Shannon's Fall Sew-as-You-Go

We're halfway through 2010. The older I get, the faster the year seems to whiz by. It's July and the temperatures here haven't even risen above the 100 degree mark yet. There's still plenty of hot weather left, but the sad fact is that the kids will be going back to school next month and it will be time to turn my attention back to "the routine." It will be time to start thinking about sewing for fall. (Yikes! It seems like I just started sewing for spring!)

I really want to get a head start this year on my fall/office wear sewing. I even played around with making a fall wardrobe plan. But the truth is, I love planning wardrobes, but I'm terrible at sticking with the plan and following through and actually making the garments. (Anybody remember Shannon's Spring Sewing Plan?)

So this time, I'm going to take a different approach. If you are like me and don't want to jinx yourself by committing to a full blown wardrobe plan, I invite you to follow along.

So, here goes...

I'm going to make one outfit for fall during the month of July- one top and one bottom. I already have a (UFO) skirt cut out and ready to go: M5590, View B, out of grey pinstripe.
I already made this skirt once and loved it, so this should be a no-brainer. For my top, I want to make Burda Style 09-2009-139, this fabulous V-neck bow blouse. I even have a stash fabric in mind!

That's it. One outfit. I can do this!

Then next month, I'll make one more piece: either another top to go with the skirt, or another skirt or pair of pants to go with the blouse. Or maybe even a jacket to go with both. The key here is that I only have to make one thing in the month of August! I can do it!

Then in September, that's right- you guessed it! One more piece to go with what I already have. And so on and so forth.

Now you may be thinking that there are only six months until the end of the year (including July) and at this rate I'll only have seven pieces in my wardrobe by then (provided I get the first two completed in July and add one more each month for the next five months.) Well, that's okay. It will be seven more pieces than I have right now, and seven completed garments is better than a wardrobe plan that I got frustrated with and gave up on.

And the beauty of this "plan" is that I don't have to plan the whole thing now. I can just continue with my highly erratic and distracted approach to sewing! If a new pattern comes out and grabs me or a future issue of Burda Style sucks me in, I can just go with it and incorporate it into my grand scheme! And if I get a crazy burst of mojo and manage to make more than one item in a given month, that's just an added bonus!

So how about it? Anybody up for a Sew-as-You-Go?

In other sewing news, the Simplicity retro shift dress is almost done. All that's left to do is hem it. I have it all pinned up, and now I need to try it on one more time and check the length. I will proabably trim the extra off and hem it with a bias facing. The bottom edge is curved, and the bias will lie nice and smooth as opposed to trying to ease the hem in. I hope to have finished pics to share this weekend!

Happy Sewing!