I entered a sewing contest, my first sewing contest.  I’m not sure why I did it–no, I know why: so I could be a sewer . . . with the sewing people.  I just don’t know where I think I’ll find the time.  Needless to say, July’s going to be a really interesting month.

I’m going to aim for a pattern a week–four very simple patterns.  I should make a list of potential patterns.  I will . . . by Saturday night.  I will make a list and post it.  I think I’m going to go sit in a corner and cry first.  Pay all my frustration tears forward.

If you’re having a hard time finding the time and mojo to sew, seek out the hardest pattern you can find and attempt to sew it.  Then, when you’ve kinda sewn a backasswards muslin of said pattern, pick a fabric it wasn’t meant to be sewn in to finalize your attempt.

That’s how you bleed it out, friend.

Need specifics?  Enter Burda Style’s Naomi #6015, a lovely kimono-style jacket.  Recommended fabrics: cotton, linen, or silk.

That’s why I’ll be sewing it in a remnant table material, whose fabric content is dubious at best. Wool maybe?

The unrecommended fabric Naomi must be made in, so help me Ra!

That’s not the important part.  The important part, the part that makes this bleed it out attempt the stuff that dreams are made of, is that this remnant table material is loosely woven.  Silk, linen, and cotton, aka the recommended fabrics, are not.

So not only do I have to figure out why my left front is over my right front, which is the opposite of the pattern illustration, and why the ties are attached at the wrong seam, I also have to underline my material so it won’t stretch.  Have I underlined material before?  Yes, in that no, I have never underlined material ever in life, so . . .

I don’t know how long this will take me, but if I live to wear this jacket, I think the process of making it will be fun.  Well, it’ll be a learning experience, which is the same as fun, right?  At the very least, the resulting garment will be like a badge of honor.  No matter how crappy the badge looks, the people will know I was brave enough to try.

Naomi front, Bizarro style.

You put those ties in the wrong place, you risk looking pregnant.