Sewing inspiration on a more personal front

 New fabrics, I need to take notes of Alex's faux pas cherry print matching on GBSB this week

I have been doing a bit of DIY this week but instead of posting about that I wanted to write something a bit more personal instead.

I'm not sure whether its the New Year, giving birth, thoughts of spring or the return of things like sewing bee but my drive to want to get some garment sewing done is really overwhelming at the moment. I am feeling so inspired and have so many ideas and things I want to make.

The issue I have is that I am feeling quiet down about my figure at the moment. I realise its only been 8 weeks since giving birth and I cant expect to be back to my old self immediately but I just don't feel overly comfortable in my own skin right now. I am doing everything I can now to try and get back to my old self again; the diet is on and I am snatching as much exercise as I can between naps.

More new fabrics, mostly knits, I love the chevron

 

Now I can cope with this, it's a fact of life, but it does hamper my sewing drive somewhat. The great thing about sewing clothes for yourself is so that you can have something which is a truly great fit. However, as the time I have to spare to do sewing is minimal now I really need to make the most of it. This means that I don't particularly want to sew clothes for my current shape, as its a shape I don't intend to be in for long, as a result sewing isn't really a productive use of my time. It's great to make stuff, but not if you put your heart and sole into something which ultimately turns out to be of no use as you can never wear it.

 Not completely selfish sewing, you can clearly see a baby pattern here :)

So, how am I challenging this inspiration that I can't put to any use? Well I'm stocking up my fabric and pattern stashes of course (I may be going a bit overboard!) so that once I am back to my fighting weight I can jump straight in at the deep end and starting making stuff ASAP. The problem is the more I buy the less decisive I get on what I actually want to sew! 

Can we class 90's grunge era as 'vintage' sewing? I hope so! I got this pattern from ebay showing its age by the celeb styles of Pheobe from Friends and Frasier's wife!

So I think you can see the theme of my inspiration is dresses, dresses and more dresses. I never used to wear them as being an extreme hourglass figure store bought dresses either fit in the bust/hips but drown my waist or fit in the waist and I bulge out of everywhere else. I am looking forward to tackling this later in the year to try and get some more dresses into my wardrobe. Sadly the girls are not any smaller after this adventure, which was not something I needed, so I am going to have to be brave and tackle all form of full bust adjustments head on. Hopefully once I conquer it there will be no stopping me.

On a side note about dresses I loved the fabric of Deborah's dress on GBSB this week. I need to put it on re-run so I can check the writing on the weft! Not sure its my style put it was a very pretty print.

Do you have any ways of channeling your inspiration when you can't make things when you wanted, or have you been inspired to do some sewing since the return of sewing bee? Tell me all about it. 

Following a Sew Along

Most of you will know that I have been following the By Hand London Georgia sew a long the last couple of weeks. It has been having its ups and downs but the end is in sight so I am quiet happy with that.

 

Picture stolen from By Hand London

I thought it would be a good idea to look at why you might consider following a sew along, I mean you get all the instructions in the pattern packet don't you? Of course you do but following a sew along can give you heaps more hints and tips. As a bit of a newbie I found these invaluable and used every single blog post. There were great tips in there for example FBAs which I would have spent hours researching without this. 

So what did I personally get out of this:

Pattern drafting - how to alter the pattern to fit a non standard body size (that's nearly all of us right)

FBA (there was an SBA) as well

Detailed construction images for all variations

Invisible zipper instruction (more on this in a future post!) 

Good fabric suggestions

And finally, but probably best, seeing all the variations other people come up with.. This really is the most exciting bit! 

I also really liked how this timed in real life, I managed to follow along without feeling like I was getting massively behind. 

So if you are thinking of following one, or are a new sewer, I would thoroughly recommend. Most independent pattern companies do them, and you can go back to previous sew a longs even if they are finished and still benefit from all that expert insight. and don't forget, even if you are a seasoned sewer you still might learn something, if not that then you can at least enjoy the inspiration.

Here are some links to past sew a longs from some of the independent pattern companies

By Hand London

Colette

Megan Neilsen

Sewaholic
Grainline Studios

And I am sure you can find some others just by checking google

Have you found/ used any sew a longs that you can recommend? I am eager to give another one a go so would welcome any recommendations.