As I said in my last post, I have had a busy few weeks around here and I have not done any sewing at all since the start of November. As you can see from the button (once proudly, now ashamedly) displayed on the side of this page, I had every good intention to join in with the Dakota Sewalong hosted by Rachel at House of Pinheiro and Maria at A Stitching Odyssey. The day to upload pics of your finished item is today. I got this far:
I printed and taped my PDF pattern.
And it has been there on my dining room table since 8th November. Complete with coffee stains.
But at least the cats haven’t eaten it – and they do like a bit of paper.
What I have been up to is creating some of the videos for the new tour of a certain Irish boy band – though it is debatable that you can still be called a boy band when you are embarking on your 20th anniversary tour! It has been quite a nice job to do; creatively engaging, good client to work for, but it has meant anything from 12 – 20 hours per day sitting at my computer. I am knackered! The tour started on Thursday and we uploaded the last of the videos to them at about midnight on Wednesday…
On Thursday JB and I had a nice day. I didn’t manage a lie in, but we took a trip out of the house and went to a miniatures (as in war hammer, not dolls house) shop for him and I got to make the pilgrimage to the Minerva Craft Centre. Like many UK sewists, Minerva is one of my first ports of internet call when I am looking for some new fabric, but although the shop is only about 40 minutes drive from where I live I had never actually been there. And boy, did I have a lovely time. The in store fabric selection is not overwhelming (far too much space taken up with yarn of all things… Only kidding; I am not a knitter, but only because I don’t have the patience and I am quite envious of those who do), but they had a good selection and the service was fabulous. There was a certain fabric I had seen online, and though I had clocked from the website that it was an “online special”, I enquired about it and the lovely lady went off to see if the chap in the back knew what I was after. She came back with a swatch of just the thing (and a swatch of an alternative, just in case) and then proceeded to take a great interest in what I was doing, offering advice and suggestions which were most welcome.
I can’t tell you what I bought, as some of it is to be packaged up and sent to California (Hi Laurie – I’m sorted, at last!), but I did come away with a bulging bag of goodies and a big old smile on my face.
…Anyway, after the first night of the tour, the band needed some changes to a couple of the videos, so we got that call at around 11pm (having actually spent an evening with the sadly neglected wicked stepdaughter) and I finally put the job to bed at 3am on Friday morning.
Friday I did nothing.
Saturday I vacuumed 3 weeks worth of cat hair and general dirt from every room, landing and stair in the house and then in the afternoon we went to see the FREAKING AWESOME Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Brilliant. Loved it.
Today I thought I might get around to finally making my Dakota, but after tracing and cutting out the pattern I think I should maybe have gone for a larger size, so my enthusiasm for running up a muslin is not great, as the thought of having to trace and cut out again fills me with – not exactly gloom, but a whole load of meh.
I think what I need to do is have a good old sort out of my sewing room. Since I last gave it a really good sort I seem to have acquired more fabric, but no more storage space, so new purchases have been shoved, thrown (and sometimes placed) somewhat randomly in there. Do you want to see? Does other people’s mess make you secretly a bit happy? (not judging – I love other people’s mess!)
There is another big pile hidden at the end of the little sofa bed there (don’t tell me you can’t see the sofa bed, it is clearly that thing on the right of the first picture disguised as a pile of fabric!).
This is the cupboard I would like to put it all away in:
So I am right in thinking that if I take it all out, re-fold it and put it away again I will somehow find myself with a shelf free at the end of it?
The thing is, I don’t mind a bit of clutter, but it is beginning to feel a bit oppressive in there, so I need to do something about it. I think I’ll be much more likely to get back into the actual fun stuff if I can get some order in the place. However, 4pm on a Sunday is not the time to start that sort of thing. I think I’ll just go with a bit more family time today and then see if I can’t work up the energy tomorrow.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Bet you can’t wait!
Is it fitting? 
how cool you visited minerva crafts. don’t blame you for not finding time to sew given your schedule. and your sewing room doesn’t look that messy to me…i never achieved to fold my fabric in a closet like you did. my sewing has been very slow too. enjoy some quiet time
Do you know, on Friday I thought I should be getting on with the Dakota dress, so I could get it finished in time for the sew along, and then I remembered I do this because I enjoy it and that treating it like another deadline when I would rather be relaxing was daft!
I enjoyed going to Minerva, though. The staff were so lovely!
You are soooo lucky having a sewing room! My fabric is in the spare room and it looks very much like your sewing space but without the machine. And looking at your stash I feel totally inadequate!!
My machine has pride of place on the dining table in the conservatory, which has meant far too many TV dinners, my 11 year would not agree with that though.
I went to Minerva back in September-ish, and thought the staff were fab too. They even let me use the staff loo before the ride home!
And one last thing, I’ve been meaning to comment on your blog about who we blog for. There’s only my mum (my biggest fan and who I think is responsible for 90% of my UK views!) and 1 other person who I’ve told my blog address. I’m scared my friends might take the Mickie, though they do know I blog and I show them pictures of what I’m up to.
Yes! other people’s messes do make me happy.I feel better now because my sewing space looks similar these days and I know I need to organize it and tidy bit so much to sew and so little time. I think I will plan it for the few weeks next month when I will be dropping off my machine for an annual check up. Maybe new year starting off fresh and all that.