Itching to sew

I haven't sewn in about a year, mostly due to the fact that my sewing area is buried under stuff that I had to move out of sewing room #2 during the house renovations so we could sleep in there. Too much stuff. Work on sewing room #2 will commence shortly...well, as soon as I move the remaining stuff out of sewing room #2. Until then I think about the day when I will return to the sewing machine.Where did all this stuff come from??? We watch Hoarders on A&E and I can honestly relate...to some of it.

I could clean up the sewing area, find some other place to stash the stuff, but I would have to clear a lot of things out of the way, and I simply don't have the energy or time right now. And I can't sew amidst chaos so I guess there will be no sewing for a while. I need to organize all of the pieces of the project, and I can only have one project in front of me. When I was in college, preparing for finals week was a project in itself. I would gather up the notes, books and other material and neatly organize and stack them for each class. Only then could I start studying. It's the same with sewing.

Last night I went shopping for a dress to wear for "formal night" on a 4-night cruise I'm going on later this month (it's actually for my work's annual meeting). I've never been on a cruise before so I don't know how formal to dress but I have been instructed to wear a cocktail dress, dressy pantsuit or gown. While shopping at Macys I couldn't help but think about all the dress patterns and fabric I have and how I could make a dress that fit so much better than the ones I was trying on. Nearly every dress was too tight in the hips and at the same time too big in the bust. Sigh. But I scored at Nordstrom Off the Rack. I found a simple, long, black knit dress and it was on sale and only $16. Unbelievable. It is sleeveless but the straps are wide enough to hide bra straps, and the top is the "twisty-top" style so it can fit bust sizes large or small. I plan to dress it up with jewelry and wear a cashmere lace shawl I knit. The other great thing is that the dress will take up very little room in my suitcase. I think it's a perfect dress to bring for only a few hours of formal dress-up time.

Thinking last night about the dresses I could sew really got me in the mood to get back to the sewing maching, but I guess not enough to find some place to put all that excess stuff. However I hope that it's enough to light a fire under me to get sewing room #2 cleared out so that the work can begin.