Departure and a Sewaholic Renfrew in stripes

Sewing sometimes feels like a sticky net I have caught myself in - once you start, there is never an escape.  I have been sewing, and blogging about it, for just over two years.  (That's it!!) All of a sudden the sewing machine is gone, the final projects have been angsted over, stressed over, sewn in a wild rush, and one or two have been packed away; after weeks of sewing instead of doing anything else, and yet moments of surprised success as some of these last projects forced me out of my comfort zone, now I sit on a bed in a quiet room devoid of fabric fluff, and it feels...so...peaceful.

Where is the balance between frenetic sewing...and the thrill and joy and enthusiasm for an amazing new project?  I have lived a peripatetic lifestyle these two years and dragging sewing (ie pieces of fabric and half done projects) around with me has been a pain.  But sewing at times has kept my sanity intact.

I started out sewing with a few goals in mind:
-make my boyfriend his underwear out of my fabric scraps
-be able to buy things from the op shops, Goodwill, Oxfam, etc, and turn them into masterpieces.
-and under it all: shop with intent, buy less, and care more.

I have done all of those things, although I wouldn't count most of the results as masterpieces.  But it has come at a pretty high educational cost.  Fabric cost, failed-projects cost, social cost, maybe, and occasionally, although not usually, outdoortime-cost.  I don't think I have arrived at a well-thought out wardrobe, or a wardrobe which is environmentally neutral.  Do we spend our entire lives devoted to this goal?

It is with something approaching relief that I depart, knowing I probably won't be able to sew for about a year.  (Yeah right, I already know I will find unsuspecting sewing-machine-owners and befriend them...) but the hunger to create isn't gone.  I even have a list of what I would be sewing this fall...if I were sewing.

Here it is, if you are in a sewing-voyeur mood:

Knit Kielo, this would totally fix that weird chest problem!
Lourdes jacket (because I can't stop trying jackets)
Deer and Doe Arum dress  and possibly the entire new collection.
Itch to Stitch Davina dress
Waffle Monaca
Archer, at least one
Deer and Doe Bruyere (Fröbelina convinced me with her sleeveless version.)
Deer and Doe Aubepine
Francoise in a stable knit
Camber set until it fits!
Named Geneva Raglan tee
Named Augusta hoody
Scouts with variations until it fits!
More bras: another Watson, another Marlborough, and maybe another effort with foam, which I didn't like at first.
and another Saiph tunic because I loved loved loved mine and stupidly gave it away when I moved (last time) and my friend got rid of it.

Here is one last project to show you: a Renfrew I cut out awhile ago out of the leftovers from the second Deer & Doe Ondee sweater.

Where from here?
I'm not sure.
I started to blog about my sewing in the hopes that it would create a learning environment for me to improve in.  It didn't do that, (although sewing all the time did) and I have sewn a lot from the desire to see the results and show the results, rather than to wear the results.  I considered stopping blogging this winter, but I like the catalogue of my results, so I deleted the non-sewing posts (as I will probably delete this one.) Very slowly, my blog is starting to feel more interactive, as I had hoped.

One goal I do have is to make projects more than once.  Making a project just once doesn't allow for fit corrections, pattern adjustments, or even technique improvements.  However I don't find muslins helpful because I don't take them seriously.  (They invariably convince me never to sew the project at all.)  I want to try making things from cute, unserious quilting cottons or other low-risk fabrics in order to step into each project, and then deepen my experience with it from there.

I will post anything I sew!
However, that may be infrequent over the next months.
If you want to follow my antics/travel nonetheless, I instagram at @soelimano

Sorry for the introspection.  Thanks for reading, thanks for following, and thanks to those of you who have commented on, supported and at times received my sewing : )