NOTHING TO FEAR...

...

I've joined in on Victoria's (TenThousandSewingHours) Fearless February Sew-A-Long.  It challenges sewers to step outside their regular comfort zones.  I must admit that I sometimes get caught up in a sewing comfort zone.  So I joined the sew-a-long:

• to honor Victoria's very first sew-a-long - congratulations Victoria!,
• because she's a home Georgia Girl, and
• because it's high time I shook things up a bit in the sewing room.

My project will exercise (and hopefully expand) my existing tailoring skills. As far as tailoring is concerned,  I've actually not done any since my Lady Grey jacket back in 2010.  I've  used a few techniques on projects here and there,  but it's been far too long since I've made a structured jacket.

The sew-a-long doesn't actually start for 5 more days, but I thought I'd better get a little head start since February is a short month.  Last week I prepared my fabric, traced the pattern, and started fitting a muslin.  It's been an emotional roller coaster already because I really thought I wouldn't need to do much fitting.  Is being able to make up a pattern straight out of the envelope too much to ask???  I guess it is!  I actually considered dumping the whole project at one point, but have since decided to press onward.

I woke up early this morning and after 5 hours of diligent work,

• was able to finalize my muslin (or at least get to a point that I thought was workable/wearable).

• layout and cut my fabric

•  and now I'm actually involved with thread tracing.  Yep, that's right, thread tracing 16 pattern pieces.  Thought I'd finish this part tonight, but mmmmmmm I don't know about that since I've got 10 more pieces to go.

 
Its gonna be one of those labor of love projects that I hope won't take as long to finish as that Lady Grey jacket did.  Maybe it's a good thing that I'm getting an early start...