Put the machine away.

A few days ago I was trying to get the house a little more organized for Christmas and decided to put my machine away. There's nothing to be sewn up at this point other than assembling my pants muslin which has been on my couch for at *least* two weeks or so. Maybe three. Our house is small, and although I do have a small sewing studio, I prefer to sew in the kitchen so my sewing machine is set up there. In a little corner next to my kitchen counter, there is a corner storage/table unit I purchased at Walmart about a year ago just for the purpose of a "sewing corner" in my kitchen. The intent was a little cart to put my machine on and store current notions and projects in it for quick and easy access. If there is anything else around (like my pants muslin on the couch!), it really doesn't belong there and should be back in the sewing studio.

So the other day I cleaned off my kitchen table and put the machine back on the cart with its cover. The cart was organized according to my original intent. And *finally* my kitchen table is free of "stuff"! The purpose of this was actually twofold: get a little more organized for our Christmas Eve dinner and get a good cutting surface back for my Christmas outfit project. Cutting is my most disliked aspect of sewing and I put it off with a lot of excuses. However, I'm trying to commit to more intensive sewing projects rather than the quick and easy ones so the absence of a machine means I'm getting down to serious business.

Thus far, I've cut out the red silk dupioni for my dress as well as the interfacing to underline it and the cotton batiste for the lining. Ambiance would have been more luxurious but it feels way too cold next to my skin during the winter so cotton batiste is a must. Now I'm going to cut and trace the pattern pieces for the jacket and work on block fusing the interfacing to the wool. That will probably take me a day or so. I was thinking about underlining the wool to make it warmer but am not sure at this point. Today I bought some 100% cotton black flannel at Walmart today of all places! It is hard to believe how hard it is in my area to get solid colored flannel so about 5 yards were added to the stash. So, who knows at this point if I'll use it on this jacket. If not, there are two other jackets in the cue that will need underlining.