Sewing Journal – Shop Update

I started using a bullet journal is 2016, I think. And some of the pages are simple, like my log of savings and investment account tallies, and some are more complicated, like anything related to DragonCons.

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After getting the basic setup, I was thinking of what pages I could add, and there were a lot, but one of the first was a log of what sewing patterns I already owned, both clothing and other. Later I figured out that I don’t have any non-garment patterns, that I can find at least. It’ll be my overflow, when I get that many patterns.

sketches

Sometimes I’ll use my bujo for sketching as well, like in this Summer Sewing and Knitting Plan. Was I super ambitious with this? Yes. Was it created about two weeks before I realized I had to get my butt in gear for DragonCon? Yes. Am I happy that at least 2 of these are complete? Absolutely.

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One of the earlier pages was just a simple list of alterations that I needed to make, since I’m firmly in camp “fix it and only get rid of it if you can’t love it” but also camp “put it in a corner until you feel like dealing with it.” Writing it down makes it more real for me.

I’m not good at keeping up with daily, monthly, or even irregular logs, though. I get about 5 month spurts of bujo usage and then it gets shelved for a few months. I’m about to give my bujo another go, but I decided to keep my sewing stuff separate this go around.

So I needed a sewing journal! I started with the pages I knew I needed, so I made ones to match those above (these are now called “Sewing Patterns I Own” and “Sketches” and “Alterations to Make”), as well as some for fabrics, and some for projects.

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Here’s the official list of pages:

Customizable title page where you can write in your name
Title page that simply states “My Sewing Journal” (because you know who you are!)
Sewing Patterns I Own
Sewing Patterns I Want
Specific pattern notes
Specific pattern notes with lines
Index for fabric (20 lines)
Index for notions
Fabric description page with room for type, color, quantity and description for three fabrics per page
Fabric description page with room for the above and a 2” square swatch for three fabrics per page
Measurements. We need them, so here’s a page.
Planning page for organizing six projects with fabric and patterns
Specific project page for making plans and notes
Specific project page for making plans and notes with lines
Alterations page for cataloguing six alterations to make
Mood board page
Sketches page

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The file is designed for letter sized paper, since I live in the US, but if I were going to paste these pages into a notebook, I’d probably shrink them in the printer menu to a smaller size and cut them with scissors. It’s crossed my mind to do that, but for now it makes sense to me to keep it in my filing cabinet, since I’ve got the space.

So if this is something you’re interested in printing and using yourself, check it out at this link, and you can find the rest of my Etsy shop here!

(I am thinking about making one for yarnstuffs, since I also have a bit of a yarn hoarding problem… Let me know if you’re interested!)

Do you like coloring?

I’ve embraced coloring recently…

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And by recently, I mean I’ve been doodling for my entire life, but mostly in black ink on white paper. To the point that I tried to bring myself to buy a white gel pen, or paint pen, or something to draw in this black paper notebook I’ve been carrying around for 4.5 years. And it didn’t work.

(I’m only a low grade hoarder, I promise.)

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But I’ve been drawing mandalas specifically for laser cutting, because there’s something so cool about lasers, and sometimes I found myself coloring them in, both digitally and . So when I was having a mid-20s crisis (I know, it’s ridiculous, and I won’t dwell on it) I started an Etsy shop for coloring pages of my mandala art.

All of the products as of right now are digital downloads as PDF files, so they will either be emailed to you or they’ll live in your Etsy account. You do need a PDF reader for them, but I think most readers of blogs probably already have that…For almost all the products, there are both letter and A4 sized pdf pages, though you can always use your pdf reader’s print page to resize things.

So there’s coloring pages, since that was the original idea, and with both letter size and A4 size there are downloads for black lines and for grey lines, because some people like the lines to fade into the background.

Also I’ve been digitally coloring some of the mandalas, so I’ve released some print-at-home art prints that have already been colored in. Wow, print-at-home art prints is a mouthful, even typing it.

I’ve expanded a bit into calendar and planner pages more reminiscent of bullet journals, like spending logs, since that’s something I’ve dabbled in. I’m not good at keeping any kind of log long term, but everything I put up for sale is something I do or did use.

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For instance, my newest offering is a sewing journal, which is a printable version of pages that I was already using in my bullet journal. I’m going to do a separate post on that later this week, because I know that a lot of you guys, my followers, are sewists so it might be something you’re interested in.

Really really long time subscribers might remember me talking about my old Etsy shop, which was a handmade beadwoven jewelry shop, and at least for the moment I have no plans to reopen it. I still have all my stock, but I have yet to feel the pull of jewelry making that would prompt me to reopen it. Maybe in a few months I’ll try to sell off my stock in this new shop, but for the moment I’m keeping it simple.

I’d be honored if you gave the new shop a look! I opened it about a month and a week ago, so though it’s not super new it’s still a little shiny for me. I’m going to go give it another shine…