To. Do.

I have only one thing to say this week and that is this:

http://teuxdeux.com/

Lists will never be lost or forgotten ever again. I have got more done this week than I did last week because I am keeping track of what I need to do instead of forgetting and then remembering again when I go to bed at night!

Ideas

Look what I got in the post today! All the way from afar…

Sigrid very kindly facilitated the purchase of much needed 206×13 needles for me and I received them today, undamaged and unbent by their journey. Thank you! Who’d have thought that is would be easier, cheaper and quicker to buy German needles from the US than to buy them from Manchester?

So now that actually sewing again is a possibility I have sewing plans bouncing around my head, the most pressing being adding horizontal pleats to Novita at chest level to disguise my bralessness under summer weight fabrics and light cardigan to layer with. The recent hot weather has jolted me out of woolly jumpers, leggings and long skirts and the girls see one hot day of spring as being the sign to wear shorts so we went out to the shed to get The Suitcase.

We don’t have room to keep out of season clothing in the house so twice a year we drag a huge suitcase on wheels out of the shed and swap our winter wear for summer wear or vice versa. This week I realised that I have only one plain summer skirt (the four gore denim one) and all the others are patterned meaning that I really do need to make some plain tops that aren’t t-shirts.

I have been Pinning sewing ideas over the past few months (again, thank you Sigrid for introducing me to that lovely place)

I am intrigued by this Cos top which looks like it has two pleats but is in fact one big slanted box pleat

cos.com

And this top with a layered peplum

zara.com

Then there are upcycles, wrap tops from triangles, a summer weight jacket or some cardigans and at least one dress. I get caught up in all these thoughts then the simplicity thing bites me. Do I really need lots of clothes? Do I need new clothes? Do I have space to put them if I sew them or acquire them? This last question is in some way foolish as if I turned all my fabric hoard into clothing the sum change in available space would be nil. The other questions are more about my rejection of the consumer society and a feeling that the world is swirling with stuff that we don’t really want or need. Where does it all go? Right now Ebay UK has 1,872,940 items listed under Women’s Clothing and that doesn’t include handbags accessories or shoes! Are we all crazy?

The difference with Sewists in my humble opinion is that we make things that we really want and we love them so we wear them and wear them. Then maybe we adjust the fit or repair them and wear them some more.

Does this mean that we end up with fewer, better clothes? Does this slow down the turnover of clothes in the wardrobe? Do we cling less tightly to things that don’t fit or look good on us?

Bump! Back to reality – probably the first thing I will do with the new needles is take up a third pair of El Famosisimo’s work trousers.