Overspending, giving up, freebie, and shirring

Yesterday evening I realized something…. I have spent too much money in too short a time period on fabric, patterns, and sewing needs. It’s becoming a compulsion and I need to get a grip on it! I keep all of my goodies in our guest room, since it is the least used room in the house. Last night I was looking for a new pack of bobbins I bought last week. I checked in the dresser drawer where it should have been, not there. I checked all three of the shopping bags that were on top of the dresser, not there. I checked the shopping bag that I had hidden in the bonus room, not there. I checked the bag I had stashed in the downstairs closet, not there. I was going crazy looking for these bobbins. Then I realized something…. I had three bags of new unused stuff on the dresser, then two other bags of new unused stuff HIDDEN in my house. This doesn’t even include the big pile of neatly folded unused fabric sitting in a basket on the dresser, or the huge neat stack of unused patterns in the dresser. I have made a goal for myself- NO MORE buying fabric or patterns (regardless of how deeply discounted they might be) until I do something with at least 1/3 of what I have lying around my house!

Last night I threw in the towel on a dress I had been making for Kaytlin (and to put in my etsy store). That stinkin pattern made me SO MAD! It was honestly the stupidest pattern I had ever used. It was for five different dresses (three completely different dresses with two variations). The directions were not “To make dress A…” “To make dress B…” etc… they were all piled in together. There were so many pictures and NO order that I just got so irritated. I put the cut/partially sewn fabric and the pattern in a walmart bag. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it…. Maybe pass it on to someone else who could use it and actually understand this pattern. It probably wasn’t the pattern; it’s more likely that it was my attention span. So…. If anyone wants this pattern, let me know. It’s for sizes ½-4, the fabric has been cut to a size 4, but it could be trimmed down if necessary. The fabric is a bright floral print…. It’s the flower print on this item from babykaysboutique.etsy.com. There’s a pic of the pattern too. It’s cut for the striped dress, but could also be the green one if you’ve got some lace. If you want it, you can have it… just pay shipping $4.60 for priority to the 48 states, less for parcel post, more for international AK or HI.

On to the rest of the evening…. I finally tried shirring. I bought 5 yards of this purple gingham check fabric. It went so much easier than I expected!!! It takes a little time to thread the elastic onto the bobbin, and it didn’t last long (I did 2 ½ rows with one bobbin, going across a 33” piece). It was easy though, and It just ruffles right up. I saw one tut that says to pull the threads, but I tried that and it didn’t work. The tutorial on portabello pixies blog says to steam it (no thread pulling), so I’m going to try that. Pulling the thread was a bit of a pain. I’ll be finishing the dress today if all goes as planned.

BTW- still looking for my USB cord for my camera. I think I might just buy a new one.

And I love how she used shirring in this top

Horay for Fridays! My plans for the weekend? Hmm... a sitter on Saturday night. Could it mean a romantic evening? Or uninterrupted sewing all night? lol.... probably the sewing since hubs is so busy working on constructing a website for the company he works for. As for tonight, I plan to finish up the shirred dress. It'll be pretty simple since it's my first time shirring.... I don't want to get into anything complicated just yet.