Sewing Hacks

 

Do you use any “sewing hacks” to make your sewing more productive?  With the spring season coming (not soon enough!) and a long list of garments I want to add to my wardrobe, but limited free time between work and school, I’m trying to find ways to make it easier to get some sewing in when I have a few minutes here and there.

One of my new favorite hacks is batch cutting, which I guess isn’t that novel of an idea and stems from the idea of assembly line sewing.  The above are three garments that I cut out over the course of a few hours on a Saturday night: a longsleeve Lark Tee, a Morris Blazer, and an Archer Popover.  My thinking is that if I have my cutting mat and weights out, I might as well use that time to cut out multiple garments since I’m in a “garment cutting mindset.”  Now when I have a few minutes free, I can sit down an sew a couple of seams and gradually work my way towards finishing a project.

 

 

 

This is my third Lark Tee, I made a short sleeve scoop striped version and a short sleeve solid scoop version a few weeks ago.  I used assembly line sewing when I made those two tees and even though it seemed like it took longer to make them, I ended up with two new tees in one evening.  Something funky happened when I cut out this navy and red fabric, maybe I didn’t line it up correctly, but I can’t hem the sleeves and bottom hem with the stripes going evenly across the bottom.  Oh well, maybe I can just trim it a bit to make it look better.  I love stripes, but sometimes they give me a headache.

 

 

 

So far, my sewing hacks are working; I’m actually behind with photographing some new projects I want to share.  Hopefully next weekend I can set up my camera and backdrop in the living room and get some projects photographed (fingers crossed it stays sunny!).

We went away to the White Mountains in NH for the holiday weekend and I wore my new favorite top, the Toaster Sweater #1.  I love it so much that I wore it twice last week!  I used a beautiful navy ponte from Metro Textiles that was so soft and wonderful to work with that I called Kashi and ordered more for a Morris Blazer.  I’m definitely having a navy moment, more and more navy is creeping into my wardrobe and I have a feeling it’s going to be my new core color for spring as I plan out my sewing queue.