June Wrap Up and Mid-Year Check-In

Is anyone else so confused at how fast June passed? Or how we're already through half of 2017?? Anyone??!

June Wrap Up: This month was epic! :-O

• McCall's 6519 tops x2 in rayon challis
• McCall's 7465 dress in magenta rayon jersey
• McCall's 6996 cardigan in coral poly jersey
• Vogue 1501 skirt in yellow poly crepe
• CC Nettie in ivory ponte (possible wadder)
• Burda top in blush silk (wadder)
• Burda 2/2017 in denim
• Sew Simple 1523 (also S1716) in magenta rayon jersey (to be blogged)
• McCall's 6752 top in print ITY (tbb)
• Burda 5/2017 in yellow/white polka-dot cotton lawn (tbb)
• Burda 6/2017 dress in black & white suiting (wip)

New (worn and unblogged!) tops

 

Favorite(s): Hard to choose a favorite this month! All the non-fails really make me happy for different reasons. The McCall's tops in that they are nice and cool in that challis and easy to wear. The McCall's dress makes me grin. I love the color of the cardigan and Vogue skirt. The denim dress is just so much fun...The Burda tie-front top is adorable! June was a good month! And I swear I'm moving on from tops.

Wait. Not yet. A couple more to go! :-p Definitely want S8385 in white after seeing Erica's version.

Accomplishments: I used grommets for the first time ever and I 'done good'! :-D

Fails: Oh that silk Burda top. Forgetting to add seam allowances was such a bone-headed move. Woe. Is. Me!

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Recap of 2017 goals and progress thus far:

1) Buy patterns thoughtfully; cull at some point (early) this year.

Hmmm. I think I've been doing this. Ehhh I just checked. I've purchased 29 patterns so far in 2017. I guess that isn't too bad. An average of 5 per month. I haven't culled yet.

 2) Continue my Burda challenge (okay fine I didn't mention this but I'm totally doing it again). I will sew a Burda a month from that particular month; but from any year.

I scratched this option and wanted to do the traditional challenge. So far, I've sewn from February-May and June is in progress. I have a January project planned so I should be back on track in July.

 3) Consider dropping Ottobre depending on how spring/summer looks

I like the issues I have; yet I've still only sewn 1 thing from all 3. I have not decided on my subscription yet. The sub is relatively cheap and I don't lack in storage space. I know I've just been being lazy. With Big4 and Burda I know what size to use and what adjustments to do. I will have to start from scratch on these things with Ottobre.

 4) Buy fabric thoughtfully. Limit fabric purchases to $500 for the year; excluding lining and interfacing.

 

hahahahahahaha! Thoughtfully. I wish. More like, I'm pretty sure I NEEEEEED that NOWWWWW. I am hopeless. HOPELESS!!

I've spent $506.65. Oops. That's a lot...109 yards of fabric. And I'm feeling o.v.e.r.w.h.e.l.m.e.d!! by my stash right now. So we will see what the rest of the year brings.

5) Sew a fitted, lined blazer

 

Not yet though I got a PERFECT black wool suiting from FM to do so. I should do it in August before the temps start to drop.

6) Sew 3 new outerwear pieces

 

Three? I said that?! Well, I have a jacket (B6141) that is going on year 3 as a UFO and every time I see the photo, I want to finish it and wear it because the metallic cotton faille is just a dream.

Isn't it cute!? And so fall like...

So, I hope to finish this, make the Closet Case Patterns Clare coat(?) and the coat from the 8/2017 Burda (pictured in red). My trench coat dreams will have to wait again. A trench will have a very short period of wear for me, but it will come in handy so I want one (my RTW one is technically too small...I wear it open; I can't button it). But a lightweight wool coat is more appropriate for my spring/fall weather so it keeps getting put on the back burner.

7) Finish my daughter's quilt

Have done zero, zilch, zip, nada on this. I feel like an awful person. It's going to be finished in 2017. IT WILL!

I have 14 of these 14x14 blocks.

I just had an epiphany! (haha!)  I can just make it a lap quilt as it was originally intended to be!

 

Huzzah!!

Link

Initially I was making a quilt for her full-sized bed. But that will never, ever happen. So TWO MORE BLOCKS (insert cry face) and then I'll sew 'em together and get it ready to be quilted (BY SOMEONE ELSE!!!). The one quilt I actually completed, a baby-sized jelly roll race quilt, I quilted myself and hated every minute.

 

I thought it was so pretty when I finished it!

I thought it would ignite a burning desire to quilt! It did not!! But I didn't hate constructing it.

So perhaps only JRR quilts are for me as piecing is awful and tedious??

 

 8) Create a bodice sloper

Not yet. Though I'm happier with my tops than I've ever been. I still want to do a sloper including a sleeve drafted from scratch (there was a Threads tutorial that I downloaded).

 9) Lose the danged 30 (ish) pounds

I started the year having inched back up near 200 lbs and am solidly 185 now. This is really hard for me not just because weight loss is hard...but I actually really like my body the size that it is! (well, not my arms. My arms are huge and drive me crazy). But knee pain. Blehhhh. I'm going to really try.

10) Be more positive  

A few things were touched on; leaving GOMI -- I did return to the site and there are good discussions at times (and really, more bloggers and PR'ers than you realize also post there. No, really!!) but you can't escape the other stuff and I end up rolling my eyes and logging out. I think the discussions involving pattern companies is fair game; the echo chamber of #IndiesAreTheBest is removed. 

PR is much better for me now than it was. But I believe that's because I keep my use limited. I post and comment on reviews, vote in contests, and avoid a few of the forum areas.

I've deactivated Instagram which I thought would be SO HARD but it wasn't, at all. I actually don't miss it. I think pre-algorithm IG would have been hard to quit but I have not once revisited since deactivating.

FB was deactivated for a long time but 1) my family is spread out and it really is the one place everyone "is". It's easy to say just keep in touch by phone but I have a sibling here, siblings in 2 other states plus their families. Adult nieces and nephews plus extended family...so I was okay with going back at first, which I did this May but am back to limiting my usage. Current events have me in a bad place and it's hard to escape.

11) Be more social in real life

Recently, I had several events I was TOTALLY going to go to! But then they were changed or canceled. The universe is messing with my 'socialize in real life' plans. I'm still trying though. Still trying. Even

Lastly, I'd mentioned some other personal goals. I had to push back my testing date for certification. I will be testing in December now with promotion on the table for April 2018. I'm excited about that.

As much as I do not want to shell out for grad school, I can't shake the itch of wanting to get it done. I have found 2 programs that are accredited and not insanely priced. So perhaps the application process for that will begin in 2017?? Mayyyyybe 2018... Ha!

Onward.

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My tentative July plans:

Turn 38 (well, can't stop that one! :-p )
Sewaholic Saltspring dress
Lakeside PJs
1/2017 Burda athletic pants
7/2017 Burda top
Simplicity 8424 loungewear

Seems like a short list but there are 5 items I plan to sew from that Simplicity pattern (all 3 tops and the 2 leggings with details). Plus, aside from this weekend, I have something going every single weekend this month.

Hopefully the rest of 2017 is nice and calm and quiet.