March Miscellany: Projects, Plans, Updates

It's halfway through March and I'm just getting a handle on my sewing! Does anyone else feel like time is an amorphous thing these days? March has brought a lot of different things to my attention, from sewing challenges and sewalongs online, to plans for the next few months, to discovering what is in my stash. 

Something exciting about February was winning a prize in the #BHMPatternDesigners challenge. I've started exploring the Sew It Academy (lots to see there, from classes to patterns!) and am planning on getting my measurements into My Body Model asap so I can get my croquis going -- one of my goals for this year was to learn more about fashion drawing, so I can't imagine a better way of doing it than using a personal croquis from My Body Model. I also received my Spoonflower Makers Welcome Pack this week! It's full of great stuff, including their project book and all the fabric samples, of course. 

There are quite a few online challenges happening too, mostly over on Instagram. I have my eye on #FrugalFrocks2021, run by English sewists @theyorkshiresewgirl and @frugalisima. The goal is to choose a free dress pattern and a fabric from stash, make something up and reveal it on March 31. 

I have a lot of free dress patterns, from Mood, Peppermint Magazine, Love Sewing Magazine, and various designers. I looked through a bunch of them, pulled out about 10 and sorted through them with my stash in mind. I finally decided on my first thought, the Everyday Dress by In the Folds in collaboration with Peppermint Magazine. I already have this one traced out since I've been meaning to make it for ages. And when I looked into my deep stash, I found this stiffer cotton, almost like a curtain fabric, that I'd forgotten I had since it has been in that stash for sooooo long. I have just enough of the 45" fabric to be able to fit it in, if I shorten the sleeves (which I'll always do anyhow, thanks to my short little arms!)

I'm also looking at the sewalong for the Penrose Peasant Blouse by Sew News magazine. It's a cute summer top and I have another curtain fabric calling out for this one, lol! This time the fabric is lightweight with a cheery pineapple/palm print. You can download this free pattern until the end of April.

The @SewOver50 group also has a #So50patternmixing challenge going on for March, but despite having a lot of patterns suitable for this, I haven't come up with any exciting ideas yet. I may still try to figure this one out, but I am also trying to use stash so unless some prints in my stash jump out at me, I don't think this one is a go.... but if you look up the hashtag you can see some of the very fun projects already there!

I think that will do it for March! What about you? Do you have any plans, inspirations, challenges happening?