The Taming of the Shoes

Part of my plan for this year is to get organized. I’m usually fairly organized but I’ve been so transitory that I’ve never really dug into making my home more functional and efficient. Now though,  I really need my house to be organized and easy to clean as I just don’t have time to re-invent an organizational system every week.

I have started with the little things… like shoes.

When I travel, I tend to pack my shoes in plastic bags to keep them separate from the rest of the stuff like clothes and books.

Apparently I have more shoes than I used to. I usually only have a couple that get worn regularly but I seem to have developed a collection of fancy and occasional shoes that are crowding our front closet, getting dripped on in the winter and smushed by bigger shoes all year round. Since I would like to keep them wearable, I decided it was  time to rescue them.

I dug a bunch of scrap fabric out of my stash and made my very own shoe bags.

As you can see, I was not going for a sophisticated look, and I had a fair bit of fabric left over from the Christmas pajama pants.

I french seamed them to keep the edges from fraying. I must say that I have fallen head over heels for french seams. I love the clean finished look they have and I think they look better than my serger seams on woven fabrics.

See, no fraying.  The bag strings are chain stitched for durability.

And they’re all ready to be stored. I had no idea I had this many pairs of shoes.

Moving the stash

While I have managed to do a bit of sewing over the last 10 days, I’ve mostly spent the time job hunting and organizing my sewing supplies which have been languishing in my parents’ attic for the last few months while my husband and I were in Tokyo on our honeymoon. I have now moved into my new (temporary) sewing room which is actually my childhood bedroom in my parents place. With a big south window, it’s the nicest of the places I’ve sewn in and used to be my mother’s sewing room before I was born.

Once my grandmother went home after Christmas I rummaged through the freezing attic and retrieved my stash which I keep in boxes for easy moving since I haven’t lived in the same place for longer than a year since 2004.

Now, while I’m still young enough that I might actually be able to make a dent in this stash, my family still looks at me with trepidation when I say things like “I just found the most amazing fabric store” so I do need to make an effort and when better to sew than when one is unemployed… also, I need some winter office work clothing.

So, I rummaged through the stash and dug out my ready-and-waiting projects (those involving a pattern/plan of some sort and dedicated fabric) and hung them in the closet (ooh closets) with the pattern and notions in a plastic bag over the hanger which is a variation of a trick I used when I was wardrobe manager/ costume designer for my highschool drama department.

These are the projects I hope to get done before we move on to our next home which will hopefully be in March when we have those ever elusive jobs.

1. A coat for my husband based on one worn in an anime he enjoys. I drafted the pattern last summer by draping fabric on him and altering where necessary so now it’s time to put the real thing together.

2. A black silk suit for interviews and work. I plan to challenge myself with V1053 which will involve doing my first real Full Bust Adjustment. I bought the fabric from Fabricmart while I was in Japan and had it delivered to my parents’ place only to discover that I, personally, had to sign for it. The ladies at the post office were nice and held it for a month for me so I could get home and sign for it.

3. Black dress pants. I bought some black suiting in Tokyo and plan to make V1051

4. The blouses. I find I have a shortage of professional looking blouses in my life so I plan to make B4395 and M5233 out of white cotton and V7906 out of some purple silk I bought in India and have been afraid to touch lest I botch it…now is the time to be brave.

5. Then I have a dress and blouse that I bought at Village des Valeurs in Montreal and want to reconstruct into something that will fit

6. I found a pattern to work with for making tunics out of some salwar kameez fabric I was given so that’s on the list

7. I’ve had fabric to make a sundress for two years now. It is time.

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So that’s my sewing plan for the next few weeks. I hope I make some inroads…and find a job as well.

The rest of my stash is still in the boxes, each piece waiting for inspiration to hit me.