The Fabric Alchemist

The Summer Solstice seemed as good a time as any to revisit and evaluate my 2014 reSEWlutions.

My first 2014 reSEWlution is to focus on myself & my fiancé.

This reSEWlution is one that I will renew annually. Greg and I are now married and partners in life. Life is full of exciting distractions, but I strive to be intentional in the attention I give to him and to our life together.

I will be more active in the #Sewcialists community.

I think I have been less active. I’ve been sewing, and I was documenting those creations fairly regularly early in 2014. In recent months my social network activity has dropped. Other projects and tasks have required my attention, namely working to coordinate a wedding.

In March I was fortunate to meet up with the brilliant sewists behind Cation Designs, Sew-Well, and Crab & Bee in Seattle. We had a delicious breakfast and an inspiring conversation about sewing (what else?). I returned to work, but the other three explored the fabric stores of Seattle.

I have continued to engage with members of the cosplay community & I have spent hours on the Offbeat Tribe forums, interacting with other soon-to-be-married individuals. For the past 6 months, that was my most-visited site.

I will FINALLY post photos and a few construction notes about the costumes and craft projects I completed in 2012 and 2013!

I made good progress for the first few months. Then wedding planning kicked into high gear. I have two costumes left in my “back-blog” then this reSEWlution will have been accomplished.

I will participate in the Wardrobe Architect challenge to help me clarify my wardrobe purchases and upcoming me-made clothing projects.

Oh yeah. Totally accomplished this reSEWlution. At least the preliminary steps. I followed along with Sari’s series and came to a number of realizations and clarifications about my personal style, my existing wardrobe, and my goals for future me-made projects. I have done a lot of curating (Pinterest, Polyvore) to help myself build a wardrobe. Now I just need to build it out. (More on this later.)

I will maintain an organized and useable craft room.

Every crafter knows the challenge in this. I know I have been successful because I was able to complete 4 separate garments this spring. The craft supplies are starting to sprawl a bit again, but I feel more confident in my ability to reign it in. Slowly but surely, everything is finding its place. I may require another stash busting spree.

Greg has been able to access the ironing board and iron more than once, which is a sign of success.

For a wedding gift, I was given a dress form that belonged to my mom’s dear friend. Mrs. Utt will make her debut soon.

Overall I have been better at saying “no” to craft projects, but recently I have caught myself agreeing to some non-personal projects.