The Plan

I've been drafting this plan for a week or two now and I've done a significant amount of editing. It started simple enough and then grew a bit crazy, involving 10 projects and massive amounts of tailoring and pants and even an elaborate homage to Tim Gunn.

... and then I came to my senses.

You see, while I've been known to jump into overly-ambitious projects, that's the antithesis to what this is supposed to be about. The plan here isn't just to create a plan, be productive and end up with a bunch of cool handmade clothes. It's also to exercise moderation and good time-management, and to avoid alienating the other members of my household and driving myself crazy.

So, after much reflection, here is the plan I've settled on, with some rules:

1. I will make six garments in 2011
That's one garment every two months, give or take. Totally doable. (I can make more, absolutely.)

2. At least three garments will be made from patterns by independent and/or local designers
This is to make sure the whole thing jives with my values/philosophies/etc, which I'm sure I'll elaborate on in later posts.

3. All six garments will be made from natural fibres
Same reasoning as #2, but also because I just prefer them that way. This will also require me to get down with my inner type-A nerd, and do some serious smart shopping. Because silk ain't cheap, folks.

4. I will make at least one each of the following: skirt, dress, blouse, jacket
Because I need some variety in my wardrobe and my skill set.

5. All garments will be finished by December 31, 2011
I don't want to stress over this, but really, this is an achievable goal.

So, that's what I'm thinking. Reasonable, right?

In addition to the deadline, I was originally going to include a rule about a minimum amount of time that must be spent on each project. This was going to be an attempt to prevent myself from getting all obsessive and neglecting my family/friends/pets/responsibilities. But then, I couldn't decide on a minimum when I had no way of knowing the difficulty level of the projects, nor my future circumstances. So I'm going to have to trust myself to self-enforce the moderation thing with common sense. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, now that the rules are laid out, the pattern and fabric consideration begins. More on that to come.