Taking that first step

So, I have been enjoying all the wonderfully entertaining sewing blogs that I have been reading for the last eight months and decided to jump into the fray and to blog about my sewing life.  I love to sew and shop for fabric, thread, and notions.  I love sewing machines, the way they look, the way they sound, just everything about them.  As a young wife and mother about 100 years ago, I sewed everything -- clothes, curtains, costumes, gifts.  The thought of buying something when you could make it was foreign to me.  Then I got this crazy idea of going to law school.  Sewing became just a fond memory as I made my way through torts, contracts, legal writing, and then pursuing a career.  However, I continued to buy patterns and fabric and stored my stash away for "some day".

With the arrival of grandchildren, my interest in sewing peeked again.  After all I finally had a little girl in my life for whom I could sew all sorts of beautiful dresses.  Work kept getting in the way but that didn't stop me.  I continued to buy because, no really, I was going to sew again.  One day, the patient husband said:  "I see a lot of stuff going up [to the sewing room] but I never see anything coming down."  The nerve of him.  What's he talking about?  Then I decided to take stock.  Yikes!!!  I was out of control.

Inspired by some of the fantastic sewing bloggers out there (Sew Ruth, Goodbye Valentino, Hello Needle and Thread; Coco's Loft to name just a few -- and I do mean just a few), I have decided to test my creative juices and get back into sewing on a regular basis.  A comment from Peggy Sagers of Silhouette Patterns struck me during one of her biweekly on-air tutorials.  She said that as teenagers we would buy a pattern and fabric and make up the outfit.  No stash, no waiting for some other time.  That got me thinking.  I've been buying patterns and fabric for the day when I have time to sew (really, that's like waiting for the right time to have a baby -- there is no right time, you just do it.)  I've been waiting to lose weight so that I look great in that blue glen plaid I bought.  Or I've been waiting to hone my skills before cutting into that gorgeous red wool; I'm just not skilled enough yet.  Well, keep waiting, Sister.  But you are not getting any younger, or any skinnier, or sharpening your skills by just reading blogs and waiting for some day.  So, make the garment, wear it, and love it.

So, I've sorting and organizing and can't believe what I discovered.  DECADES of home catalogs!  Anyone remember these?  I have them from the later 70's through today.  Just kept subscribing and buying and taking them upstairs.  

What about those heels on Jaclyn Smith?  That's from 1978.  I guess we women have always loved the stiletto heels.  So much easier to catch the crook in the stiletto heel, right, Charlie?  

Marlo Thomas with a line of sewing patterns?  In what world did Marlo Thomas sew?  I find it hard to believe she ever picked up a needle and thread and threw together an outfit while waiting for Phil to come home for dinner.  If I'm wrong, I'll apologize.  But there she is, nonetheless.  

Look at Marie Osmond.  What a cutie!  Of course, I had to buy her patterns back in the day.  I was in my 20's, they would work for me.  After all, if I bought the patterns, I would look just like Marie, yes?  

So, I'm having a hard time parting with these magazines.  I haven't as yet and will NOT get rid of the Threads Magazines or Vogue Pattern Magazines.  And of course, Butterick, McCall's, and Simplicity do not publish any more.  So, they'll just go back for now and I'll decide at a later date.  What do you think?  

As for fabric, I have it in drawers, in closets, in boxes, and I even bought 5' PCV pipe to roll my more expensive fabrics on only to learn later on that you should not stand them on end but roll them and then lay the rolls down.  

So, my blog will document my journey through the pattern and fabric stash.  After all, let's face it, if I die with this much in the stash, the kids will just put in the trash and I'll never rest in my grave if I thought that would be its fate.  So I have my first project, a Butterick pattern that is about 10 years old.  The floral fabric for the lining is from the stash but the fashion fabric, well, I had to buy that new.  ACK!  Will I never learn.  Finished product to be posted soon.