Do you “sewcrastinate’ like I do? What is holding you back from making the garment you’re dreaming about.
What is sewcrastination?
Sewcrastination is the term I use for when I am between projects. I’ve just finished one and I have so many ideas and fabrics but I just don’t know what to start next so I sewcrastinate. You know what I mean. It’s like procrastination only it’s about sewing so its sewcrastination.
My dressmaking class started for the new year last week. I am always really excited to get started after eight plus weeks away from the class during the Christmas/New Year holidays but sewcrastination seems to happen for every first week of every new term and this one last week was no exception.
Instead of getting organised to start sewing something new, I spent the entire class overlocking seams, hemming and finishing sleeve cuffs on a Style Arc Nina Swing Cardigan I sewed in the last class of last year. I was sewcrastinating.
It’s not like I don’t have enough fabric or patterns. In fact, I have three garment patterns in my current list of things to sew and two craft projects. Which one do I do first?
I can narrow it down and say I should choose a garment to sew at dressmaking class and leave the craft projects for home sewing.
The second dressmaking class in the eight-week term is tomorrow. If I don’t decide what to sew soon, I’m going to see a term go by and I’ll have achieved nothing due to my constant sewcrastinating.
Please help me decide
Here are the patterns on my “to sew” list.
Daisy designer pants
This is a Style Arc pattern. I’ve made a few Style Arc patterns in the last year or so. My most recent Style Arc project was the Daisy Designer Tunic.
Yes, the tunic and pants were sold as a pair and I got a dress pattern as a freebie.
I even bought some linen/cotton blend fabric to make the Daisy Designer Pants. So why am I proscrastinating?
To toile or not to toile – that is the question
I guess it’s because I love the fabric so much, I’m nervous to cut into it in case I make a mistake. With the tunic, I made a toile first
Toile is French for “cloth”. In English, it is pronounced “twaal”. It is a trial version of a garment made from inexpensive fabric and sewn to ensure proper fit before cutting into the more expensive fabric.
I made a toile from some curtain fabric before making the Daisy Designer Tunic and I’m glad I did because the size I had chosen to make was too big. Even the garment I eventually made is a little too big but I still wear it. (I love it when garments I make turn out to be too big!)
Why don’t I just go ahead and make the toile first? I guess I could but I really want to just cut into the good fabric and get started on the actual garment. Making a toile first seems like such a waste of time. So while I’m wavering between toile or no toile, I sewcrastinate.
All in Easy Fit Shirt
This is a Pattern Emporium pattern. I’ve not made anything with a pattern emporium pattern before, even though I have bought one previously – the Meet you There dress. I’ve been sewcrastinating over that one too!
For the All in Easy Fit Shirt, I have some fabric which I bought to make a skirt but I don’t think I have enough of it to achieve that. It was early in my sewing journey and I was still buying fabric willy nilly just because I liked it, not because I had a pattern which was suitable to make with the fabric.
Actually, I know I don’t have enough to make a skirt with it. I do have enough to make the All In Easy Fit Shirt but should I or might some other project come along that will suit the fabric better?
Sloane Woven Jacket
Another Style Arc pattern. Style Arc really does have me wrapped around its little finger. It has so many patterns and I know they have my size. Like I said for the Daisy Designer Tunic, choosing a size can be a little tricky.
The Sloane Woven Jacket is a little more challenging than other Style Arc patterns I’ve made so far. Perhaps that is why I am sewcrastinating over it.
I have some beautiful black ponte knit fabric with flocked velvet roses. I’ve been dreaming of making a blazer with the fabric since I bought it (another one of those “oooo I love that fabric, I’ll buy it and hope the right pattern comes along”. I don’t know if the amount of fabric I have is enough to make the jacket, possibly not. Sewcrastination prevents me getting it out to have a look.
I do have some navy tencel fabric set aside at the Timaru Sewing Centre which would be perfect for it but I’d like to make the jacket, shirt and pants to all go together and it wouldn’t if there was charcoal pants, tencel jacket and cotton shirt – three different types of fabric and three different colours.
The other sewcrastination factor with the tencel is that I haven’t bought it yet and it is recommended to wash fabric before sewing it so you pre-shrink it. It avoids the annoyance of sewing a perfectly fitting garment from unwashed fabric, then washing it and finding the garment no longer fits due to shrinkage.
Tell me what you’d do
Please tell me what you’d do – the pants, the shirt or the jacket? Leave a comment on this post and help me decide. I’ll let you know tomorrow after I’ve spent another dressmaking class sewcrastinating.