July Roundup / August Planning

I spent most of the last week and more in preparation mode; knowing I head back to work next week, I will have much less time to spend on my sewing. So I decided to spend the time now in some prep work.

I have, like most sewists, a very long "to be sewn" list. I have a project queue that could fill a year's sewing without a pause! So I looked through my pattern and fabric stashes and matched up a whole pile of projects. Even if I change my mind later, I find this really gets my sewjo going.

Here's the pile of potential matches still waiting for me

Then I cut out seven of those projects to work on when there is time. I have two dresses, four tops, and one pair of linen pants -- very strange as I don't make pants as a rule. But I picked up the Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style book a while ago and wanted to try one of the patterns. The Owyn trousers it is.

After that I decided to trace some Burda patterns from my latest issues, and continued on by tracing off some dress patterns from older issues that I'd always meant to make. I think I have enough Burda here to keep me busy! I'm most keen on the shirred waist dress from 2014, but there's quite a bit of work on the bodice fitting to do first.

Dress 133 from May 2014

And finally, since I am going to back to work I'm going to need more masks. Currently I only go out once or twice a week, so my masks aren't in constant rotation. But I'll be using them daily soon, so I went through my cotton scraps and fat quarters, and cut 15 more masks for myself and 6 more for my husband.

Now I just have to sew them up. I prefer to do only a few at a time as I find it very dull and tedious sewing, but of course quite necessary. I use the Dhurata Davies pattern, and add a nose wire (we both wear glasses so nose wires are indispensable). I find that the soft metal sticks that close up coffee and tea bags are perfect to stitch right into the masks for this purpose.

Are you queuing summer projects, or starting to think about fall? I can't think that far ahead so am still working on all my summer ones!