Starting

It's happening.

I AM going to make a shirt. I've been thinking and talking about it for too long.

What pushed me over the edge? Well, Etienne was talking about his decision to book a trip to climb Kilimanjaro and he said he kept thinking about this Buddhist saying, “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” It really got to me. Making a shirt is certainly not "truth", but I do have to actually start something in order to make something.

I picked Simplicity 2696, view F to start out with - a pattern that seems fairly simply and a shape that I already wear. I bought this ocean blue shot cotton, but then thought I should maybe try it out (make a wearable muslin?) with some white fabric first. Or if that goes well, then I can use the blue for another style in this set.

I think that the sleeve and shirt lengths on view F are going to be too long, so I'm going to make 3/4 sleeves. Not sure if I should take off inches on the shirt length before or after. It comes all the way down to the crotch and I prefer it to hit at the hip.

Been reading a lot of clothing sewing blogs lately and decided that I would follow their leads and trace out my pattern size instead of cutting it directly from the pattern itself. That way, if I need a different size in the future then it will still be available on the pattern. And this style is pretty loose, so I might need a smaller size anyway.

I've never traced anything before. Kind of winged it with some giant white paper that I bought at the Pratt store, carbon tracing paper, and a chopstick. (This chopstick is officially part of my sewing kit. It's also perfect for poking out corners in fabric because of the rounded edge.)

And since I was on a roll, I went ahead and traced the pattern pieces for the Color Wheel Quilt. I used plastic for the main template since it was small enough to fit on the sheet and I would be cutting out so many more of those pieces than the rest.

New Year. New Quilt.

I have been feeling so weird lately. I've spent every weekday thinking about sewing and then every weekend not wanting to do any sewing. What is my problem? I guess I just have to jump back in.

It's time to start the Color Wheel Quilt. One of my new year's resolutions is to make a quilt for my bed, so why not start with this one since I have the book and all of the fabric. Sarah bought me the fabric bundle as a wedding present. Perfect.

Just so you know, I have completely nerded out in this endeavor and have photographed each bundle, so that I could put them back in order after washing. That's probably something you should know about me: I'm really into systems.

 So, here we go...