What I’ve Been Doing (and an apology!)

Hello everyone! I’m finally back….10 months later. I absolutely have to start with a HUGE apology (to anyone who is still out there) for my complete radio silence. I’m not going to give you a long diatribe on why I haven’t made the time to blog this year, but I will do two things. First, I’d like to share all of the sewing related stuff I’ve been doing this year but simply haven’t made the time to share until now. Second, I’d like to promise you that I am going to make a bigger effort next year to get this thing going again, and I’ll share how at the end!

Fashion Blooms 2018:

After the success of Darrell’s first fashion show last year, he decided to do it again on September 30, 2018 (which FYI is also my birthday). Last year I did only a five-look collection due to the short timeline of only 4 months to prep for the show, so I had promised myself this year I would start early enough to do a 10-look collection. I worked on my inspiration and mood board in the fall and winter of 2017. A mood board is basically a collection of images, photos, fabrics, colours, text, etc. that are representative of the inspiration of whatever it is you are working on. My inspiration was Victorian era England and the mourning rituals of that time. I actually checked out a bunch of books from the library and did a fair amount of research online to learn about this period. The end result was this:

I took images from the books I borrowed as well as a few online sites that represented the mood of the collection I was going for, as well as some specific details and techniques that I wanted to incorporate in my collection. Then I cut out paint samples from those little swatch cards you get at Home Depot to reflect the colours I wanted to use in my collection. Finally, I added some summary notes about the inspiration and the style.

From January to September of this year, any free moment that I wasn’t working at my day job or teaching at Darrell’s, I was pretty much working on my collection. I spent the majority of my time pattern-making because this is still a new skill for me, so it took a really long time. I think I finally starting sewing in May?! Anyway, long story short I finally did complete 7 looks rather than the intended 10.

At some point when I am not having upload issues I’ll come back to this post and add individual photos of each look. But for now, the best way to see the collection is in motion! Here’s a link to the video of my runway show:

 

I’m proud of the amount of work I accomplished, but I must say that this collection didn’t match my vision 100%. There were 3 other great looks that I didn’t have enough time to make, and there were various details and finishings on these looks that I just never had time to add. If I decide to do another fashion show, I’ll only do it if I know I can find the time to execute it to perfection.

Jeans-Making Workshop with Lladybird:

Other than the Flamingo top which I’m going to share in my next blog post, the only other garment I’ve made for myself this year is a pair of jeans at a workshop earlier this year.

I don’t know if you guys know this, but I’ve been acquaintances with Lladybird (aka Lauren) for a few years now. I had been wanting to take one of her workshops for a really long time, but the timing never worked out. Finally, last November-ish after I emailed her whining about how I was going to miss her next New York workshop yet again, she made the brilliant suggestion of bringing her to Ottawa to do one! I’m not quite sure how this never occurred to me before, but once it was in my head it seemed obvious that this had to happen. I made the pitch to Darrell and after a few weeks of ironing out details and dates, it was booked!!!! Lauren made her first trip to Ottawa in May of this year, and I was lucky enough to not only make my first pair of jeans with her (using the Closet Case Ginger jeans pattern) but also hang out with her on her birthday weekend and show her our amazing city!!

I was so busy having fun, I completely forgot to take photos! Here’s all I got:

 

So here we are in early November, and other than my jeans and the upcoming flamingo top I have not sewn one. single. thing. for. me. This is very distressing to me, as is the fact that I’ve completed neglected this blog and you guys out there!

Getting serious for a second, I have realized that I have a hard time saying no and I end up with too many commitments on my plate. I have repeated this pattern for many years, so it’s going to be a hard one to break. The first thing I’ve decided, although it is a VERY hard decision, is that I won’t be doing another fashion show until I am able to either sew full-time or take a significant amount of time off from my day job to allow time to prepare my collection.

The other thing I’m planning to do next year is cut back a bit on my teaching schedule at Darrell’s. For most of this year I’ve been teaching two classes every Saturday with almost no weekends off, which means I’ve been working six days a week. Do the math, and it’s pretty obvious why I haven’t had time to sew anything for myself this year!

I’m hoping with these two resolutions for 2019 that I will be able to spend more time next year blogging, sewing for myself, and pursuing some other interests like improving my photography skills and re-learning how to knit. Oh, and starting to exercise, eat right, lose weight… and maybe also figure out world peace…

😀