ink of amethyst

Okay so this is just going to be a brief recap bc I'm home(!!) rn and am too sleepypilled relaxmaxxing to be of a mind to do much else.

On Tuesday I did an ice cream crawl with my island-friend. It was fun! It was mostly just us chatting and traipsing around the city with a few stops in between. I planned the route and it was a good one, but I think we should have considered that ice cream is lowkey very heavy on the stomach. Maybe I should've had a lighter lunch. We only ended up getting ice cream at two places and then split two cookies at the last one (we planned to try two other places but place #2 didn't have the limited-edition flavor I wanted and place #4 had a broken soft serve machine). Next time we're going to try a gelato crawl and be more scientific about the whole thing.

Between place #4 and place #5 we saw a movie. Disclosure Day. It was bad. Disappointing. I walked out of that theater so annoyed. Because it was almost interesting. Ugh. I wasn't the only one in our party (the other three joined us just for the movie) who felt that way.

On Wednesday ski-guy drove down to go climbing. It was nice :) We pushed ourselves and have now done a level higher than our previous attempts (I admit that even a few days out from that, my forearms are still sore). Well, I managed to be the first between us to get up to the next level which felt good and (minorly, playfully) annoyed him after he'd been struggling with the route for a little bit hehe. Really appreciated him driving down before I left.

Skip a few days. I'm home, now. It feels good. I watched four episode of Starfleet Academy with my father (and mother). That was grand. I've been spending time with the dog. Snapping new photos. Lounging around. I need to find out when my friends are free.

Today I'm thankful to be home. With air conditioning. And my family, of course.

When I go home, I want to sew.

I want to make the brown wool/rayon mini skirt that I've already drafted, traced, and practiced, and merely need to cut and sew. I think doing this first will be the dopamine boost I need to propel me through the others. This should take literally no time.

I also want to use a floral fabric I got recently from Mood for either a long sleeved or short sleeved blouse. It would be so beautiful as a summery top... and then I could layer it under sweaters still... so short sleeved it is, probably just using the basic button-down pattern I've used before. I expect this to take a day or so. (Bonus: If I have extra of this fabric, I might a) make bias binding out of it to use on other projects and b) make a cute headband out of it!)

I have two linen blends (one cranberry (1.5 yd), one mauve (1 yd)) and a pink-ish linen (1 yd) that I'd like to make into summer tops. At least one. I think I want the first to have a collar (so it can be used for summer and for layering in cooler weather), maybe even with some decorative lace on it (I'll see what I have). I may be able to use that same button-down pattern, maybe with a fun pleating detail at the back (1) (2), likely with some fun fabric binding off the armscye.

The second one should be a little flirtier, I think. Maybe a crop top, maybe something that has ties. Maybe lower-cut, tighter-fitting. As a random tiktok comment I saw years ago once said, "collarbones are of the proletariat; show them off". There was a top I saw several years ago (jul 9 2022 in my photos!) in a store with a wide (~3-4.5") "waistband," v-neck, buttons, and a bit of gathering under the bust. I took a photo because I figured I could make it myself in a better fabric with nicer buttons and also more flattering. Maybe sleeveless, maybe short-sleeved. Probably sleeveless if I only have a yard. Well, let's see (1) (2).

There are also some projects that just need "a little bit of time" for finishing touches (as we all know, it's the finishes that take the longest).

I need to finish that black half-circle skirt. It needs its waistband, a buttonhole (but I want to do a fancy buttonhole, and that's what's giving me pause tbh), a hang, and a hem. That's literally all. Maybe I'll do this one after the mini skirt so I can let it hang for a few days.

My sewist-friend gifted me some mostly-finished trousers that she made in a too-small size, and I just need to add the waistband and hem.

I think I could suck it up and finish that blue ren faire corset thing that's been on my mannequin for years. I've been afraid of getting it wrong but at this point I really just want to see it done. Good or not! (I don't think I'd actually be able to finish this one, as I'd likely want to do eyelets by hand, but I'd get basically up to that point).

I have some plaid linen shorts I cut out in college but never started sewing, and I just need to do it. Good or not.

Ambitious? Of course. It's me. Doable? Yeah, I think so. It's me. I think I've been itching to get back to sewing for a while, but my 50% project success rate is daunting. I've taken much more nicely to knitting (which could be for any number of reasons--maybe I'm more suited for it, maybe I get more practice more regularly, maybe I'm better at selecting the proper projects for my skill level, maybe the patterns are better), and I do it more often now because it's more accessible and portable than most sewing projects. But I see my sewist-friend all the time in her creations and I start to miss it sooooo baddddd. And then ski-guy asked me today what my favorite sewn piece was and that made me think about all the projects I've ever made and UGH I just wanna make and make and make and make and try and fail and learn and iterate and try again.

All of these will be stash projects exclusively. I will not buy anything new for this trip home (except maybe thread). No patterns no fabrics no notions no nothing. Not even buttons. Gotta use what I have.

While I'm home I think I'll also catalogue my notions into Threadloop.

Also, I might bring the Lana Gato VIP back from home to make the Joanna Tank... though I'll have to check to see if I can buy another ball in hopefullyyyy the same dye lot. A year later, that is very much not guaranteed, but I'll check that store and see. Though I have found someone who knitted the sz 3 and made it with fewer yards than I have without even needing to crop it... maybe maybe maybe.