ONE PROJECT DOWN...

I finally made the sleevies that I mentioned er, ages ago. Honestly, it must be so thrilling for people to read about one of my bright ideas and then see the results when they've forgotten all about it, if ever! To recap, they are kind of like a cross between fingerless gloves and leggings, to wear layered under all my 3/4 length sleeved clothes before we get into elbow length glove weather. I'm definitely so much more of a dreamer than a doer.

The bag I'm "going to make" has been in my head for ooh, I don't know how many years. (Also not so good at pinpointing exact timelines.) Recently I got the final part of the jigsaw puzzle about how to complete the bag which I haven't even started on yet. Oh but I've even got an etsy shop to sell them in thought out if the first one's a success, though this one's been brewing so long it can't possibly be as good as in my imagination. When the final piece fell into place in my mind I was like "A ha!" So what did I do? Did I rush home and start making the pattern? No, I took the two lambskin hides I'll use to make it out of the trunk where I'd stored them and draped them over a chair, where they still are. Hopefully soon I'll get started on making the bloody thing before I get the urge to tidy away the hides. Part of the problem is having a multitasking living room/dining room/studio/office space. I don't like to mess it up with sewing stuff because then I have to tidy it all away again. But I have to actually do all these projects so that new ideas can come through. I'm all backed up.

Back to the sleevies. Yesterday was the first time this autumn it's been cold enough to need a jacket, and as mentioned, mine all have 3/4 length sleeves; so that's what spurred me into action. Here are the instructions for making sleevies:

1. Take really old unwearable shrunken cashmere jumper out of wardrobe (no need to felt it, this has already been achieved by over washing).

2. Place jumper upon table.

3. Remove dressmaking shears from sewing box.

4. Cut arms off jumper (coincidentally leaving you with a cashmere T shirt).

5. Place sleeves on own arms and admire handywork.

Time spent procrastinating: months
Time spent completing project: twenty seconds

You see this is why I'm secretly addicted to craft blogs. Yes, I'm the lurker everyone! I'm so not in that world but I love to read about all these productive, self motivated people making beautiful things in their studios, with their inspiration walls, letterpresses, kilns, crochet hooks, spools of wool, piles of vintage fabrics and paints. I kid myself that if only I had a huge daylight filled attic studio with vintage dressers full of fabric, paints and papers and a big table to make a mess on and not have to tidy it up, I'd be making things all day too.