UFO's?

For a looooong time (like since it began) I've read The Monthly Stitch posts and thought about participating, but never quite got around to it. My leap into the blogging world seems like an appropriate time to commit and so I went looking for the February theme.

UFO's.... Initially I didn't think I'd be participating as I generally finish most things, (I don't like to leave things unfinished). And then three things happened:

• I cleaned out our spare room cupboard and found a wee bag full of UFO's that I had completely forgotten about
• I found the many pairs of pants my 5 year old had worn out the knees on

• My husband queried what had ever happened to the Surf to Summit top I started making him - I had reminded him that it had been finished but he whinged about the neckline being too tight and by then I had moved on to bigger, brighter things (and more importantly,  things for me) and never quite got around to changing the neckline. 

So I had things to finish....

• My wee UFO's have all found new homes, either op (charity) shop, back into the stash to be remade into something else or (sadly) completely binned. 
• My husband's top is finally finished
• And, three out of four of the pants now have intact knees (both knees of the spiderman pants were ruined and I'd already patched them once 

Rather than unpick the side seams and then patch over the holes and then resew the side seams, for two of the pairs I decided to just slice out the holes and add in new fabric. Main reason was it seemed easier and meant I could double layer the knees. 

I'll admit, I really like the monster knees and part of the design is practical; the knees have double layers of denim, a layer of red twill and the teeth are microfleece. Hopefully with that layerage (made up word?) the knees will stay intact for another few months!

I'm not the only one who likes the monster pants

First post - Where to start?

I've spent years reading other peoples sewing blogs, months dithering about starting my own blog, and putting it off because life seemed busy, too hard to take photos and wondering what I could add to the world wide web. But, its a new year (sort of, February is still at the start) so here goes.

First things first. I'm Kat, I live in Wellington and sew things for me, my two small (3 & 5) children and husband. I frequently have ideas that seem really good at the start and several hours into the project the reality sets in (Frozen dresses anyone..... I still have nightmares from metres of sparkly tule).

I'm a Papercut Patterns patterns fangirl, along with Closet Case Files and am going through a bit of a Grainline Studio phase. I also sew a lot of Oliver and S and Made By Rae for the kids and find both of their patterns really adaptable to modify and personalise. Finally Thread Theory have been a win for stuff for my husband.

As a starting point, I thought I'd run through my projects for the year; these are the ones that I have the fabric for and really want to make. Also interspersed throughout the year will be some basics (like a plain black cardy, plain tops), stuff for the kids and no doubt new bright and shiny patterns (can anyone say new upcoming Papercut collection?)

So, clockwise from the top left, the plan for the chiffon foxes is the Meissa shirt from Papercut, the red floral is destined to some kind of blazer/jacket and the black/grey silk chiffon I think will be a Datura blouse from Deer and Doe. 

The purple lambskin was a Christmas pressie from my mum and will be a jacket: I'm leaning towards the Ziggi jacket but need to do a bit more research before I put on my big girl panties and sew a leather jacket 

The plan for the silver silk lurex involves an undercover hoody hack and may go horribly wrong, but hey it's worth a whirl. 

Dark grey is a wool mix and will be Guise pants (and are cut out as I type) and the grey fabric with the pink/orange/red flowers will be a Sewaholic Gabriola skirt (I've never had much luck fitting Sewaholic so have been putting off this project for a really long time; like since the pattern was released). 

The left bottom fabric is a navy and white design and will be a Morris Blazer (also cut out and just waiting for me to restock my interfacing stash before sewing it up). 

Finally the pink wool cashmere in the middle will be a Clare coat (original intention was to make it in practical black but as I wandered through The Fabric Store the pink jumped out at me, and shouted "buy me, buy me, I'm fabulous" so I did. (It helped immensely that it was 40% off)

Not pictured, but I have denim for two pairs of Ginger jeans that I need to make up before winter as my casual pants situation is getting a bit desperate.

So, thats me, some of my projects for the year, lets see how many I achieve and how many other bright and shiny things can distract me!