It’s all over Pavlova. And…I won I won I won! Okay, now that’s out of the way. Approx half a week ago is when I thought I would have this Project Sewn debrief up and posted. Guess I’ve been trying to catch my breath and re-gain some balance while attending to the mountain of house stuff that’s been put off for a month!
First I want to give the biggest shout out and congrats to these two amazing girls, Andrea from Four Square Walls and Jess of The Sewing Rabbit! I think you’ll agree these two talents nailed the looks every single week and I’m kind of wishing I could strike up some sort of deal with Andrea, whereby I end up with her white blazer from week one. It goes without saying that Project Sewn has been the absolute highlight of my sewing journey. I gained and learned so much and if I didn’t know myself as determined before then there’s no doubt now. I was bestowed some pre-comp advice from the lovely Max, a past PR& P winner, which was ‘push yourself’ and ‘don’t second guess yourself”. So I went in with a nothing to lose. If I went home on the back of a project not working out, because I’d attempted something super hard, then that was the best way to go. Ha…I just didn’t expect to win on the back of four challenging projects!!
I’m not sure what I was running on towards the end of Project Sewn, but it wasn’t sleep. And it wasn’t drugs. Right now I can only describe the feeling I have as being similar to someone who’s just spent a whole year planning a wedding and then suddenly the days over and it’s like ‘what did I even do before this?’. There was this routine of planning, cutting, sewing, photographing, sending the post off and blogging the outfit. Then you literally had to let the weeks project go and start the whole process again the next day. That was crazy, no time to sit down and pat yourself on the back. No time to procrastinate over ideas, it was like ‘choose one, get sewing, make it work’. Being disciplined like this was actually really exciting, though it’s not a pace I could sustain all the time. Having the structure of a weekly theme was also really great. The themes were wide open too, lots of room for creativity and for everyone to add their personal aesthetic.
Sometimes I get asked where all this sewing/ blogging is headed. Everyone’s full of well-meaning advice about becoming an alterations lady or a formal dressmaker or a kids clothing manufacturer. As if this sewing + blogging gig is just a means to something bigger and better, like some sort of ‘real’ world job. But it’s the sewing and contributing to this community that inspires, drives, gives me energy, keeps me sane / up at night, allows me to create beauty and be self sufficient. And then I get to share it all with a group of ladies who are just as into it as me! I cannot give enough thanks to everyone who stopped by to leave encouragement and especially for your votes!!! It was an incredibly humbling experience, to say the least.
Thanks to Liz and Elizabeth, the creators of Project Sewn, for what I can only imagine was a mammoth effort behind the scenes to have the first ever season run so smoothly. I think we set a cracking pace and I cannot wait to see who pops up in the line-up! So, what’s up and coming in the next few weeks… I’ve been hanging out to get stuck into my winter wardrobe. And slightly less excited about this pile of adjustments / mendings.