Sew Excited

I  know, I know. It's such a cliche to use the word sew in place of so, but, first off, I love cliches and, secondly...well, there is no secondly. I just love cliches, sew there.
I didn't start the day particularly excited. It looked to be a pretty regular day, but then I opened my email and read today's Sew Daily published by the good folks at from Stitch magazine and Interweave Press and written by Stitch editor, Tricia Waddell. The focus of her article was sewing clothes for yourself and the joy she takes in making simple, beautiful garments to wear and, don't we all do this, have admired by our friends, family, and co-workers. Tricia wrote about what she called a fabulous weekend of garment sewing:

Friday night after work: cut out pattern and fabric

Saturday: sew all the major pieces together

Sunday: final fit tweaks, complete finishing, add embellishment details

Monday: wear it to work and impress my co-workers

I couldn't agree more. There's little better than sewing up something new and wearing it to the accolades of others. I'm not going to lie, the accolade part is pretty fabulous. Everyone loves receiving a compliment on what they're wearing, but it is so much better when it gives you the opportunity to bat your eyes, smile demurely, and say," Oh, thanks. I made it myself." 

Sew :), imagine my joy when I opened up the current issue of Stitch and found an article all about sewing with knits complete with some terrific and simple garments to make. Some of you may remember that I said that overcoming my nervousness about sewing with knits was one of my sewing goals for 2011. I think this dress:

and this skirt:

are just the motivation I need. That and the fact that my 16-year old recently made herself a costume out of knits and anything that a teenager can do, I can do too. 

Sadly, I'll probably have to defer some of that excitement, maybe even until next weekend, unless I'm so buoyed by Sunday's race-day experience that I feel I must sew a skirt rather than take a nap. Nevertheless, I'm psyched to do this and I want you to get psyched too. There are lots of great projects in the current issue of Stitch and, though I'm a huge proponent of sewing for yourself, you selfless types are welcome to make anyone of those projects for someone else.

 As a contributor, the folks at Interweave generously send me 3 copies of the magazine. Add to that, I never have the patience to wait for my contributor's copies so I always buy a copy at the newsstand and simple math tells you I currently have 4 copies of the Winter issue. I've promised one to my lovely neighbor who is an avid sewer in her own right and, of course, I need one for myself, but that leaves two copies that I could give away. And who better to give them away to than you? But, I'm going to want more than just a plain, old comment. I want you to tell me what you'd like to sew this year. It doesn't have to be something you've never tried before or something for yourself, but it does have to answer the question, " What are you planning to sew?" No need for a topic sentence and three body paragraphs, a simple short answer will suffice. 

Good luck!