New Year's Corduroys

I want my sewing in 2015 to be prolific and productive.  I think each New Year of all the ways I'd like to change and improve and the list gets longer and longer until I realize it would really be impossible to achieve every single goal - there aren't enough hours in a day and frankly, the extra 10 pounds are worth the happiness of eating what I want.

I do, however, have one simple resolution for this year:  sew everyday.  No rules on how long or how much, just sew and do it daily.  My mind is brimming with what I want to accomplish:  a wardrobe of beautiful suits for work, gorgeous perfectly fitting designer jeans, my child in adorable, unique clothes, my husband in custom fit dress shirts, my home decorated with custom draperies, slipcovers, and hand embroidered pillows and wall hangings, craft more beautiful dolls.  No way can I possibly do all this.  But I can sew everyday and by doing so, I know that some of these will be accomplished.

I got a tool to help me with this:



It's a smallish sized planner where I can write briefly what I sew each day and on the facing page there are blank lines for additional notes on the projects I'm sewing that week.

My side resolution is to participate in some form of sewing education each day.  That is: watching a video (I've got a whole bunch of classes I bought at Craftsy to keep me busy) or reading a sewing article (Threads magazine is excellent) or sewing book or book on fashion or fashion history.  I haven't placed time limits on this either - I think that is freeing.

If you haven't read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron I highly recommend it. I think anyone - even those who don't think they are creative - can find benefit from part, if not all, of her book.  My goals for sewing are in part based on Ms. Cameron's techniques.  (Morning pages are one of the best disciplines and benefits of her method).

If you haven't clicked away from my blog yet, I will show you my progress for the first two days of January:

Rivets:

I think I mentioned in a prior post that I'd go into more detail with rivets - here you go.

First the Tools:

• Hammer
• Sample block of man-made "quartz" (I got this when we were remodeling our kitchen and choosing new countertops)
• Rivet
• Eyelet Cutter
• Snippers (for cutting the base of the rivet) borrowed from my husband who has many tools for model rocketry that are quite useful for sewing.

Process:

• Place the fabric on the quartz.  You could use something similarly hard - metal or other, but wood is too soft.
• Use the eyelet cutter to punch a hole in the fabric for the rivet.  Position the cutter and gently tap a few times with the hammer.

• Place bottom piece of rivet underneath and through the hole.
• Then snip it down so it's only a smidge (that's technical) above the fabric (see below)

• Place the top of the rivet over the bottom and gently hammer (with the quartz underneath)
• Turn it over and hammer from the back side until it is securely set.
• Voila!  Rivet!

I also sewed the back yokes on today.  Yesterday I did the front pockets.  Steps left:  Fly front/zipper, side and inseams, waistband and beltloops, front button and hemming.

Make something beautiful!
Jen