(Interested in the results of my RTW Fast? There’s a link to my 2018 year-end post at the end of this post. Scroll down. )

I guess I’m now a sewist because whenever I look at clothing in stores I think (pick one or many):

1. I could sew that!
2. That would look better in another fabric
3. I like it, but it doesn’t fit right
4. I could make it for less. (Actually, this is kind of a dream. I like expensive fabric 😉 )

So I’ve decided to dive in and join Goodbye Valentino’s Ready-to-Wear Fast for 2018. 

What exactly is the Ready To Wear Fast?

The Ready to Wear Fast is a vow to abstain from buying clothes for one year. You will give up buying clothes from January 1 – December 31, 2018.  You may sew anything, and you may fabric shop as much as you would like!  The purpose is to Save Money and Improve Your Sewing Skills, but believe me, the rewards of the commitment will exceed your expectations.

Looking forward to the fast, I really have two goals (other than new clothes!):

• Improve my sewing skills,
• Get over the intimidation of ‘difficult’ garments, which for me are: jackets and coats, anything lined, fitted wovens, pants, and matching patterns (plaid!)

Along the way I want to be more mindful in everything involved with sewing. That means sewing when I plan to sew (not looking at a device), setting aside time to sew in concentrated bursts (how much can I accomplish in an hour?), buying fabric with a specific goal (instead of buying what’s pretty), and sewing what I need before I sew what I want.

My Equipment

My machines are all rather modest, but they get the job done!

Brother LB6800: A combo sewing/entry-level embroidery machine. I have a subscription to John Deer’s Ultimate Stash so hope to incorporate embroidery into some projects.

Bernina 800DL Serger: G bought this for me in 2002. I didn’t learn how to thread it until 2017. (That is not a typo.)

Brother CV3550 Double-Sided Cover Stitch: just bought this newly released machine in December, 2017 so I’m on a learning curve.

Where I Sew

I’m fortunate to have a spare bedroom set aside for sewing. Best of all, it faces west so it is bathed in natural light in the late afternoon and evening – the times when I’m most likely to sew. The closet contains my entire fabric stash and all my notions and I have no desire to expand on storage space at all … in fact, I want to see that closet empty at the end of the year!

I’ll be blogging my projects under the “RTW Fast 2018” category, and will post photos in Instagram under #2018rtwfasters. Please follow along and comment! This is all a learning process for me and I love to hear comments, suggestions and ideas.

Cheers to a very successful and challenging 2018!

Janine

Sooooo … How did it go?

Here’s a link to my end-of-year post summarizing my experience with the Ready to Wear Fast.