Updated Plan for March

This was my original post (with yellow remarks on where I stand 3 weeks into March)

Plan for March

I am awesome at compiling lists and I suck at following them. So I am challenging myself to actually follow through with my plans...
Anyhoo, I will make a monthly list divided into 4 (at the moment) categories.
This months list:
1. Sewing:
- march jacket (McCalls 5759): lining is constructed, buttons bought and fashion fabric cut out. Will continue as soon as I finish my Mini-Wardrobe entry (hopefully this weekend)
- silk slip (no pattern yet): um yeah,  not so much! Possibly in April
- fix some things lingering in my alterations pile (skirts, dress): Alterations? Who said that? Hopefully in April!
the list will have more things added as I go along

- Mini Wardrobe Contest at PR: 1 item completed, 1 needing hem, 1 needing zipper and hem, 1 completely untouched (at least I finally decided on a pattern)

- black doubleknit skirt for girls night out: need it this coming friday and probably won´t use a pattern.

2. Knitting:
- finish Clapotis: done!!! Love it! Sooooo soft!
- finish Hope Cardigan (yummy cashmere): it just needs buttons: buttons bought, sewed on. Then tried on FO and hated it! Way too much ease through torso. Don´t know what happened there. Thankfully this is knit top down so I will just have to rip to the start of the waist shaping and make it smaller! Need to get cracking on this or it will be too warm to wear it.
- finish teal throw for my bed: it just needs the fringe attached and a good
blocking: not touched yet, I already have it lying on the bed and the fringe on my nightstand... might be a good project when insomnia hits again!
- my Wisteria needs to be fixed in one armpit: have I mentioned I hate mending? It´s actually just a loose end that hastbecome dangerously loose!
- find new project to cast on: nope. I grabbed a cotton shell (I don´t like knitting with cotton and neither do my wrists! But this seems fine so far) I have had languishing in my WIP basket for too long. Front is finished, back is halfway there.

3. Quilting:
- I am only a beginning quilter and have decided to sew a king size (I know, what
was I thinking???) quilt for my bed, crazy nine patch blocks in batiks (color
scheme: blues, greens, purples) alternated with simple black silk taffeta blocks
and I want to get a little bit done each month: haven´t done a stitch this month except buying the silk taffeta, washing and ironing it. Want to make another stack of crazy nine patch blocks this month. ( 1 stack down, 3 to go) 
more on this later: this project deserves it´s own post, which it will get as soon as do another stack of blocks

4. Redecorating:
- reupholster that cocktail chair from this post: Yeah, finished
- build cd shelf (the plan is in my head): I´ve got all the supplies save for a really big sheet of plywood which I can´t fit into my car, so I will have to ask a buddy to help me out here.

Recovering an old chair



The color is actually true in these pics. Who knew the original cover was royal blue?



Remember this grimy little chair? It is now this ubercool thing:

I first posted about it here. Since then I have torn off the old cover, covered the seat with a layer of upholstery foam, padded the back with some quilt batting, covered the whole shebang with muslin (which I traced off the original cover, then traced onto my usual pattern foil), sanded down the legs, primed them and painted them with two coats of black paint followed by a coat of clear varnish.

Then I covered the chair in the intended fabric with some black piping on the edge of the seat (just bias tape folded in the middle with yarn in the middle). It wasn´t easy getting the staples I had through the sometimes many layers of fabric, batting etc. The back does not look as good as I would like and I may change that.

Btw, while tearing off the original cover, I found a german pfennig from 1966 in a fold of fabric! It was so well placed that it couldn´t have been a coincidence. My guess is that whoever made this chair put that in there as a lucky charm. I put it back in there and will add a Euro cent from this year, as soon as I find one!
I googled if maybe that was a tradition but couldn´t find anything... ( I will post a picture when I get home tonight, I forgot to upload it to my computer...)

Now I can´t wait to recover that second chair to see if it has the same lucky penny in it! I haven´t found a suitable fabric though.

I have enough of the zebra print leftover for a throw pillow for the couch. I am waiting to make the pillows until I have collected all of the fabrics I want to use in my dining/living room (I have leftovers from my drapes as well) and then come up with a plan.

Yeah, we have progress!

The cowl neck top in my alternate fabric is nearly done (just needs a hem!) and I am not unhappy with it. Please note that I am not 100% happy either. I have this vision of a certain drapey cowl neck that I can´t seem to duplicate...
But it really isn´t too bad and I know I will wear it. It needs a little taking in at the waist and I am unsure of the length and will decide on that tomorrow.

I also nearly finished the teal pencil skirt: skirt is assembled and lining is assembled, the zipper is inserted. Tomorrow I just need to join the lining to the outer skirt and hem the whole shebang!
That means two almost completed items for my mini-wardrobe with two to go.
Not bad considering tomorrow is halftime!

I have kept busy with other stuff: remember the grimy little chair? Well I tore off the old cover, cut a muslin and just put the last coat of paint on the legs.
And now I am dead tired. I really don´t know why, the weekend was pretty low key.

I doubt, I will get very much done tomorrow because I am meeting two former co-workers for dinner. We try to do this on a regular basis, but life gets in the way quite often, so I am always happy, when we manage to actually get together! :-)

Slow Saturday

No sewing today, no knitting either, although I might pull a random WIP from my WIP basket after I finish writing this. I have no idea what to cast on.

I spent half the day trying to get the lighting in my vintage cabinet to work... After blowing the fuse three times my little brother came down and helped me. Now, one spotlight works and the other needs to be exchanged because apparently it´s broken.
After that I went to Zumba class with my friend, grocery shopping and cooked a lovely dinner (lamb filet with a green salad). Now I´m sitting on the couch with a nice glass of red wine.

I managed to get the lining on my March jacket sewn up last night and the fit seems good. I seem to have a problem with sewing the buttons and buttonholes on the correct sides... On my February jacket I managed to get my sides mixed up and here (the buttonholes are made by leaving holes in the seam between the right front and the right front band) I managed to do the same! I forgot that the lining gets worn "inside out"...

For tomorrow I have great plans:
cut the houndstooth fabric for the March jacket
sew the muslin chair cover
sew a costume for carnival (I´m thinking rocker girl with Doc Maartens, fishnets, a short plaid skirt and some
    sort of top); the only I would need to sew is that skirt and I think I´ve got a suitable pattern in my BWOF
    collection; for the matching jewelry, I think I will raid the hardware store :-)

And because I have no new pictures here is a squirrel in Battery Park:

Plan for March

I am awesome at compiling lists and I suck at following them. So I am challenging myself to actually follow through with my plans...
Anyhoo, I will make a monthly list divided into 4 (at the moment) categories.
This months list:
1. Sewing:
- march jacket (McCalls 5759)
- silk slip (no pattern yet)
- fix some things lingering in my alterations pile (skirts, dress)
the list will have more things added as I go along

2. Knitting:
- finish Clapotis
- finish Hope Cardigan (yummy cashmere): it just needs buttons
- finish teal throw for my bed: it just needs the fringe attached and a good
blocking
- my Wisteria needs to be fixed in one armpit
- find new project to cast on

3. Quilting:
- I am only a beginning quilter and have decided to sew a king size (I know, what
was I thinking???) quilt for my bed, crazy nine patch blocks in batiks (color
scheme: blues, greens, purples) alternated with simple black silk taffeta blocks
and I want to get a little bit done each month
more on this later

4. Redecorating:
- reupholster that cocktail chair from this post
- build cd shelf (the plan is in my head)

This post will probably be updated throughout the month, especially on the sewing and knitting topics so look for updates!

Random picture (this one is of the church tower in my hometown taken in fall 2009)

My next redecorating project...

oh boy, this one will be a tough one:


excuse the blurry photo please, I didn´t realize until I looked at it right now!



this little beauty is one of two little chairs that my mom scored from a client who was selling her house. She needed to get rid of her old stuff and these two little ones, although very very scrappy and dirty have real potential.

The first one will be reupholstered in a very cool zebra print (cotton velours)and it´s legs painted black.



I haven´t decided on the color scheme/fabric for the second one yet, but I have enough on my plate at the moment anyway!

New Beginnings

Hi, have I seen you here before? I don´t think so, since this is my new blog. The title “Today´s the first day of the rest of my life” is pretty self explanatory, I think. I had a different blog, but I wasn´t good at keeping it up to date. My life was different back then and I have changed very much and am still going through many changes. Almost exactly 6 months ago, I broke up with my boyfriend of 6 ½ years and I haven´t regretted that decision at all. It took me almost a year to decide whether I wanted to go through with this, but in the end I did. I´m sure, I will tell you more about this part of my life, but not now. There are more important matters at hand: sewing and knitting and redecorating!!!
I have been sewing regularly for about 3 years, but have just lately really tried to go about it in a more organized way… My fabric stash is organized, I am making a dedicated sewing space in my office, I have started a sewing journal with notes about every pattern I sew and have started a fabric catalogue (still needs work though!). My goal this week will be to write up pattern reviews for PR (I really want to start contributing there regularly) of everything I sewed since starting the journal: that will be about 8 reviews…
Another thing I want to do is inofficially participate in the jacket-a-month sew-along. January is already over, obviously and I didn´t finish that jacket, but I will eventually. The February Jacket is coming along nicely. It is unlined, not that complicated, which is great because it will be my first finished jacket (tempting the sewing gods with that, or what?). I have countless WIPs (including about 4 or 5 jackets/coats) and as soon as I get my sewing room cleaned up and organized, I will finally put all my WIPs in one place, take inventory and work on that pile.
Knitting is another thing I love doing (ravelry name: ribbit) and I always have something on the needles (multiple things actually). Since I travel a lot for work, it´s great to have something productive to do in the evening in the various hotel rooms I stay in. I don´t have quite as many knitting WIPs as I do sewing WIPS and most of those aren´t abandoned mid-project, instead just needing the ends woven in. Look out for some modeled shots of (hopefully) finished objects over the next couple of weeks.
Due to a certain breakup, I felt the urge (and also need, since I hardly had any furniture left) to redecorate my apartment, which I have been doing on weekends. I will post pictures of what I have done so far and of the things to come.
This shall be it for now…
More later!