Finshing up August

After my fit of the dismals in my last two posts, I am finally more cheerful! So here is a roundup of August and some thoughts on what I want to sew next.

This month I made up a couple of TNTs (PJ shorts, a t-shirt) and that had the usual pleasing outcome.  I also made a white and green raglan woven top, and I've enjoyed wearing that although I don't think I'll make that pattern again. One good thing is that the top I thought was a disaster at the time (the one I made using a Silhouette pattern) has surprisingly turned out to be pretty wearable overall, so that has been cheering.

Just under the wire for the end of the month I also finished up one more TNT knit top. I squeezed it on to a little remnant piece of fabric I bought recently. It's not very exciting, I know, but I really wanted a striped black and white top for this autumn, and I liked this weird barcode like knit a lot from the moment I saw it.

TNT t-shirt with three quarter sleeves in a "barcode" striped knit

Overall, though, I guess August wasn't what you might call a super productive month. Also, I bought a whole pile of fabric so I'm not even going to TOUCH the question of how I did against either my budget or my planned stash reduction except to say: dismally! On the other hand the pile of fabric I bought mostly has very specific Autumn plans assigned to it, so I refuse to angst over it.

Earlier this year, I decided I needed to do a really ruthless edit of my patterns, magazines and books and also catalogue it all more thoroughly. I got started on that in the last week or so. (I have to be in the mood to be ruthless, and it's taken until now to get to the point where I feel like I want to cull my sewing possessions like this!) I've ended up putting a bunch of stuff up on eBay that I've decided just isn't anything I need. A lot of what I'm selling is envelope patterns I bought in the early phases of my sewing career before I really figured out what I wanted to sew. I feel like I bought a lot of "everyone else loves this" patterns but a lot of them really weren't me at all, stylistically speaking, so I've cut my losses with those.

One mini-success I can report is that I also decided at the beginning of the year to only add envelope patterns (which are very expensive here in the UK) to my collection when they offer something unique or that appeals to me very strongly. So far I've done a pretty good job of that! I've only bought four envelope patterns overall to date this year. I've also bought about dozen PDF patterns, but a lot of those are Lekala and at £1.35 a pop I am not too bothered by that. My major pattern supply of course comes from having three magazine subs (Burda, Knipmode and Ottobre) so I am not exactly starving for pattern stimulation!

That said, the most recent Big4 collections have included some really interesting patterns. I have five envelopes in total on my wishlist:

Butterick 6388; McCall's 7433; New Look 6481; Burda 6578 and Vogue 8805

Of these four are from the most recent collections, and one is old, old, old (Vogue 8805) and has been lurking on my wishlist a long time. I want the New Look 6481 pattern only for that blazer, especially after seeing the gorgeous version Ms. SewCraftyChemist made already. The Butterick 6388 I want just because of that neckline -- definitely an interesting knit top variation. It's really weird for me to want an Archive Collection or vintage style pattern but that McCall's 7433 shirtdress has some really pretty and unique details. The Burda 6578 pattern is in essence an ordinary buttoned shirt but I'm in love with that pleating detail on the pink version on the cover and think it would be fun to sew.

I'll wait to buy all of these when they're on sale in the UK because I am cheap I am not in any special hurry to make any of them. I hope I can pick up the Butterick knit pattern sooner rather than later though as I love it and want to make it up before winter if I can.

As for September, well, my list of things to do this month looks something like this:

1. Outerwear! Outerwear! Outerwear!
2. Semi-intense fitting session to improve woven shirt fit (especially that sleeve twist I keep getting and tightness through the upper back) and then making a couple.
3. Stuff to wear in autumn to laze around the house.
4. Finish the sweater I'm knitting.
5. No, really: Outerwear! Outerwear! Outerwear!

All that said, before I embark on any of these exciting plans I have two WIPs to finish up: another quick TNT knit top, and the pair of Jalie 2908 bootcut jeans I have cut out waiting for me to summon the mental strength to work on a fly front. For sure I'll get the top finished by the end of the weekend. Who can say whether I'll feel up to sewing the fly front in the next few days!