Working on having a plan - Weekly Goals 21 March - 27 March 2011

My sewing has slowed a lot of late, particularly since I stopped taking classes. My head is still full of so many ideas (and my cupboards are full of awesome fabric and patterns!) so I want to try and channel my creative energy by setting weekly goals.
So welcome to my first "Weekly Goals" post!

Goals for 21 March - 27 March 2011

• Finish my Vogue 8506 (first blogged about here)

• Do some lining and underlining practice, as I'm currently doing the Pattern Review classes on these topics (which are great but I'm yet to sit down and practice!)

• Exercise daily - including all the classes I'm booked in for

• Make some cards using stamped images coloured with copics.

• Post the backlog of written posts!

• Tool roll for my Scrapbooking files

• Knitting needle roll, based on this awesome tutorial, with another two here and here

• Warm PJ pants, as the weather is getting colder here but I'm waiting on my Jalie order for Jalie 2686

And then there's the RTW Sew-Along. This is one I'll be reading with excitement and taken notes on too. I see a RTW style coat in my near future, especially with winter around the corner :)


Ideas for next week (my idea list is way longer than this, but this is a short list of what I want to work on in the near future)
Oh and have you seen the latest Sew-Alongs to hit the blogosphere? After the awesomely successful Men's Shirt Sew-Along at MPB, Peter is hosting a Jeans party Sew-Along. I have my Jalie 2908 en route but I'm not sure if I'll join the Sew-Along. I'll probably just watch from the sideline taking notes so that when I'm ready to make jeans I'll have all the info on hand!

Sewing up Vogue 8506, view D

I've been working on this bag since late last year and I think it's getting close to being finished. I had to make a few minor changes to the construction and have added some extra features (additional internal zip pocket, snap clasps instead of tabs on the sides) and I'm also looking at adding a d-ring on the inside so that I can add a removable wallet and also a clip for my keys. But I'm still working on those parts! That and the extra pocket (based on the internal pocket from Vogue 8590 by Marcy Tilton)

Oh and I've also finally joined Tasia's Pendrell Sew-Along and Peter's Shirt Sew-Along as I was inspired by this totally awesome version of the Negroni. My brother has given this fabric the tick of approval too, so it looks like I will be making something like this for him. I have my Pendrell fabric but it probably won't be sewn up for a few months due to other commitments. And I have my Negroni pattern and fabric on order, so I think I'll be late on that too! I also wanted to join Sunni's Pant Sew-Along but that's another one I'll be doing later on. So many sew-alongs in January and I just don't have the time for all of them!!! lol oh well

2010 recap and 2011 goals

I can't believe it's day 2 of 2011 - where did 2010 go? I feel like it went really fast and was a so-so year for me. So I was ready to bring on 2011!

From a sewing goals perspective, I don't think I did that well in 2010. I did sew more but no where near what I wanted. I started lots of sew-alongs and finished ... none. Terrible, I know!

So that brings me to 2011 ... I'm calling it the year of finishing things, since I've identified that I start lots of things but finish very few. I think my list of UFOs doesn't quite capture all of my UFOs (I have sewing, scrapbooking and knitting UFOs!) so I will be working to update that list to give myself a good target.

I've also decided to try to keep posts sewing related with the occasional non-sewing but craft related post thrown in for good measure. I'm also planning to blog at least once a week - I know, considering my last year that will be tough but I'm up for the challenge!!

Thinking about SWAP 2011

Part of me thinks it could be madness but it could be a good chance to make some good progress on building my wardrobe in preparation for *gulp* Me-Made-March and/or Me-Made-May ...

For the planning thread, have a look at this

Some inspiring posts already:

• Sophisticate SWAP
• A cool idea for a plan
• Last years rules

Christmas pudding

We're running a bit late this year in making our Christmas pudding and cake but it's better late than never! We usually get started late August (I think) but time just ran away from us (wasn't it January just the other month?) So the fruits been soaking since Saturday and the puddings are now boiling as I type and we should get the cakes on in the next few days.

Photos to come!

Sponge Cake!

I was inspired by a post this week over at 2paw where she made a yummy looking sponge cake. So here is mine! Sorry for the fuzzy phone photos. My camera was out of battery.



The cake has a non-traditional filling of Persimmon and Orange jam and then the usual whipped cream. The reason I put Persimmon and Orange jam is because we have a Persimmon tree (soft eating Persimmons) and we always have too many and are trying to find recipes to use them up. We've made Persimmon cakes, Persimmon chews and most recently Persimmon and Orange jam, which is seriously yummy! I've been eating it on toast every day since my mum made it :o)



So the cake was a hit but there are a few things I'd do differently:

• I had to cook it for longer. It has 15-18 minutes, at 15mins I checked it and it was very wobbly in the middle. Then I did another 4 mins and then 2 mins about 3 times until is was cooked.
• It was quite a wide but short cake (I think it was a non-measured 9" tin - ie my handspan plus a bit!) so next time I'd use the normal 7" tin (my handspan-ish) and make it higher. It will make it easier to cut into layers.

Valentino Exhibition in Brisbane!

I feel like I've totally fallen off the Blogtoberfest wagon - probably because I have!! Things got a bit crazy and then once I'd missed one day it was easy to miss a few more.

It all started on Friday night. I went out to some work drinks and had a so-so night. I won't go into the details but I headed home thinking I should have gone straight home to work on a summery skirt instead. Lesson learnt - do what I want to do! So then I got home and couldn't be bother to log onto my computer.

Saturday rolled around and it was my first Saturday sleep in for months. Since the weather outside was pretty awful, I spent an hour or so snoozing in bed before I got up and did some cleaning. Then I headed out in the afternoon for some scrapbooking fun! I was working on a Printers Tray and will post photos when complete (might be awhile away!). On my way home, I caught up with a friend for what was to be a quick dinner but ran later than expected. By the time I got home, I just rolled into bed ... especially knowing I had such a big day ahead of me on Sunday!

Which brings me to Sunday! I headed up to Brisvegas for the day with some sewing buddies to see the Valentino Exhibition. All I can say is wow! It was really awesome! There were about 100 dresses on display, along with some other memorabilia and short movies. There is also a book catalog but they are sold out - so I'll be getting mine on Amazon. You can order it but I'm doing an Amazon order soon anyway.

If you get the chance - go and see it! If I was to do it again, I would go for the weekend and go 2 days in a row. You take different things in each time and there is just sooo much to see. I would live to see the inner construction of so many of them and now I want to see The Last Emperor again. Must ... buy ... DVD :) I will post more about my thoughts and favourite dresses (if I can find some pics online!)

Then the start of this week has been a combination of feeling like I'm getting over jetlagged (Sunday I was up 3am - midnight!). Then work has been busy with a bunch of late nights - which brings us up to today!

On the sewing front, I'm falling behind of my Lady Grey. Between being flat out, gathering my notions and not even pre-treating my fabric, I'm a good week or 2 behind I think. Yikes! I need to get my skates on! It will be hard though with a work deadline fast approaching and weekends busy with house hunting and classes, so I might end up doing it on my sewcation. Yep, you heard right! I have cup week off and plan to spend some of that time at home and then 3 days in King Island.

I'm also still in the planning (procrastinating?) phase of a couple of summer skirts. They should also get completed during my week off.

Oh and I fell off the stash busting bandwagon. Clegs have a sale on and I picked up some fabrics I've been eyeing for awhile. Bad, I know! That's why I started the stash busting challange - to curb my fabric purchasing! So I guess I will need to finish A LOT of garments to catch up. Argh!!!