Unfinished Object Challange

[LadyStitch]

With the start of the new year coming up, I decided to make my goal for the year as "Finish what you have started."  I wanted to challange all of you to do the same thing.

Step 1:  Write out a list of ALL your UFO's (Trust me mine was alot longer than I I thought it would be.  :: cringes:: )
Step 2:  With each oject, write not next to it, what it would take to finish it.
Step 3:  Set a realistic due date on each one.

But what if the object is something I don't want anymore?  The answer:  Then why are you keeping it?  Bless someone else with it, or make it and sell it. It is doing no one any good hanging out in dark depths of your closets, and sewing bins.

How many UFO's can you finish in the next 3 months? 6? 12? 
Think of it this way, the more UFO's you get out of your stash the more nice things you can bring in. 

Who will join me on this challange? ::raises her sewing sissors high::

[gem]

Oh, wow--this is so funny! I'm on a needlework board like this one, and I declared 2011 as the Year of Killing WIPs!! We're all challenging each other to finish off our in-progress projects. I just finished one of mine (that I've been stitching since 2007!) this weekend.

But I'd already decided that sewing-wise 2011 was going to be the year I actually finished stuff. I'm determined to make my purple tablecloth kirtle (using Simplicity 2621 corset as the bodice), and then to Promenade. If I can't do those two things this year, then I'm going to step back and re-evaluate what I'm doing with my costuming and maybe step away from it for a while.

ETA: Ok, I'm following LS's directions.

Purple Kirtle
1. Pull out pattern pieces & trace, marking alterations to lacing and straps
2. Cut/sew/bone canvas interlining
3. Cut/sew fashion fabric & lining
4. Figure out skirt pattern (straight or gored panels?)
5. Learn to pipe
6. Cut/sew skirt
7. Eyelets (machine)

Hmmm... I could make a goal of doing one of those steps/week, and I'd be done in 2 months! I think I should try that. There's a class starting up again at my quilt shop--a sort of guided studio that I've taken before. It's 5 weeks long, and if I could commit to one step/week, that would be perfect!!

Promenade has so many steps it's scary. Seriously, my to-do list is two pages long. I'll come back and write out the steps WHEN (not if!!!) I finish my kirtle.

Ok, so: How are we going to motivate each other? Should we do a weekly check-in to report our progress (or lack thereof)?

[LadyStitch]

I like Weekly. It would keep us going. I just didn't have anything to be accountable to.  This past show, I made goals for the week, and really powered through stuff.

Gem:  We do NOT want to talk about where we are on my needle work.  I've got one project "Through a mother's eyes"  by Teresa Vaughn half way done and realized 1/4 of it was 2 squares off.  Is it worth 6 picking 3000 stitches, or just starting over? that is my biggest UFO in needle work.

UFO project #1 for me:
Bowling shirt for PP – (due 1/13/2011)

• Sew on sleeves
• Do button holes
• Sew on Buttons
• Add Applique

[gem]

Lady S, I just looked at your list in the Garb 2011 thread, and frankly it all looks doable! Of course, you also have a FT job PLUS your costuming for the theater, so good luck!!!  What we've been doing with the needlework WIPs is sorting them by how easy they are to finish, and to tackle the quick stuff first--those things that only need trim and hems, for instance.

[Adriana Rose]

Ok I'll bite.

- Two skirts that have been packed since 2005 and found in August.
- A frock coat that I have seemed to lost the sleeves, collar and cuffs to. Its in a box thinking about what it did wrong, It may have a future as a vest/ over dress thingie.

And a whole bunch of other fix it things that have surfaced


Not that bad but add in a boat load of work stuff and a very lively 3 year old its a touch harder.

[Lady Rebecca]

I have one unfinished object, and one fairly major repair.

The unfinished is my 16th century stays. I put off finishing them when I had so much else to do this year, but now I only have something medieval-ish to make for costume college, and otherwise I have to finish the stays before I make the 17th or 18th century gowns on my to-do list. To finish it, I have to:
-hand-bind the rest of the eyelets
-hand-bind the edges of the stays


And the major repair is my Queen of Hearts skirt. The last time I wore it, almost every strip in the quilted forepart frayed and pulled apart (because I didn't have a serger when I made it). So I will probably have to make each strip shorter, take them all apart, find similar or complementing fabric, and requilt it all together, serging the edges this time. I'm not sure when I will wind up doing that, too, since I don't forsee needing it until next Halloween at the soonest.

[Kate XXXXXX]

My Elizabethan Stays comparison project...
Big Sis's Polartec Windbloc coat
Little Sis's floor cushions (joint project)
A lilac Regency silk crepe dress...

[Valencia]

This thread was made for me. I have to finish the Venetian gown, the 1770 frock coat, and the 1880 Victorian jacket.  I've promised myself that once I get this stuff done, I can start a new french gown and another Victorian... I am taking next week off, and I am so determined to get at least two of these projects off my table. : )

[LadyStitch]

I am happy to say in just 4 days I finished two little cross stitches that had been lanquishing in the UFO pile for several years. It was funny how little was actually left to do on them.  Belive it or not, one of them just needed me to get off my Franny and get one color, and back stitch it, and it was done.  The other was just fill in the last of the color.  My SIL saw it loved it, and asked if she could have it as a last minute Christmas present. 

This week is tech week, but I may pull out another cross stitch UFO to get that out the door. 

And I have a feeling I will be hitting the sewing room to finish my UFO's there.  Like Gem said, pick one that there isn't much left to do on it, and FINISH IT.  I don't care how, but finish it, or find it a home for it instead of the back of your closets.  It's doing not good there. 

[gem]

I am really itching to start my kirtle project, and hope to get to the pattern checking/tracing/adapting bit tomorrow.

...But before I do that, I have to clear some UFOs off my schedule--and, more importantly--out of my workspace!!  I have a cross-stitched Christmas ornament that needs to be finished (turned into an ornament), so I can put all of the ornament stash away (because it's taken over my ironing board & sewing table), and I have some boxes for a charity book drive I have to pack up and ship off, plus some Christmas boxes to move around, so I actually have some room in my room to work!

So. I'm going to try to get some of that done today. My LSS is having their class preview night this week, and I think the class I want to take starts the following Monday, and I want to have my kirtle underway by then!

[LadyStitch]

It's not 'quite' a sewing UFO but you can appreciate it.  I actually got my new label maker out and all my sewing bins, tubs and such are actually labeled. It's odd, I sent the PP into my office to get my good flat head screw driver from my hardwear kit. (Just because I sew doesn't mean I don't need real tools.    )  He came back saying it was nice, to be able to go into my  office and actually be able to find the tools, where they were supose to be and labeled.  No more "Sweetie, just come get it yourself. I can't find it" syndrome. 

[Kate XXXXXX]

I used to have a Dymo label thingy, and everything that didn't have a sewn-in style label got one of those!  Boxes, drawers, the stapler, my hole punch, rulers, the pencil sharpener, shelves, files and folders,, chairs, tables - but everything!  Some of those items still have their no 20 YO labels in place.  The kids in school loved that gadget to bits - literally!  I keep meaning to get one of the newer models that does hard plastic tape and iron-on or sew-in cloth tape.  My paper stick-on labels don't stick well to the matte finish of some of my little Ikea boxes.

[Lady Rebecca]

You guys are making me really want a label maker.

On the UFO note, I pulled out my stays. I figure if they're sitting next to my current project, there's no way I can ignore them.

[LadyShadow]

Not sure if I'm lucky or not, but at the moment I have no projects going. Though I did spend the past week mending everything I have said I would over the past year. The kids forgot they owned some of the stuff that was in the mending box.

[LadyStitch]

Label makers are a blessing and and curse. 

Lady Rebecca, I have found if the item is out where I must look at it,  it is more likey to get worked on.