I love to start the new year with a good old chin wag with my sewing sister, who lives in my city - yay! We go through my, extensive(!), stash and talk about what projects might go with what.
I got all inspired after that and wrote myself a nice long list of creative projects I might sew this year. (I still haven't blogged all my other makes from 2016 yet). Then I tidied my sewing space and sorted a couple of shelves - such a good feeling.
In the meantime my sister (the same one, I have 2 very fabulous sisters) sent me an article about people making reusable bags. I remembered I had bought a very long piece of mesh from someone in the local community, for the express purpose of making some produce bags to replace those awful ones you get on a roll at the supermarket.
Et voila - 12 reusable produce bags and a tick on my projects list!
However - resolutions was what this was supposed to be about. I'm not a super resolution maker but I like to try a challenge each year to give me a push. So these are the things I am aiming for in my creative, particularly sewing, life this year.
1. Use the stash - there is plenty of stash, it needs to be used.
2. Don't buy new - this will be hard. I'm totally ok with buying new thread if I don't have the right colour and I can't find it second hand. As for fabrics, my aim is to buy nothing brand new this year - I will buy second hand/ op shop fabric and always gratefully received off casts from others.
3. Wasters - reduce the waste coming from my sewing room. I already try pretty hard on this. I save all my empty cotton reels and give them to local pre-schools or 'Creative Junk'. I save small fabric scraps and pass these on to schools/early childhood for collage etc. This year I also plan to be much more disciplined with my sewing rubbish bin - all paper and card to be recycled. As well as this I am making a bag for tiny scraps, thread off cuts and overlocker tales, I plan to use these to fill any soft toys I make this year along with the stuffing. Hopefully this will mean there is a negligent rubbish impact.
4. Craft time - A friend and I are planning to spend a couple of hours a week listening to inspiring podcasts and making whatever we want to. The list is part of helping me to have something to work on every week. Specific time to craft every week makes me feel very excited.
So that's me... what creative resolutions are you brewing for 2017?
Love you more than a plastic free shop xxx
