April 1, 2022
And yes it's April Fools, but we are sewists and we are nobody's fool!!!
I'm swamped right now and it reminds me how much I love using my online calendar (there are a lot of them out there). I can schedule what I need to be doing, and not have to worry if I'm forgetting anything, cause it's all written down in the calendar - I simply have to do what's in the calendar and I'm on schedule.
I use Google Calendar to schedule everything cause I can get it on my smartphone and my desktop and can schedule anything that will be carried to all my calendars no matter where I pick it up. That's really handy. In addition I can categorize everything so that some tasks are personal, some are SewingArtistry, some are clients, some are Walt, some are travel and basically it includes everything.
Here's how that looks:
Now don't let this scare you but this actually works really well. One of the first things I do when scheduling like this is schedule in what's called self-care time first. And I schedule everything - think time, create time, work or do time, and I purposely leave a lot of time for each task so that I'm not swallowed up with time.
I've set my calendar to have a delightful ding when I'm supposed to start a new activity, which helps keep me on schedule. This is great for when you're swamped, but it's also wonderful for those days that you may not have anything specifically scheduled, but you want to accomplish something that day. Something as simple as researching a blouse or a sleeve look. Block out a time for that so you can have a "ding" remind you that this is your task
for the day.
But it's important to schedule in that "down time," even if it's 5 minutes every 1½ - 2 hours. It's remarkable how fresh this will keep you. This is something that when you're doing a to-do list, probably is the last thing scheduled in. And then what happens is that you get over-booked, and tired, and need a natural break, but nothing is scheduled so off you go into solitaire hell, or that black hole of the internet looking for a
picture on Pinterest, and oh - look at that new color, maybe I could find that on Pantone, and wow, look at the new book from Pantone, which reminds me....and on and on! Whew!!! I need a break after that.
So scheduling in self care and those times to walk the dog, take a stretch break or whatever are vital. My stretch break is about 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. I take about 5 to 10 deep breathes and repeat this month's mantra (I have a mantra for each month), and then gently bring myself back to work. This takes very little time and it's so refreshing. I usually try and schedule these in every 30 minutes to 1 hour. Yeah, that sounds like a
lot of "self care" but it's really not, and it's amazing how that break keeps me focused and paying attention to what's really going on.
I hope this gives you something to think about. And keep your mind open to this sort of scheduling. It's not meant to be like college if you miss a class it goes on your permanent record. This is meant to be a help and assistant, who gently reminds you that now it's time to break, then it's time to think, then this is the period scheduled for researching a look.
I do this at the end of the day for the next day, but may schedule 2 or 3 days ahead. Keeping this schedule helps you really accomplish a lot.
And then you can schedule in vacation!!!!
This is a beginning guide on what to do with your core pattern after you have fitted and worked on it.
All the work that you have done in your core pattern contains all the information to make a garment that you will totally love. This means you really don't have to buy another pattern for making skirts, pants or leggings. Variations on your core pattern makes it possible for you to have the styles you see in a photo or on Pinterest without having to look for the pattern that looks like it might work. You can now simply trace it onto your core pattern and
you're done.
This resource also contains some other important resources at huge discount because they are so important to this creative process of varying your core pattern. It also contains some downloads that aren't available in the Resource Library at all, but are vital toward making good design.
In this world of crazy, illogical fashion, we sewists are having to turn into designers. That sounds really hard and foreboding, but it's not. Unlike designers, we simply haven't had all the experience they have, most of that experience they got when they went to design school. More than anything I wanted to make this process encouraging, empowering and enlightening without having to worry about whether or not you could vary your core pattern.
You can! It isn't that hard. It is knowing some guidelines and charging out into the unknown. That's what we sewists do and we do it very well most of the time.
This is the beginning of the series into variations on core patterns. I wanted to start with something basic, so that you wouldn't feel so intimidated. It takes a while to write these up, cause I'm an idea factory, and coordinating and organizing these ideas can be monumental with the sewing muse yacking in my ear 24/7.
The resource is available now at a discount so that you can enjoy it before spring starts in full force. Right now, I'm thinking happy, colorful and pretty. Those are all fresh looks for future clothes. When things seem upside down, it's great to have something to make us happy and often bright, springtime and summertime fabrics are just as much as drab, dark and somber fabrics. I'm ready to be beautiful, comfortable and look flattering in my clothes and
I'm dying to share that with you.
Skirts, Core Pattern Variations, Part 1 (but there's more than skirts in here)
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