re*in*CARR*na*tions

Remember that case of Crafter's Block I talked about in my last post? Well, it hasn't gotten much better...in fact, it kinda feels like it has gotten worse. Talk about fun.

I tried "pushing through it", and made a halter dress inspired by a tutorial on Threadbanger. I made it entirely out of T-Shirts, which is something I enjoy doing very much (clearly). Of course, the Block made it a little difficult to remain patient with some of the more...bitchy...qualities of jersey. I am referring specifically to its propensity to get caught down in the feed dogs of my machine when I'm back-tacking and slip-sliding all over the goddam place when you're trying to sew quickly. But here's what I came up with:

Pay no attention to the words on the shirt. LOL

It's totally huge around my ribcage, and some of the seams are kinda crap, but I'm happy with it because the problems I ran into taught me a LOT about the pattern I was working with, as well as reminding me to be much more careful and slow when I'm sewing.

This is why I should talk to myself out loud while I'm sewing more - SLOW DOWN AMY!!!!

Right now I'm contemplating how to solve the problem - I could throw a seam straight down the back and take up the extra room (but then I'm facing dealing with the elastic I threw across the back), or I could take in the side seams (pitting me against stretch stitching in the side seams as well as the cups). Either way I'm really not up for facing that much additional work, so it would seem the best way to handle this is most likely to take the lumps, learn the lessons, and fob it off on a friend it'll fit. Chances are I'll just give it to my best friend Nicole.

Other than that I've just been staring at my supplies wishing I could get from the "wanting to craft" part to the "actually crafting" part. As Carla from Season 5 of Top Chef would say: I can't get the creative monkeys to shut up; every time I think about crafts, they all start shouting all at once with a million ideas...so I just wind up staring at my supplies and checking my email.

JOY.

In the mean time, my filet crochet project stalled because of insufficient crochet thread, but here's what I was left with at the end of things:

You can't really see the color very well in this picture, but it's really pretty - especially the stitch - it's definitely going in the permanent collection.

Of course, as things happen when you run out of yarn it's a very awkward length - about 15" - but I'm sure if I let it sit long enough of my "I'm not sure what to do with this" pile, I'll find myself in need of exactly it for whatever I'm trying to finish. So that's good. I've found keeping little things like that always has a very satisfying end when you finally figure out their real purpose in this world by complete accident.

Despite all these things I'm making...the Crafter's Block is really giving me a hard time. I want to craft, but my proverbial well of creativity (thank you ARTIST'S WAY for that little analogy) would appear to be empty. Even crochet, which I usually turn to when nothing else inspires me...is just yarn...itchy and uninspiring.

And yet all I can think about is making things...and then every time I try it all seems to fall apart - inspiration leaves, as does the desire to put in the effort...which hurts. Like a good friend who won't talk to you for a week because they're mad at you. I guess I'll just keep trying the line and see if they'll pick up the phone.

I'll keep you posted.