Procrastination part 1 (there will be many more!)

I'm nearing the end of a teacher training course so I should be writing lesson plans and essays and evaluations and sorting out my files but instead I'm surrounded by my stash in piles on the floor because I suddenly just HAD to know what I had in the trunk. I'm making a spread sheet even!

I also seem to have developed a system of preshrinking them when I have a minute and from that point, they go into a huge green "pending" bag so I can just grab something from there and sew something, if I ever get a minute. Unfortunately, the green bag is now also bulging. Maybe I'll have to make things out of the thicker fabrics first, just to free up more space. I would take pictures of all this if I could find the instruction booklet that came with my camera so I could work out how to download images to my computer.

Actually I have done a bit of sewing this week (well some of it was last week, but it's certainly recent). I bought Simplicity 4076 a couple of weeks ago and had to make something from it straight away and join the ever-swelling ranks of pattern reviewers to love it. I made the first one from a piece of white cotton or polycotton interlock leftover from making baby shirts for my son (he's now 30- I don't throw things away) and then two days later made another from a damaged bit of stretchy stuff I bought at Abakhan for about £1.50. So, two tops for next to nothing! And I like them too! I bought a long sleeved top with a similar twist arrangement from Boden in their last sale for about £20 I think. And I like mine better. Unfortunately the damage on the second one is in the most obvious place (I will put pictures up when I can) but it's still wearable and wasn't noticeable by the person I asked. (Male, polite, not wearing his glasses and asked to look at my chest- what else would he say???)

I also made an eight-gore skirt out of some fabric leftover from making a roller blind in 1981. My stash goes back a long way. I'll write about that another day when I've had a cup of tea and dealt with all these piles on the floor. Revisiting my fabric is like getting reacquainted with old friends. But without the awkward conversations and embarrassment when you can't remember their children's names or where you know them from. Actually with fabric I usually DO know where I know them from!