I Sewed A Thing

I sewed a thing this week.

Unlike the rest of the sewing community (or at least one assumes the rest of the sewing community judging by my social media feed), I have not suddenly become a prolific pandemic crafter.

I've felt such a complex lot of feelings about what I have and have not got done, and the projects I choose or don't choose to make.  First I went through a period of time where I felt almost guilty that I wasn't taking the opportunity to learn a new skill, or sew up every piece of fabric in my stash, or knit every yard of yarn in the house because every where I turned that seemed to be the message I was being told I should be doing.   Some days though, I felt it was all I could do to go to work, come home, make supper, care for and teach the kids, try to stay on top of housework and just be a semi- functional human being. Other days, I felt I was doing pretty ok if I hadn't sat staring at the wall doing absolutely nothing for an hour straight.  As an asthmatic in a higher risk category this virus has had me pretty stressed out and scared many a day.

Don't even get me started on the telling me to do my part and stay home bit that came with its own level of guilt.  I can't stay home.  Nor can my husband.  We both have jobs that require us to be there.  For him, full time still and for me, now, part time in the school keeping the office open and the rest of the time working from home.  It's taken a while to stop feeling like I was selfishly and systematically putting the world at risk every time I left the house to go for work. I would love for us to stay home and not ever leave until all danger has passed, but this is not our reality.

Then came the whole sew/don't sew masks thing.  I have not, nor will I become, a one woman mask/scrub cap/isolation gown/whatever else factory.  I admire those that have done this, but that is not where I'm at right now. If this is an issue for you,  perhaps now is time to stop reading.

I realized eventually that I was giving far, far too much power to the suggestions of social media and that this is my own journey and I need to travel it in whichever way I need too. (Of course still following all the actually important stuff like going out only when I have too, social distancing, taking care of my health etc.)  Not only is my physical health important, but my mental health is too and to that end, I decided that I will sew/knit/craft  whenever and whatever it is that makes my mind and heart happy because that is something I do have control over.

When the DIBY Club pattern company sent an email letting customers know that they had put all their patterns on sale 60% off, I decided to grab one that caught my eye.  I certainly don't need any new patterns - goodness knows I have a pattern collection that would probably take more than one lifetime to sew through.  But patterns often are my guilty pleasure impulse buy.

So I bought the Adrienne pattern and printed it out one afternoon last week while I was waiting for a video to upload for the school website. (Good gravy my ancient home computer is sooooo slow!!!) That night while supper cooked I put the pages together. The next night I dug through a bin of fabric and found a remnant of sweater knit I'd bought at some point thinking I'd make a Blackwood with it, but then found it had a huge hole in the middle of the of it, so it got shoved further down in the bin.  I wasn't sure if it would be enough, but it turned out I was able to work around the hole and get the whole Adrienne sweater cut out.  I have no idea what the fabric content is, but its soft and snuggly and drapey and turns out it was the perfect fabric for my new sweater.

The pattern has three options of necklines - cowl, bateau and crew.  There's also four sleeve options - long, 3/4, elbow and short.  It features a wide, curved hem band that overlaps where it joins high up on the sides.  Its construction is fairly simple and the instructions include a link to a video tutorial on how to do the bottom bands which makes them a breeze to sew up.

I sewed it up in three days.  It could have been sewn up in a few hours probably, but I chose to do it in small chunks of time as I have found that method seems to work best for me now.  For my version I chose the faced bateau neckline and 3/4 sleeves.  The only change I made to the pattern was to add a bit of length. But the instructions do offer in-depth instructions on how to fit the pattern - everything from simple blending of sizes, to the more complex FBA/SBA.

I decided to use a pair of vintage buttons for added interest.  I bought the buttons a few summers ago when the Costume Museum of Canada had a fundraiser button sale that I went to with a friend.  Buttons are also a guilty pleasure for me... and I can't resist a vintage button!  I was very careful how I sewed my buttons on my Adrienne being mindful of the button tragedy of last summer when I accidentally sewed through a vintage button with my machine on the last button of my blouse and had to settle for one boring old modern button.

I'm really happy with my new sweater, and actually when I tried it on straight off the machine I liked it so much that I wore it the rest of the afternoon yesterday.  (thus the wrinkles in the photos! LOL)

Thanks for sticking around to read all this way!  Until next time stay well, and stay healthy!