The Murphy skirt

As in, Murphy’s law.

Guess who:

• Bought fabric from the Fabric Warehouse sale because it was kind of nice, and on sale?
• Then decided to make a colour-block dress and bought the contrast fabric from Spotlight for five times the price?
• Decided the contrast fabric wasn’t right and spent the whole morning trying to dye it with food colouring (fail) and then bleaching it (success).
• Sewed nearly the entire dress – including seam bindings – and hated it. Cut it up.
• Made a skirt instead (New Look 6106), cut the pockets wrong and had to use the contrast fabric for them.
• Decided it needed piping, didn’t have cord so used hat elastic (worked fine!).
• Sewed that damned zipper three times before the back piping matched up.
• Has worn it only once, for the photos.

Fine but totally not worth the effort. I am planning to have better luck this weekend.

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Cost/benefit analysis

The Fabric Warehouse sale was on this week. I should say, is on, because I fully intend to go again. I spent a measly $21 on 7 metres of great stuff, fabric I wouldn’t normally buy but look forward to playing with. It got me thinking about how much I spend on clothing. With travelling, I haven’t been doing a lot of sewing in the last 12 months. I haven’t done much active stash-accumulating, either, though my fairy godmother in Hong Kong has other plans and keeps sending me lovely boxes. And I haven’t bought many clothes, either. In fact, what have I bought in 2013?….

Well, yeah, shoes. They don’t count, though, do they? Shoes are expensive, and ya gotta keep your feet warm.

Likewise, tops wear out pretty quickly, and when you’re not a knits sewist, they add up…

OK, this was a bit of a splurge. Two dresses while my sewing machine was on the high seas.

Eh, barely anything.

SO restrained. Actually there was another $20 purchase too, come to think of it.

So what’s that altogether? $655. In 9 months, in which I thought I’d barely bought clothes.

Which brings me to my personal 2014 challenge. I’m going to give myself a budget of a dollar a day. $365 for the year. Sounds like heaps. Stash-busting doesn’t count, but everything else does.

Stay tuned, I have something exciting to show you next time. I’ve been busy with Christmas sewing! This level of organisation is unprecedented, I’m always the one being politely asked to leave the shops on Christmas Eve. 84 days to go!