Well, somehow we’re already 25% of the way through the year. Spring has sprung and we’re right in the middle of March winds and April showers.
I don’t quite know how we got this far, it certainly doesn’t feel like Christmas was 3 months ago. Anyway, I think it is time to see how I am getting on with my Use 5 challenge.
So far, things are going quite well I feel – ideally I would have liked to have made two items by now, but I have at least cut into three of my identified fabrics.
In order of the fabrics on my Use 5 challenge:
- I have made my Lindy Petal skirt from the navy ponte di roma. I love that skirt, and it’s in regular rotation in my wardrobe, so I’d say that’s a win.
Navy Ponte Lindy Petal Skirt - From the purple jersey I have cut out the pattern pieces for view A (the pink one at the bottom) of New Look 6150 and I’ve started the construction.
New Look 6150 I’ve left the sleeves so that I can possibly extend them to full length (I haven’t extended the sleeves at the lengthen / shorten lines, as I think this is just to adjust the length of 3/4 length sleeves, and I’d like full length…this may or may not work, if it doesn’t, I’ll just have 3/4 length sleeves!)
- I haven’t yet touched the multi-spot jersey,
Multi-Spot Jersey although I now know that I want to make a simple summer dress for my daughter from it, so I’ll need to get on with that soon. She’s got a couple of simple sleeveless jersey dresses that I’m planning on copying, both are sleeveless with bound armscyes and necklines, and a gathered skirt, so I’m hopeful that this will be quite quick to construct once I’ve copied the RTW dresses.
- The monochrome floral fabric is possibly the one I’m most scared of cutting in to, and as such, it’s the one I’ve completely ignored until now! I have a vision of a shift dress in my head, with the flowers creeping up from the hem, and down over the shoulders. In my head it’s a special occasion dress, and as such for two reasons I don’t want to cut into it. For one, I don’t actually have a special occasion to wear the dress to, and for two, if it’s going to be a special occasion dress, it needs to fit and be sewn well. That means an FBA, and possibly a load of other adjustments. All in all, it’s scary!
- The pink cotton lawn, all 6m of it, is most of the way through being turned into a walkaway dress.
In Progress Walkaway Dress I know I won’t actually wear this dress – a circle skirt does absolutely nothing for my figure unfortunately, and I am pretty certain that the armscye will be too low to wear without showing my bra, and going braless isn’t an option! So far the binding isn’t going too well – I think the bias binding I’ve got is too stiff for the delicate lawn fabric, so that’s a lesson learned. I want to get on and make (and then unpick!) this dress as quickly as possible though, because I’d then like to turn the fabric into a dress for my daughter, in fact from 6m of fabric, I suspect I’ll get a couple of dresses and maybe some summery pyjama bottoms or something.
In conclusion then, I think I’m getting on pretty well; one finished item, two partially constructed items, and one pretty concrete plan, this is much better than the 1 and 1/4 finished items that I need to have completed at this point in the year. I am however, concerned that I’m still not feeling any more confident about cutting into the monochrome floral print.
Oh well, it’s going on the fire if I don’t make a start, so I’m hoping to start looking at that in the summer – there’s plenty of time (gulp).
