore.

Doing this totally hit my sew-jo for a long time though. I don't want to be making 5 new garments a month so I have stuff to blog about and filling my wardrobe back up again.

So i have come up with a plan of how I reconcile my new "less stuff" outlook with the need to still make things.

Unselfish sewing - I have been making more for the small person - costumes, dresses and leggings. I am also planning a jacket for hubby (belated birthday present since he couldn't make his mind up on the colour!).

I am thinking more about what I wear day to day and what I need to fill in wardrobe gaps or to replace things that are wearing out.

I am shopping the stash rather than buying fabric. When I culled a lot of clutter I went through my stash. There wasn't much i got rid of but I love everything left  in there and want to wear it rather than look at it on a shelf!

The same applies to patterns. Rather than jumping at every newly released pattern, I am trying to see if I could adapt something already in the stash to make something similar.

Following on from that, I want to remake more patterns. I have so many that I love and have done all of the tracing adjustments and muslining for but only ever made one version. It's a better use of my limited sewing time to spend less time on the preparation and fitting and more time on the fun sewing bit!

I have never been that keen on making underwear but its.a great way to open up new avenues for sewing, use up scraps and develop new skills!

Instead of rushing through to the end to have a new garment to wear, i will be doing a bit more thoughtful and slower sewing. This will he another way to improve my skills.

I don't normally adhere to the blogging commandment of asking a question at the end of a blog post to encourage comments but I am interested to know what you think! Is minimalism/decluttering just a current first world fad? Have you been inspired by it? Had it changed your outlook on sewing or sewing behaviour?

If you are interested to learn more here are some blogs i have added to my reader as well as the book linked to above:
The Minimalists
Becoming Minimalist
Miss Minimalist
Be More With Less
Zen Habits

Goals for 2014

It's taken me a while to work out what my goals are and I think doing the other Top 5s first really helped me work things through in my head (which is probably the point - clever Gillian! )

1) The Happy Wardrobe Project - Getting a better idea of my personal style

I'm a bit of a schizophrenic dresser. There's no dress code at work so anything from jeans to dresses goes. I have a smallish child so unlikely to start wearing heels and smart clothes at the weekends. I love a vintage look (anywhere from 50s to 70s) but given my lack of interest in ironing I won't be wearing blouses everyday! But I want to look good and put together and to get back to a personal style. I used to have one before I had N and convenience/ low maintenance clothes become more important! 

So my plan is to snap a pic (probably a phone/mirror pic) each morning and consider how I felt and looked in the outfit. Was I happy to choose it or was it a desperation choice on an "I have no clothes" day?  I'm also going to note down if there's something I wanted to wear but had nothing to go with it - for example I know I have one navy tee and lots of bottoms I wear it with so if it's in the wash it stops me wearing other things.

I am planning to do this for a couple of months in colder weather (now) and again in the summer as I know I will find major differences.  I won't blog about it all the time, but will maybe do a monthly round up/ learnings.  I think it will really help plan my sewing which is another thing that worked well for me this year.

I really like my colour palettes so will continue to use those which will hopefully cut down the orphans. I am also intending to start some new pinboards with inspiration outfits - maybe I'll even make some copycat outfits!

As was writing this, I remembered a post that Tilly wrote about finding your personal style which I really liked and I guess some aspects of the plan above I have remembered and taken from this. If personal style is a consideration for you this year, you can read it here.

2) Find my TNTs

I love the speediness of sewing repeats - they really work for my time-strapped life!  I am hoping that the plan above will allow me to find what my happy clothes/ styles are and make more of them!  It will also allow me to evaluate new patterns and decide if they are right for me or destined to sit in the pattern box, and find fabrics that work for the sort of clothes I want to make and wear.  I made quite a few this year - loads of Cake (as documented on my hits post), 2 Kelly skirts (only 1 blogged so far!), and 2 Renfrews.

3) Learn new skills

Doesn't everyone have this on their list? I don't want to get stuck in a rut as an OK sewist who still makes loads of mistakes.  As I'm totally self/blog taught I'm sure I make loads of basic errors in sewing and fitting.   For example I can bind a seam but it just doesn't look as neat and pretty as it could (as you'll see if you look closely at the construction pics from my Blue Christmas dress!).  I really want to take an intermediate dressmaking class as I think it would really help me to improve. I'm going to look for a class and find the time to take it. If i can't I will take some Craftsy classes.

4) Use better fabrics

As a beginner sewist I was scared of spending money on fabric in case i messed it up, and as a result some earlier makes haven't stood the test of time - fabrics going bobbly, interfacing wrinkly, colours fading. I want to change this in 2014.

The Minerva Blogger Network allows me to try out fabrics that are perhaps more expensive than i would previously have chosen and I can really see the difference with these nicer fabrics (can't wait to show you my next few makes that I've just received my fabric picks for!). I'm never going to have an unlimited fabric budget but if I know a garment will be finished, will fit well and be worn, I can spend at least what a RTW garment would have cost.  So if a RTW high street dress costs £30-40 (not unreasonable) I could potentially spend £10-15 a metre on fabric plus notions (we all know factoring in a cost for our time spent making won't work!).  Also it's a hobby budget as well as a clothing budget.  Sounds like I can buy some more fabric then!

5) Make trousers

Source: Colette patterns, Butterick, Named

 If you have read my other top 5 posts this will come as no surprise at all. I planned to do it last year and am determined to conquer them this year! I'll be going back to my Juniper muslin and tracing out the bigger size probably in February.  I'd also like to make Named Jamie jeans and Gertie for Butterick capris.  Lena from the Sewing Space has been teasing us with sneak peeks of her new trouser pattern too and it looks great!  I'd really like to take the Seamless pledge but while there is still a big part of my wardrobe I don't make I don't see how it will work.


I do have a 6th thing (yes, I know it's supposed to be 5, but it's my blog, my rules, right?) and it's probably the most important thing of all. To be kind to myself.  I have a busy life, small child, full time job, long commute and a big hobby.  If I blog less often as a result, or take time off from sewing to do other things, I am not going to beat myself up about it.  As long as everyone is fed, wearing clean clothes and happy, the world won't end if I don't have anything to blog about for a week or two.  Or if I don't clean the kitchen floor (#sewdontclean).

Here's to 2014 and a great sewing, blogging and generally being healthy and having fun year for everyone, whether we fulfil all our goals or not!

Reflections on 2013

Happy New Year to you all!

I am really enjoying all of these top 5 posts but you guys are blogging too much!  My reader is overflowing!  I think I am all caught up now though, and seeing some great top 5s that have really made me think (and actually possibly re-evaluate a few items on my lists).

1) A pat on the back

Gratuitous pugs!

I think I did really well this year.  My sewing came on leaps and bounds.  I can now put on a Me Made garment most days with little effort, and I buy very little RTW any more (except for jeans - more to come on that!).  I worked hard on fitting and it really paid off - with a little help from my friends - which leads me on nicely to:

2) Sewing people really are the nicest people you could meet/ chat to

2013 was a tough year for me personally.  I lost a close family member and another was diagnosed with a serious illness (which is likely to make 2014 another difficult one).  But I really think sewing, sewcial media, bloggers and sewing friends helped me through it (without wishing to take away any credit from family and non-sewing friends of course!).  Sometimes it's just great to have an escape from reality and chat to other people who are as excited about the latest indie pattern release or fabric sale as me!

I joined Twitter (@jolittletime if you tweet too!) after resisting for a long time and found a fantastic sewing community on there.

I went to the epic blogger meet up and met some fabulous people and starting following lots of new blogs.

I started meeting the Spoolettes as regularly as I can (given family commitments that's not as often as I would like!).  What a great group of ladies that are excellent fun to spend time with, whether drinking, dancing, bowling or fabric shopping!

3) I sewed (mainly) for the life I have

Particpating in Me Made May showed me that my wardrobe needed plain separates and knits and I focused on sewing those.  I know a lot of people don't like to sew basics, but there's only so many party dresses and summer frocks my lifestyle calls for, especially in a country when the sun shines for about a month of the year.  I love (and wear) dresses quite a lot, but I'm likely to grab a comfy knit one to throw on for work and I have sewn a lot of those this year!  But we all need a bit of frosting from time to time - however I want to make what I wear most often.  I also sewed much more with plains (and I'm including spots and stripes in plains - they are practically neutrals) which I have enjoyed more than I expected.  It's good to be able to see nice design lines and focus on the fit rather than hiding behind a print as I did when I started (all those lovely printed cottons...)

4) I really need to conquer trousers

I wear jeans and trousers a lot, especially in winter and it's a huge gap in my me-made wardrobe.  As mentioned in my Hits & Misses post I traced Colette patterns Juniper in my usual size following Sunni's trouser sewalong, added extra seam allowances, thread traced every seam, and threw the muslin in the sewing box to think about what it had done when it didn't remotely fit. It hasn't come back out yet but it will this year! I also want some me made jeans.

5) Sewing with a plan works well for me

I'm quite a planner by nature, but I do have a tendency to get distracted by newer shinier things (squirrel!) like new pattern releases, sewalongs, sewing challenges, competitions etc.  I have made a conscious effort only to take part in these if I would have done it anyway!  If I have bought a new Cake pattern and there's a sewalong, then I will plan to join.  If the Sewcialists are doing Red October, I will join in as I love red.  Green December not so much.  I didn't love the Laurel pattern and realistically I don't think the shape will work for my shape, so I was proud of resisting the competition.

The sewalong that worked really well for me was the Fall Essentials sewalong.  I planned out the garments I wanted to make within a colour palette I love and so I could make sure I had all the notions, zips, thread, buttons etc that normally hold me up on finishing a project.  I mainly sew in the evenings so rushing to the shop for more thread isn't going to happen!  I made so many more projects in that 2 month period than I ever expected so a big thumbs up for planning sewing!

Inspirations and goals posts coming up soon!

Me Made May round up and learnings

Better late than never!  I made it through all of Me Made May and met my pledge in terms of wearing me mades - taking photos was another story (well I have to have something to work on for next year!).  Going on holiday mid month definitely helped as I was able to wear the more summery me mades that I wouldn't have had a chance to given the crappy British May we had (although don't speak to soon but June's been OK so far.  Shhhhh).

I have flexed my design muscles and created you an infographic of my month (OK I googled and found www.infogr.am which is really easy to use!):

Me Made May 2013 | Create infographics

Fun huh?  I love an infographic - probably goes with the job!

Looking at the above, it definitely shows that I should make more knits - they are my default wardrobe staple to throw on with jeans.

I also need more separates (which I knew beforehand).  I thought my me made wardrobe mainly consisted of dresses but they do tend to get worn less often, so luckily I made a few extra knit tops beforehand! 

My wardrobe saviour was my 5 (yes 5!  It's a great pattern and free download so don't judge!) Maria Denmark Kirsten kimono tees.  I wore them on 8 days of the month.  I was also surprised how many Burda items I wore, given that I'm not usually that complementary about them.  Maybe once I get better at sewing I'll mind less about the terrible instructions!  But as someone pointed out on the Flickr group I am massively focused on indie patterns.  I hadn't realised that before!  I guess I prefer the styling and the more consistent (or at least in line with measurements) sizing.  Also I read so many blogs and a Vogue pattern number is harder to remember than Laurel or Alma!  But I only wore 1 big 4 item - and that was my Mad Men dress which was a heavily modified NL 6000.

The only me made items I didn't wear were my Brave Peony (still languishing in needing new zip hell), my Macaron (I need to reinforce the area around the zip before I feel happy wearing it as it's looks pretty messy), my grey Tira (still fabulous but the fabric feels quite wintery) and my Gertie polkadot skirt (got left at the back of the wardrobe when I brought the me mades to the front - oops!).

As a result of trawling the Flickr group and seeing other people's blog posts, I have bought a few new patterns which I hope will help address some of the gaps in my wardrobe.

I have seen so many lovely versions of this and it seems like a great basic skirt.  I have almost finished my first one with another couple of versions in mind!

Another great basic - the Renfrew tee.  I know I'll be the last sewist ever to make one of these but it's a versatile patterns which indulges my t-shirt habit.  Just need to find some great jersey!

There were fabulous versions of this dress popping up the Flickr group, notably from Sew Hopeful - check out her gorgeous bird print version on her blog.  She's been super-helpful on Twitter and advised me to use a drapier fabric than I intended so I'm going to use a charcoal grey knit from my stash and see how I go.

And I preordered Cabarita when Steph put it up for sale.

I've loved seeing her versions on her blog so looking forward to making my own!

Long post, but thanks to the lovely Zoe for organising Me Made May, the helpful and welcoming ladies in the Flickr group and all your fab comments.  It's been fun!