Most of the respondents in the survey we did recently for a sewing pattern company cited ‘no time to sew’ as one of the reasons their patterns were still in factory folds.
But I will challenge anyone to ‘no time to sew’ – I have a 22 month old toddler, who doesn’t ever go to bed before 9pm, sometimes it’s 1030 or 11pm, AND I work full time. And I still sew two to four garments a MONTH. Usually. The cape month was a single-project two months, but it was lined, and I had to match plaids.
This morning is a classic example of sneaking in sewing time. I had 15 minutes before I had to leave for a meeting. Hubs had taken babe to day care (usually my job) so I had this window of time with no one here, save the dog. I put on black pants from a year ago last summer and they were ginormous on me. But I need black pants, and therefore I had to wear them (thank goodness they had belt loops).
So I have black wool in my stash. I unfolded my pattern cutting mat, rolled out the fabric, laid the (already fitted) pattern for Christine Jonson’s 1010 Trouser Pant on the fabric. I used my daughter’s board books and two remote controls as pattern weights (all were on the side table next to the dining room table). I chalked (as Christine taught me) the pattern around the pants, removed the books, remotes and pattern pieces (four of them – front, back and two facings) and cut them out. Folded up the excess fabric, put everything away in the sewing cabinet AND got to my meeting ON TIME!
I do plan to make these with conventional sewing machine – but serge all the edges. I want them to be alterable – and I am pretty sure the size on these pants is from before I got pregnant, which means the side seams need to come in. But with a CB invisible zip, that’s no biggie. I plan to make them easily alterable, by sewing on the facing pieces BEFORE the side seams go on.
Anyway, in a few short hours – probably two hours to sew the pants, including hemming, I will have NEW, well fitting basic black pants (I don’t line – I like to have three seasons of wear – or four for a very lightweight wool – in my dressy trousers). In the depths of winter I wear silk long underwear under my dressy pants.
THIS is the kind of sew in small chunks that all the pros tell you to do (like Sandra Betzina, etc.) But no one every REALLY thinks in fifteen minutes I can get started on making a project move ahead. I still have one more project in progress (besides some alterations on pajamas, but those are sort of hang around projects that I pick at), a wicking top. But it’s mainly sewn together already. I’ll finish sewing it before I start the pants, of course, since it’s pink serger thread in there now.