The Neverending Project/s

Sometimes a project just sort of bogs down. I usually manage to pick it back up again after a brief pause and power through it, but there have been a few that just sort of... sit around... for a long time. A really long time. Like, years. Seriously. After a couple of years on the shelf I just kind of get annoyed with them and tired of having them in my life. It's often projects that were a lot more expensive and involved than I was hoping.
Take, for example, two projects that I recently finished (for no good reason, I just got an urge to see them done and gone, and I was searching for things to work on that wouldn't require too much thinking).
Example A)
Duchess Grey chemise top in ivory lace and pearls:

This project, according to my receipts, was started two whole years ago. Most of the work was done. I had designed a way to add the pearl chains that would allow for easy cleaning and storage and had them strung and ready to go. The body of the top was done. I just needed to attach the layers at the underarms and then add the straps and bow. I bogged down on this for some reason and it sat it a bag waiting for me, making me feel guilty whenever I ran across it. Especially because the materials involved here were stupidly expensive. I finally got back around to it and finished it up quickly enough that I wonder what the heck took me so long.

Example B)
Black silk dupioni and pheasant feather pillbox hat:

This one sat incomplete for no less than three full years. I wanted to make a pillbox hat for a long time. But, you see, the problem is that millinery supplies are not that easy to come by these days. And I couldn't find anyone (or any references) that could explain the process of hat-making to me. So I had to reinvent the wheel. I designed and built this entire thing from scratch. I got the base and top completely built and covered in the silk dupioni before I bogged down on this one. The lining was half-way attached, as well. All that was left was adding a tiny detail to the lining, stitching it in to the hat, adding loops for bobby pins, attaching the top to the body, and gluing down the feathers. That sounds like a lot of work but it was only a day or two worth of effort, in reality. All the hard stuff was already done.
There are no excuses for how long I let this sit around. I think I just fall out of love with things, and the longer I work on them the less I am interested in them. Also, the more closely involved in them I am the worse and more insurmountable the entire thing seems.

ANYWAY! TA-DA! I finished two things that I thought would never get the heck out of my sewing room! YYAAAAYYYYY ME!

An actual blog post! Oooh! Ahh!

What with medical issues and general life-getting-in-the-way issues, it's been a VERY long time since a new and interesting thing got made around here. In my copious spare time (ha!) I've been working on these terribly boring wool vests for my husband but while I would like to say it's all his fault that nothing is getting sewn I am afraid I must admit that it's my own problem.
Anyway, for the first time in over a month I actually felt like sewing something this week, but I had limited time to do it in so I picked a quick and dirty project that I knew I could make fast and feel accomplished at the end of (I have a top I have been "working" on for about three months now. It has become one of those endless projects that you never seem to finish and eventually stop caring much about).
Several years ago, in another lifetime almost, I bought these darling blue and white striped "ticking" sailor pants. I was really quite chuffed about finding them. This was before the current trend for nautical fashion, but I have ALWAYS been a fan of nautical styles! Maybe it's my sailor blood. Who knows. Anyway. They were full length and had little zippers down the sides of the legs with silver anchor-shaped zipper pulls. Unfortunately those cute little anchors broke off the very first time I washed the pants.
After a few good years of use I realized recently that I simply didn't wear them that much anymore (they had a strange tendency to bag out at the knee, anyway) but that they were in too fabulous a condition to get rid of (besides, I love them! You can't just throw away things you love.)
So here is my solution. In order to give the pants new life and a chance at a new owner who will love them just as much as I did I figured they needed a little face lift. I hemmed them up into shorts and designed this big metallic red anchor applique to add a little extra seafaring flare. They turned out so cute! I don't wear shorts. Ever. If I did I would keep them!