Bonjour mes amis!
Dit is mijn uitzicht bij het typen van deze post. Kon slechter he? We zijn op vakantie en na een paar dagen Zwitserland en een paar dagen Italie zijn we aangekomen in Frankrijk, het land van zon, kaas, wijn en roze toiletpapier.
This is my view while typing this post. Could be worse huh? We are on holidays and after visiting Zwitserland and Italy we have now arrived in France, country of sun, cheese, wine and pink toiletpaper.
Nu ik op vakantie ben wil ik het graag even hebben over sew alongs. Of beter gezegd: enthousiast ja zeggen en dan toch nee doen. Het gebeurde mij de afgelopen tijd drie keer. Oeps. Eerst met de Sporty Summer Sewathon, waarbij ik besloot om eindelijk het Bombshell badpak maar eens te maken, maar het voorval met het strijkijzer roet in het eten gooide.
Now I am on holiday I would like to talk to you about sew alongs. More specifically: signing up enthousiastically and then failing to meet the deadline. I recently did that. Three times to be precise. Oops. First there was the Sporty Summer Sewathon. I decided that was the perfect opportunity to finally make the Bombshell bathing suit, but the accident with the iron interfered with those plans.
Toen was er de Summer Sundress sew along. Ik had al een poos het idee om van een bepaalde stof die ik ik Japan kocht een Colette Hazel jurk te maken, maar het kwam er steeds maar niet van. Uiteindelijk maakte ik het patroon zelf na en begon ik er met goede moed aan. Echter, gedurende het maken vond ik het steeds een minder leuke jurk worden. Heb je dat ook wel eens? Hij ligt er nu bij als op bovenstaande foto. Eigenlijk hoeven alleen de schouderbandjes er nog aan, de voering vastzetten aan de binnenkant en de rok omgezoomd te worden. Maar ja, toen gingen we op vakantie 🙂
Then there was the Summer Sundress sew along. I had been planning to make a Colette Hazel dress from some fabric I bought in Japan, but I never got around to it. I figured this sew along was the perfect opportunity. I knocked off the pattern and started sewing. But somewhere in the process I started to loose interest, and didn’t really like how it was turning out. Do you have this too sometimes? So the status of this dress is pictured above. All that’s left to do is put on the straps, sew the lining to the inside and hem the skirt. But then we went on holidays 🙂
Deze twee voel ik me niet zo schuldig over, maar de volgende wel.
I’m not feeling too guilty about those two, but the next one I do feel bad about.
Het is de jurk die ik wilde maken voor de August Tribute month van de Sewcialists. Ik had graag gewild dat ik deze op tijd af had gekregen, maar helaas. Extra jammer vind ik het omdat ik deze maand samen met Alison de ‘host’ ben voor het thema. Dus bij deze: sorry sewcialists!
This is the dress I wanted to make for August Tribute month over on the Sewcialists blog. I really wish I had finished this one in time since I am hosting this months theme along with Alison. But alas, it didn’t happen. Sorry Sewcialists!
Ondanks mijn schuldgevoel hebben we wel een hele fijne vakantie hoor 😉
Despite feeling guilty we are having a wonderfull holiday 😉
Hiking in Zwitserland
Het dorpje waar we verbleven in Italie / the little village we stayed in in Italy
Italiaanse tomaten zijn de beste / Italian tomatoes are the best
Jongens, vertel eens: ik ben vast niet de enige die wel eens te veel hooi op haar vork neemt. Hoe zorg jij ervoor dat je je niet overcommiteert?
So guys, please tell me I am not the only one that overcommits from time to time. How do you prevent yourself from doing that?
IngeMaakt 
I think people have written me off the joining wagon! I love the idea of them, but I never, ok, rarely finish! In fact, Im about to miss OWOP completely!
Yes maybe that is the case, liking the idea better than the execution. Like the sewing equivalent of ‘the chase is better than the catch’?
I wore my Jungle January dress in January but no pictures on Flickr! My Sew Dolly Clackett is still awaiting a zip and a hem and my Oona dress is still only imagined! So no, you are not alone!! Have a fab holiday, looking good so far x
Yay, I knew I am not the only one ‘struggling’ with this occasionally. Thanks! We are having a great time indeed!
Well, I have never participated in one yet. I don’t know how sewing bloggers are so productive! I consider you all superhuman anyway.
Haha thank you! I am most certaintly not super human 😉
No need to feel guilty – just enjoy your vacation! 🙂
Thanks! We are having a great time so far 🙂
Maar je maakt juist zoveel! 🙂 Persoonlijk vind ik het beter om te veel ambities te hebben, dan te weinig, ook als je ze misschien niet waarmaakt. Maar geen schuld voelen hoor, want dat wordt overcommitting wel een last en dat is niet goed.
Haha ja en ik had nog veel meer plannen dus 😉 maar het moet inderdaad geen last worden, dat is niet handig.
I just don’t even bother signing up any more. Turns out I just sew what and when I want to and no deadline will make me do it!! Doesn’t matter really. Who is it really affecting? 😉
Just enjoy your holiday 🙂
Yeah I’m not really fond of deadlines either 🙂 I am however a big fan of do what you say so not I think I just needed to get this out of my system.
Looks like you’re having a great holiday 🙂
I used to get a bit carried away with joining in when I first started blogging. Back then there wasn’t as much going on so I guess I felt like I could do everything. Now it seems like there’s so many sewalongs, events etc going on all at once that it’s actually impossible to do everything! I find it much easier to say ‘no’ now just because of the sheer amount of challenges. If you miss one, there will always be another one soon that will be just as fun! Looking forawrd to seeing your dress once you finish it 🙂
We are! It’s wonderfull so far. Indeed there are just so many sewalongs at the moment, but I just got a bit carried away by these because they seemed to match my sewing plans. Only my plans changed and then the sewalongs didn’t, hehe
Oh Inge. You are so not the only one. I did the same with Art of the 20’s dress, Sporty Summer Sew a thon and Spring Race Challenge. It’s so thrilling to join as they promise so much potential – especially when we have vivid imaginations and beautiful visions of the potentially finished garments.
Sometimes I find having multiple projects necessary to push me forward and stretch myself. What we don’t often account for is our feelings, our life, our other commitments to friends/family/work. And sometimes, the thrill to sign up for a sewalong is only meant to encourage us to leap and try something different. It might be that it leads us in an entirely new direction and not toward completing something for the sewalong.
When I let go of cultural norms that demand I behave in a certain way and realize that failing to complete is teaching me something as much as completing would, then I win. I appreciate my victorious completions that much more when I have my failures. You must have needed time to hike and play and rest.
Without rest & rejuvenation, we have no energy to give to our future sewing. Creativity is cyclical. It has seasons. And sometimes, I’ve also discovered that mourning the loss of a good project – as in I’m glad I finished and the piece is amazing, I’m also sad it’s over. We rarely give ourselves the time to allow that sadness or appreciation of what we finished because we’re usually on to the next big thing… at least I am!
I wish you rest, play, and revived inspiration. If you don’t finish any of those sewalongs, I will not think any less of you. I hope you just have fun getting back to the cutting board or sewing machine to make something that gets your heart racing!
Thank you so much for your thoughtfull comment Gwen! You are so right regarding both the learning experiences and the loss of a great project- feeling. There should be a word to describe that feeling!
At least you are organized enough to actually sign up for these challenges! I am part of the Monthly Stitch, which offers monthly challenges you can pick and choose from without signing up. I always look at the challenges and think, yes! I will do that one! …..and then don’t. Good intentions in my mind!
Anyway, speaking of challenges, here is an easy that I would
love to nominate you to carry on the blog hop tour. I don’t know if you’ve seen all the other posts in the tour, but you basically just answer 4 questions and you can see some other posts here http://ozzyblackbeard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/blog-hop.html and here http://almondrock.co.uk/blog-hop-skip-and-jump/
(These are the questions – Why do I write?
What am I working on?
How does it differ from others of it’s genre?
How does my writing process work?)
My post will be posted on Monday September 8th and yours would be for Monday September 16 (or later). It seems like quite a fun way to learn a bit about other blogs out there, plus no sewing involved! If you’re interested then let me know and I’ll add a link to your blog into my blog post.
Hope you say yes!
Katherine
ah yes those good intentions! ‘oh I’ll just sign up later’ uhuh 😉 thanks for the nomination, I’d love to be part of that!