Self-Stitched September?
Folks, I’m in a quandary. It’s the eve of Self-Stitched September, and I don’t know whether to participate or not.
Sewing’s been a bit slow this summer, for various reasons, and with the fall looming I can’t really see that changing. If I even think of the mountain of things I have to accomplish in the next eight to ten months, I’ll collapse into a wriggling ball of jelly. I know SSS doesn’t MANDATE daily posts (really, what’s the point if I don’t take daily photos, though?), I’m just not sure I”m up to the commitment. Which sucks because I’ve really enjoyed documenting the me-made months in the past, and I’ve been proud that I’ve been able to include at least a LITTLE bit of sewing/discussion in each post. I don’t think I can do that this time, though.
I’m so totally torn.
On a lighter note, it’s my birthday next week! (Hmm, somehow I’m less excited about that than I used to be…)
I’ve really enjoyed some of the things other bloggers have done for their birthdays—week-long giveaways, Oona’s rocking party (which I could only observe, being on vacay, but man it looked like some awesome fun). But I’m rubbish at mailing ANYTHING, and let’s face it, I just can’t party like a New Yorker.
What I WOULD like to do is share a pattern. I’ve been playing with several over the last few months, but haven’t quite gotten any to a point where I was ready to share them. Partly because I’m not sure how they’d be appreciated. Â So I figured I’d ask you all to choose, and then finish up the instructions and grading and put up a PDF. The ones I’m thinking of are:
The Cropped Jean-Jacket:
Cropped Jean-jacket
The Flutter-Sleeved Tunic:
Flutter-Sleeve Tunic
The Grecian Sundress:
Grecian Sundress
The tunic and sundress both had some minor issues that will easily be resolved by a tweak of the pattern before it gets to you—lengthening the tunic, eliminating the waist-seam in the sundress. I’m pretty happy with the jean-jacket pattern as is, but the construction is a lot more involved, which might deter people. I would do my absolute bestest to grade the patterns and make up some proper (hopefully even illustrated!) instructions. And probably do up another version of the final pattern while I’m at it.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to get the poll feature working and you can all vote below (click through to the site if you’re reading this in a feed reader)—otherwise just leave me a comment letting me know. *crosses fingers that there actually ARE votes*
Tanit-Isis Sews 
The tunic, please! Thanks for this offer.
I understand not participating in SSS. This will be my first self-stitched commitment and I’m wondering how I’ll do the daily photos. But I’m looking forward to seeing what I do when I’m forced to wear my stuff.
Tunic! Tunic! Tunic!
PS The alternative to getting older is death. 🙂
I’ve only recently started following your blog, but I had the same quandary for the Me-Made-June. I went ahead and signed up, but stopped taking pics halfway through (I still wore me-made, though). I felt badly, but I just couldn’t get excited about it. I’m now taking a break from Me-Mades until I feel it again. I wear me-made almost 100% anyway, so I needed further incentive to push through and I couldn’t muster it up
I don’t think any of those patterns would work for me, though that is very nice. 🙂 Happy Birthday!!!
Self stitched really seems to apply to a certain level of sewists. There are those who wear pretty much all of of their own clothing so the self stitched is not a challenge and it’s then a style blog. Then people like me who don’t have enough to wear something self stitched every day, it would be a challenge to see if I could. I could if we counted panties I suppose. And then challenges to wear completely self stiched for a month, which really points out gaps in what you sew. It seems to me, you have done this enough already to know the gaps, to feel the challenge of compeleting items, you’re moving into style blog for a self stitched month. I think it’s fair to say you don’t have time for that. I voted for the tunic too. The sundress is pretty, the jacket more work than I’d be up for, but the tunic would be more forgiving of grading and I’d get more wear out of it.
Personally, the me-made posts got a bit old for me after the first couple. So if you aren’t up to doing it, I totally understand. If you still wanted to participate though, you could do a collage of all the outfits either once a week or at the end of the month. Because it seems to me that it’s not so much the taking pictures every day as much as it’s the logging each outfit and linking back to their original posts and so on. WordPress has a gallery feature that would make this even easier, or you could make a mini-slideshow of the pics to save room.
Anyway, hope you have a happy birthday! 🙂
tunic please! i haz voted in the poll as well. they’re all awesome, but i just love those flutter sleeves.
and i KNOW you rock a party in reality. and who wants to go to the post office on their birthday?!
if you’re on the fence about triple S, you could do it yoshimi-style. she made a 30 day collage of everything she wore, like a poster, the same shot each day with a new outfit. like patty’s calender! it was really cool to see it all together. as a matter of fact… hmmmmmm….
I think most people get bogged down in the documentation. I like Ona’s suggestion.
Happy Early BDAy!!
I voted for the cropped jean jacket. :O)
Wonderful idea to share a pattern (I voted for the tunic). I confess that I skip over most of the self stitched posts; & at this stage of my sewing I really don’t have enough yet in my closet to participate. Not to mention the fact that taking a picture of myself every day would get old fast!
That said, I do appreciate the folks who post their pictures in a group – either every week, or for the whole month. I can skim it, & click on the ones I would like to take a closer look at.
I’ll wait until your birthday to wish you lots of happies 🙂 🙂 🙂
I voted for the sundress! At first I thought I would vote for the jean jacket because it looked complicated and I was curious. But, then I had to think of if I really would make it, and I thought it would also be a lot easier on you to share something a little more simple. My second choice would be the flutter sleeve tunic if I’m picking things I would honestly make and wear rather than things I want to someday say I made.
Happy early birthday!!!!!!!
All the patterns are great, but I voted tunic because I don’t have enough patterns for tops.
I’ve been torn on doing Self-Stitched September (or any of the Me-Made months) because I just don’t want to do a style blog, and I’m not up for daily outfit photos. I think the scope of my blog is just different….on the other hand, sew-alongs challenge me to try new skills and I get more viewers because we’re all keeping tabs on each other. I really need to do another sew-along more than a self-stitched challenge.
I will read whatever you post in September. Your posts help motivate me to sew (even if the stuff I’m sewing is completely unrelated), so I like lots of posts for purely selfish reasons 🙂
As others have mentioned, you might do a collage for a week or the whole month. My suggestion would be to figure out how much time you are prepared to spend on blogging (e.g. 1h per week), and then figure out how much you can do with the time you allow yourself (e.g. a weekly collage – a daily blog just isn’t possible).
I’m on the fence about participating as well. I like the idea of doing a end of the month collage. May have to steal that…. Happy early birthday!
Sweetie, don’t overdo it. If anyone understands the stress of working/married/mom life, its me. This is an activity that should be enjoyable to you, not a chore! That said, I love seeing and hearing from you and I would rather hear how this brings you joy not frustration.
I think you should do SSS! I love everything you make, especially that almighty coat. It is a right kerfuffle having to take photos every day, though…
I hear you on the Self-Stitched September woes. I was really hoping to participate, but I’ve barely been able to get online for any length of time, and time to post is few and far in between (despite quite a bit of things to blog about). It’s sad, but I’m just going to aim for the next round, and hope that things have settled a bit in my life by then. 🙂
But what a great idea you’ve had for celebrating your birthday! Love it! I’ve voted for the top, mostly because I am in dire need to tops. Although I think I just leveled up in my sewing skills, because looking at the tunic, I think I know how to adapt one of my best loved patterns to make a raglan-sleeved version of it! 😀 WOOO! Maybe I’ll have to try. And someday blog about it. lol
Totes late to the party…blame vacation, followed by a short work week/long weekend. But I voted jacket, just cuz I love a nice cropped jacket. Might be a pain to grade, though. I’m feeling the SSSstress, too. But whatevs…it’s what you make it, right? So Ima post a weekly recap, photobooth style maybe 🙂