My first project

So, it seems like I've been talking about sewing for a bit now (feels like a few weeks, but I've just realised I only started this blog last week!), but not been DOING anything. Well, I have actually started a project. I started it a few weeks ago. Its a vintage 1950's dress that I am to get done before April the 23rd, for a birthday party. I'll put some pictures of the envelope of the pattern at a later date so that you can see what it should look like.


One reason why I haven't mentioned it too much is because its currently in what I shall call the Von Trapp family stage. We have a pair of ugly brown curtains that we bought when we moved into our house in September. They were bought as a temporary cover for the windows in the front bedroom. They didn't fit, plus they are hideous, so they've been sitting somewhere while I figured out what to do with them. They have been perfect for me to make a mock up of the dress on. Plus the two pieces are enough for me to do two mock ups. Why two, you ask? Because, although in many ways I haven't been as disastrously bad at sewing as I thought I would be, I have made some pretty big mistakes (button holes, mostly). I have learnt the correct techniques now, and hope to apply them to the second piece of curtain. You wont see pictures of the first curtain dress...It's too horrible! But if the next one looks alright, I'll put a few up.

The project has sort of come to a halt over the past few days. I had cut out the pieces, and started putting them together, but due to a few things I got no further. Firstly because the house was a complete mess, due to the fact I had 4 essays of 5,000 words to complete over the Christmas holidays. Once they were done I was pretty much good for nothing for about a little while as my brain re formed from the melted mess it had become. So last weekend I cleaned, I tidied, and I put my sewing and knitting into separate bags. I made a nice little place for everything on the dining room table. Well, I say nice little place...I actually took up most of the table with my stuff...

Second problem: the one time I sat down and spent a while sewing, the sewing machine worked, and then decided to sulk. I can't really complain. The thing was sitting in the loft for a good many years. My mother bought it when she was a college student many years ago, and gave it to me when I was in school. I didn't do much with it, as I wasn't interested in sewing then, plus we had no space to do anything at home. It must have been placed in the loft about 8 years ago. We initially thought it had been thrown away by my aunt, as we thought we lent it to her. Turns out we hadn't, it was just stashed away. When I found it, I checked it was working, I took a day to work out how to use it (its an obscure machine, and my mother, who keeps instructions for EVERYTHING, hadn't kept the machines instructions). So I started using it on my dress, then it seized up. After a while of umming and ahhing, and getting my boyfriend to have a turn umming and ahhing, I worked out it needed oil. So I fixed it, but the struggle meant I decided the sewing machine and I weren't going to be friends for a little while.

Anyway, I made up with the machine, I tidied everything, and was determined I would sew every day, for a short time, till the dress was done. Problem number three: it was the start of semester 2 seminar's for me, and, in true procrastination style, I hadn't started the work for them until the last minute. So I spent much of my week catching up with stuff and getting university work done. I did spend an hour on the dress on Tuesday. I intended to spend another hour on it last night, but just never got round to it. Yesterday just started wrongly: my laptop wouldn't start up due to updates making it go into a loop. It took an hour to sort it out, by which time I was late for work, I ended up late for a seminar because I went to the wrong room, and then I got cross while watching Parliament (I'm doing a human rights law degree, occasionally I have to pay attention to what's happening in London). So I did no more on the dress.

But today, today I promise I will do a little more! I'm half way through the instructions, but the first half seems to be the more intricate and difficult, so I know that the first attempt SHOULD be done by the end of February. First, however, I have to get out of my pj's (I realise its 2pm, but I never get out of pj's unless its absolutely necessary), photocopy some stuff and do some university work.