It's been awhile

I know it's been an inordinate amount of time but, in my defense, I've been inordinately busy/distracted. I just got back from a month-long trip back to the states, which was amazing. While there I made some new things:

a crinoline made from fabric I'd ordered from Mood

crossword puzzle skirt from Ebay fabric

the She-Ra dress, which I made from Vogue pattern v8074 (my first ever experiment with patterns, which went rather well, although I kind of invented the bodice myself, but the skirt is awesome)

a hat I made from a project idea on burdastyle.com

this apron for my sister

one of a number of dresses I made for my niece, but this is the only one with a matching (reversible!) hat

As usual I had loads of problems... with the crinoline, it was tough-going gathering the ridiculously long strips of tulle so it ended up a bit uneven. I made the hat way too big (another case of not trusting my measurements and being terrified things will end up too small) and the crossword puzzle too long. The She-Ra dress is supershort but it goes with the character...

I also went to JoAnn Fabrics (amazing) and Hobby Lobby more times than I can count. What I wouldn't give for one here in Moscow... 

Also, I got an issue of Threads (which is wonderful) and a new pattern to practice with:

Very exciting! I love the design of the pattern, which is like a little book, and it's so cute. Also, they respond very quickly to e-mails and are super nice. Can't wait to try it!

I didn't get a chance to make the Carmen Sandiego dress, but I brought the pattern back with me so hopefully I'll be able to.

I also brought back my physics fabric which I ordered from Spoonflower:

The plan is to make a skirt out of it, and then make the top from the Colette pattern above in either the blue or the purple. I can't decide which one I want to start with first... I'm leaning towards making some of those tops. Okay, that's all for now. When it stops being so damned hot in the country I'll write more!

Goals

So I've decided that the thing I need to do, first and foremost, is establish more long-term goals for myself. This will motivate me to actually improve instead of just flouncing around without purpose. For this, I have established three goals for myself. They can be divided into two categories: habits and dresses. The first category, habits, is addressed in the first of my long term goals, listed below. The second category, dresses, involves two dresses I want to make inspired by two of the characters I loved from childhood and have been obsessing over lately. I know this raises my nerd-quotient up pretty high but I don't mind. I figure if I can do this, I can find more general inspiration in other things, like wanting to be a lady-mayoress. Okay, so my goals are:

1: join Wardrobe Re-Fashion for two months starting May 1st (allegedly you can sign up from April 15th but it is right now April 15th and I still can't sign up, so maybe later in the day)

2: make a dress inspired by Carmen Sandiego. I've purchased this pattern from eBay and it has an average difficulty, which makes me nervous but I have tons of time to practice before I go home in June/July and pick it up. I figure I'll do it in red with the waist-tie in yellow; I'm looking for a fairly literal interpretation here.

3: make a dress inspired by She-Ra. I'm still looking for a pattern that I think will fit in that style and, again, I'm looking for a fairly literal interpretation BUT maybe with a bit more length than she-ra would go for. Also, I'm looking to make a red cardigan to mimic her cape. An entire She-Ra outfit!

So those are my long-term goals. What I have to start doing is following patterns better. Or at all. So my next project(s) will be based around that.