Patterns and Plans...

Being the summer holidays and having two children to look after I am very limited in the time I can spend in 'The Cupboard' but I am full of plans both short and long term for where I want my sewing and therefore this blog to go. First of all I want to get through 'that difficult third post' so here we go.

I don't have a signature style when it comes to clothes, I like a bit of almost everything but I am not very modern or fashionable so you aren't going to see copies of high fashion on this blog. I just want to pick what I consider the best bits of style from across the decades - my dream pattern, if any one sees it , would be flared trousers/jeans that are high waisted, snug fitting across the hips and tops of legs then massive bell bottoms. I also like tea length full skirted dresses with nipped in waists, and the fabulous fabric prints of the 60s although the high necked shifts as beautiful as they are look ridiculous on me due to me ample bust.

An Idea of the sort of things in my Pattern Stash

So as you can see this blog is going to be varied, it is also going to be a learning curve because although I have been able to whip up a simple sleeveless dress for the best part of two decades (having been taught to sew as a child) I have not really gone further than that. I am working my way slowly through a selection of books to work through and improve both my skills and confidence; one thing I have already learned, from reading  'Gertie's New Book For Better Sewing' Gretchen Hirsch is that often the way I do something and assumed everyone else did too is the vintage way. Case in point being tailor tacks I was amazed not everybody does this, marking each indivdual layer of a pattern seems so much more of a faff than a quick stitch through all the layers. I seem to have gone of on a tangent a bit there - you'll get used to that any way back to my plans.

Short Term Plans

1. Sew through the following books:  Love at First Stitch, Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing,  DK Dressmaking and  Sew Your Own Wardrobe.
2. Make up all the patterns I have in my ever increasing stash.
3. Bite the bullet and try sewing with knits.
4. Try some real vintage patterns 

Longer Term Plans

1. Develop my own 'look' and become really good at fitting it.
2. Get myself an overlocker.
3. Learn to draft patterns and make things that are truly right for me.

My Sewing Dream

This doesn't even get a place under long term plans because I am a realist not a dreamer, I would love to be an independent pattern designer, for women like me who aren't fashionable, hate having to take in waists on ready to wear clothes and do Full Bust Adjustments on handmade. Yes, that is my sewing dream, my own line of patterns that just fit fuller busted, bigger hipped women. I have a lot to learn though so in reality just to manage it for me would be great.