Volume 10: New to the Shop and Nat's 80's Dress!
New to the Shop!
I have TWO new things in my shop this week. The first is possibly my favorite sticker I’ve created so far! I drew a Singer Featherweight in that iconic mint green color and it made into stickers. Like the rest of my stickers, it’s vinyl and waterproof :)
New Laptop Sleeve Pattern
The other new addition is a pattern for a laptop sleeve, which I posted a video tutorial for yesterday as well, over on YouTube. I had fun using orphan quilt blocks for the pockets on these! Pockets on anything are a great way to use quilt blocks that haven’t fulfilled their quilt destiny.
Learn to sew a lined laptop sleeve and handles and an exterior pocket with this beginner friendly sewing pattern. This PDF printable tutorial will teach even beginners to make a tote bag with step by step instructions and photos.
Natalie’s Dress!
In last week’s video, you saw some of the progress on this 80’s dress pattern I was making for Natalie. We took engagement photos a few days ago, but we forgot to get any of just her wearing the dress. But this one shows it pretty well :) It fits her perfectly and she will have more occasions to wear it in the coming months. I’m so glad it turned out so well!
The Moon
On a non-sewing note, I got pretty into the moon photos from the Artemis II. NASA has made the shots available on an official page and they’re free to download. Someone on the ship knew some stuff about photography, for sure. This is one of my favorites. They said that reddish planet to the right (the middle one) is likely Mars! Amazing.
I Match my Curtains
I had ordered 2 different Fabelism fabrics and after making a small curtain for one window and a valance for my kitchen, I had just enough of each one to creatively piece together a shirt! I used a vintage pattern for this and I think it’s pretty darn cute. I shop for the Fableism line at Surge Fabrics. It’s hard to pick because they’re so beautiful!
Time Blocking
I’ve been working on being able to do things for longer periods of time. I’m not sure if I just learned to do everything in a rushed way after having kids (because it felt like it was always a matter of time before I was interrupted or had to stop), OR if social media brain had trained my attention span to be short, but whatever the case, I’m no longer scrolling on apps and no longer have constant interruptions, so I’m working on putting bigger chunks of time into things.
So I’m trying a new “work” schedule (my work is more like fun than work lol), and am aiming to spend 2 hours in my sewing room each weekday and 1-2 hours doing computer work. This has been super effective! Anything I’m doing in the sewing room is forward progress, so knowing that helps me not wander aimlessly when I’m down there, wondering what I should work on. And knowing I have a solid block of time makes me feel like I can take the time to film all I need to as I sew.
This has made me want to try setting aside blocks of time for other things too, like writing. I’m enjoying writing, but feel like I lose focus after 20 minutes. Maybe setting aside at least an hour would help.
Do you have any experience with time blocking? I’m not really a very schedule-oriented person, but this seems to be working for me.
I’ll leave you with one more shot of the dress!
Cheers and Happy Sewing :)
Nikki
