I've got the front of a new top cut out on the kitchen table. I haven't cut out the back, nor the sleeves. It's been sitting on the kitchen table for some days now.
I was going to go for a mighty FART (fabric acquisition road trip) on Friday last week. There were humungus traffic problems en route, so I decided to delay until "sometime next week".
I want to do a body blueprint for DH, so I can do a second attempt at a pair of shorts. Did I post about the first attempt? Let me check.....
..apparently not.
OK. DH has some linen blend M&S pull-on shorts, which are easy to wear and he's worn them to death. M&S, of course, don't anything remotely similar. I'd seen that pull on shorts are, alledgedly, super easy to make. I started with my SureFit Designs (SFD) system, but the pull-on variety were an afterthought to all the stuff about trousers ("pants"), and I didn't know what I was doing...so I gave in and bought a simple pattern for pull on shorts.
I measured DH. I made a toile version out of some sheeting. I made the real version out of some very thin linen stuff (I had my doubts about it before I started, frankly). The shorts sewed up OK, not a bad job really. The back fitting was lovely. The front fitting...was OK, but not quite right. The fabric was hopeless. So thin and see through that DH wouldn't be able to wear them outside.
However, now that I'd made them, I felt more confident in the process, and decided I'd go back to the SFD system. I need to clear away the top from the worktop in order to lay out the stuff to do a body blueprint for DH.
I have tidied up everything else around it. I've put away scraps; I've carded and put away the fabrics I had out; I've put away the stuff we got out to make DGS2's bum bag..... but I just have this stupid blockage about the top.
I know exactly what and why this is happening. I'm annooyed at myself for not just dealing with it, and I guess I'm hoping that writing it down will spur me into action.
You see, I've made another pattern adjustment. I'm proud of this one. I've moved the bust dart to the centre, to make it into gathers. This should be an improvement on the last one, which was a similar process but had not quite worked out. I had identified the problem, and I believe I've corrected it in this version.
Deep down, I know that the procrastination is because I'm concerned about whether this one will work or whether I'll just find something else not-quite-right. I desperately want this one to be good.
I know I should just get on with it. I know that it might be right, and then I'll be able to make several versions from the same template. I know that I will have to do it, sooner or later.
It's because I know all that, that I'm stubbornly refusing to clear the darn thing away. I am trying to force myself to get on with it. Today I even struck a bargain with myself. If I cut out the rest of the pieces, I could then clear everything away to get on with DH's blueprint, and then sew my top later in the week.
That seemed like a good and acceptable compromise, and I was full of hope. Instead, I've sorted out the chicks, emptoed the dishwasher, done my monthly banking, bought some sewing machine feet in a sale, caught up on all my Facebook groups, emailed my mum, sorted out some tax stuff for both me and for DH, emailed Sodastream about some old cannisters, done some filing, washed 2 lots of fabric in anticipation of shorts, made several batches of coffee, been to Costco to get cream to make butter, looked up a recipe to make ham for dinner tomorrow, I've bought a couple more patterns, I've ordered some back issues of a sewing magazine, I've cancelled a subscription to another magazine.... and more.
I'm driving myself to distraction.
I WILL get the darn thing cut out by the end of today.
I WILL.
