Moving Adventures 2011 and the Musings of a Consumer

Well, we're nearly finished unpacking everything in our new home in Squamish.  Thanks to a couple of our friends who helped N load everything into the house last Sunday while I was frolicking in Kelowna on a wine tour and stagette, ha ha!   They commented (and both N and I agree completely) that we have a lot of stuff!!!  To be fair, a lot of the boxes contained books - both of our combined textbooks from 4+ years of uni as well as just normal reading books.  And we have a lot of kitchen gadgets and small appliances (mixers, blenders, griddles, etc) but I like to cook and entertain at home.  It's so easy for hoarders to make excuses though, isn't it?

Kitchen disaster!

However, we have a lot of clothing.  Not just me, N has lots too.  I clear out my closet religiously every year, getting rid of whatever doesn't fit right or I don't wear.  I give it to charity or to friends (which is sort of like charity since they are poor students, ha!).  But with my addiction to sewing, I feel like I am producing more garments than I need.

Who would pay nearly $50 for pyjamas?!?!?

I've kept my New Years resolution and have not purchased any new clothing in 2011, but I wonder if choosing to sew my own clothing is really the answer to our society's over-consumption?  It only takes a short visit to the local thrift store to put things into perspective...  A used, but good condition pair of jeans costs around $5.  I certainly can't make a pair of jeans for that.  Purchasing new fabric can be expensive, not to mention the cost of patterns, notions, etc., etc....  There are literally tonnes of textiles and clothing thrown away every year, which makes me think I should be buying used as a priority over creating new.  Any thoughts?

Despite my guilty feelings over having too much stuff, I will admit that I'm very excitedly working on a bathrobe gift for our friends' baby.  She arrived very early (at 29 weeks) and is still in hospital as she's too small to be able to go home yet.  It's lucky (for me - from a sewing standpoint) that she is so small because I didn't have enough fabric to make it for a bigger baby!

I used Simplicity 3711, and some thrifted gingham and terrycloth fabric to make the bathrobe.  Originally I was going to use the same gingham fabric for the pockets but do a bit of fancy hand-embroidery on them but it didn't look very good.  I had some leftover fabric from an apron I made for my friend's bridal shower gift - which she then wore out to the bar on her stagette (don't ask).  I think it looks pretty good as an accent on the bathrobe.

The best part about our new place is the fact that I have my very own sewing room!!!  Yippee!!!  Here's a little snapshot of it.

Fabric stacked to the ceiling inside the closet, and my To Sew list on a whiteboard

It's pretty unorganized at the moment, but my father-in-law is making me a sewing centre where I can put my sewing machine and serger, plus storage shelves and all other kinds of good stuff.  I'm pretty excited.  It's my birthday gift from my in-laws.  As for my birthday gift from my hubby, he bought me two sewing books off Amazon.ca which I'm also pretty pumped about.  I've blogged about the Built By Wendy Dresses book before, and am very happy that I now have it in my collection.  He also got me the book Design-It-Yourself Clothes : Patternmaking Simplified.  I borrowed this from the library and while the clothes are definitely cute, I feel they might have a bit too much of a muu-muu effect for my taste.  However, it does seem to be pretty good at explaining how to draft patterns based on body measurements.  I'm sure it will come in handy as it seems that the more my friends realize I sew, the more custom requests I get!

Speaking of custom requests, C sent me some snapshots of her wearing her dresses on vacation in Texas!  She looks great!

As you can see by my "To Sew" list in the photo above, I have lots to do!
Happy Tuesday!
Caramia
xxx