Mishmosh: Projects, Books and Spring Cleaning

Things are still busy at the office this week, and it is frustrating to not be in the Craft Lounge. Thankfully, I am taking tomorrow off and plan to spend the day sewing, running and baking, but in the interim I am trying to get myself mentally organized.

Projects

Here is a mini re-cap of where things stand with my current sewing projects:

• Amazing Fit Pants - Muslin 3.0 is cut and ready to be sewn. Let's hope that this is the final muslin! Then it will be on to sewing pants. Many many pants. In every color and style.

• Vogue Black v-neck top - I worked on this last weekend and it is very nearly done. All that I need to do is finish the armholes and hem it. It is much longer than I initially thought it was going to be. So, I have to decide how much to hem.
  

• Blue Cowl Neck top - I haven't made any progress on this since my last post about it. It kind of got shunted to the side in my pants obsession. However, I will pick it up again most likely this weekend.

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Books

Now that I am sewing primarily for myself, and not making any gifts or taking on any alteration projects, I decided that it was time to add to my sewing library. So, I decided to start with two classics that other sewists swear by - the popular Palmer/Pletsch Fit for Real People and Pants for Real People.

The styles may be dated, but the advice is sound!

They arrived on Tuesday and I've thumbed through them over the last two nights. Already the books have demystified a few sewing issues for me. I can see why this series is a must have for sewists and glad to have it in my collection.

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Spring Cleaning

Lastly, I've noticed that with spring coming, many other sewing bloggers are thinking about their style, or lack of one. I've been suffering in that department, too. I lost a chunk of my wardrobe when I lost weight. And a lot of the replacement clothing I've bought in the last 12-18 months has not lived up to the style or quality of what it replaced. A wardrobe purge is imminent.

I am hoping that my pants project will help jump start a wardrobe makeover for me. I do not have favorite pants at the moment, but there are at least 5 beautiful fabrics for pants in my stash. And now that I am on my way to making great pants for the first time, I feel as though I will have the basis for building a great wardrobe. More on this subject will follow...