A few things

Because I'm trying to cross a whole bunch of things off my to-do list this week, here are a couple of them to finish off the week.

First, a few months back, I posted about air raid siren that blares through the country every month on the first Monday at noon.  I'd been intended to get a video out our window the next time I heard it, but I'd been out of town on the first Monday for the last two months and hadn't managed until the beginning of July.  You can see it here.

As for what else I've been doing this week, I've been trying to finish off a bunch of my accumulated sewing projects.  I'm doing better than usual (for example, there are at least two unfinished skirts and an unfinished Hallowe'en costume in storage at my parents', all more than four years old), mostly because I have the space in the office to leave the sewing machine out.  When I don't have to haul it out of the closet and set everything up every time I want to sew, I'm much more likely to sit down and sew for an hour and get a bit done every day.  Now if only I had enough space to leave the ironing board out, because that I do have to haul out all the time and I'm trying to be more conscientious about ironing my seams and hems than I usually am.  Things really do turn out better, despite the amount of time.

I still have a backlog, though.  By my count, there are still two failed shirts (patterns that need a lot of work before I'll be happy with the fit) and one half-finished shirt.  There's also fabric for a tank top, a skirt, a purse, and three dresses, none of which has been cut out yet.  That's always the most time-consuming part.  I think I need to do what I did this week: spend an entire afternoon cutting fabric for a whole stack of projects so that I can sew faster.  I did pick up some tailor's chalk and for the first time, I used that to trace my pattern pieces rather than pinning them to the fabric.  Much, much less time-consuming and just as accurate.  I'm definitely going to keep doing that.

Oh, and let's not forget the fabric without a plan.  Although some things are more expensive here (thread, for instance), a lot of the fabric is cheaper than in Canada.  Not all of it -- plain cotton is more expensive -- but most.  And a lot more fabric goes on sale, so I don't think I've paid more than two or three euros a meter for anything.  That may just be because I buy everything at the market on Tuesday, when the central square near the train station here is filled with stalls from fabric stores from all over the country, so there's considerably more selection.  It also means that when I see something I like, I grab it, because I never know exactly what will be there next week.  Hence the accumulated fabric :)

But I'm steadily working my way through.  In the last couple of weeks, I've finished a skirt, a T-shirt, a pile of cross-stitch, a bunch of pajama bottoms, and a purse.  They're all here if you'd like to see.  I love how accomplished I feel having actually managed to finish so many things.  Plus, I get new clothes, which I like, at a fraction of the cost, which I like even more ;)