A plan

Do you plan your sewing? I try not to, too much. I generally have a loose, constantly changing ‘want to sew’ list in my head but I find that any time I make a longer or more concrete list I immediately want to sew anything but the things on my list. So just going with my immediate impulses generally works for me. However, at the moment my craft room looks like this:

That fan set up is indicative of part of the problem. We’ve been having heatwave after heatwave of 40C+, which is just RIDICULOUS.  My craft room gets full afternoon sun (thanks neighbours for killing off that shady tree in our yard… long story…) The only room with aircon is the living room, so I’ve been cutting things out there and then not sewing them because my room is too hot and bringing the machine out is a Whole Thing. So now I have this:

Which is a pule of cut out items on my computer desk – they were in the wire basket in the previous shot but then I used that basket to rig up a makeshift evaporative cooling thing so I could sew in there. It sort of worked. Anyway there’s also two baskets of newly bought, pre washed fabrics in this shot. The thing is that my stash is FULL. I’ve since folded and put away one basket but the one under the table is going to sit there for a while because there’s just straight up nowhere to put it. Which is a problem.

Especially when I keep thinking about other fabric I want to buy! Listen, I am not against stashes. I am not against buying fabric. I AM against mindless consumption for the dopamine rush because I am using it as a displacement activity because I haven’t had or made time to do the actual sewing which brings me greater joy. I AM against spending money I shouldn’t spend on something I don’t currently need, that I don’t have room for. Even if it IS on sale, practical, and lovely.

So I made a plan. I wrote down everything I have in my ‘want to sew in the near future’. There’s like thirty things, so that was good to see – perhaps the reason I feel like I’m not making progress (apart from the not actually sewing part…) is that the list is LONG. I’d be lucky if I consistently sewed an item a month, so that means this is, like, my next three year’s worth of sewing. So. Let’s be realistic here.

Anyway I put it in a rough order or priority. First were things I already have cut out, or have a deadline. Then, summery things that I need in my wardrobe. The list gets slowly more wintery as it goes down. After that, I broke it up into chunks of four or five things, and placed a ‘buy fabric’ note after each.

My plan is not to go on a ‘fabric diet’ or anything. What I want is to match incoming fabric and patterns roughly to the amount being used. Or less than that. Definitely not more. This isn’t ‘rewarding myself’, it’s realigning things so that fabric buying doesn’t become a secondary hobby. Here’s the intro to and the first two chunks of my list.

RULES:

Idk do whatever. This is supposed to be your hobby.

All items can be swapped and rearranged, but keep the number in each section the same.

Each free buy is up to $100

Fabric and notions for a thing in the list are ok to buy separate from free buy – but not until you’re in the tier for them. No buying them two tiers ahead!

Sub in list are useful things to sew any time. They can be subbed in for any make, in which case the making list gets bumped down the list (moving past the buy points)

TO SEW

Kalle

Lenox – blue

Felicity (JLH)

2x silas pants

Dorothy Lara

BUY DENIM

Maxi laneway (navy)

Ponte/ottoman ames

Egg dress

2x silas pants

Rayon stripe knit dress

FREE BUY

 

The sub in list is separate and is basic, boring staples that I always need, so if I get the urge to sew them up then I should go for it.

At least one of us is enjoying the piles of fabric lying everywhere

So that’s my plan. Not exactly groundbreaking, but it’s exciting for me. I suspect the trick is that this isn’t focused on output, if it takes me a year to get the first five things done who cares. It’s also flexible enough that I feel I can swap in new things, or move things up and down the list as I get motivated without artificially punishing myself or making my hobby less fun. It has already worked as I spent a lot of the weekend sewing which I don’t think I would have otherwise! Maybe there’ll even be a blog post or two of FOs coming. Wouldn’t that be just thrilling?