Summer Essentials Sew-Along, planning

I am still planning on doing this "sew-along", folks. I'm currently working on the quilt I had planned before, but I obviously want to make some progress on my Summer Essentials before summer is over! (I also have some presents I'm working on too. Sorta. Somewhat. Eventually.) 

Since I haven't any clothes to show yet, I thought I'd run through my plans with you, so you at least are reassured that I'm thinking about it and making steps towards something.

Ali has been making some lovely posts about coming up with a palette for the clothes she's planning out, as well as going through the patterns she intends to use. I'm not really going to focus on the palette, for better or worse. I really want to work mainly, if not solely, from my stash and to finish projects I've been mulling around for a while now. They may not coordinate with each other in the end, but many of these projects are going to be filling in some wardrobe gaps I've noticed in recent months. Or they're just whims I've had that need to be realized for me to feel satisfied.

Poolside Pretties: I totally want to try out Very Purple Person's sunhat, the pattern that she made for Grosgrain's Free Pattern Month. I already have a sunhat, but I almost like hats as much as I like shoes. Which is a lot. So I would love to have another. Perhaps find a way to make it a little more retro in style too, with some embellishments. It's so cute on its own, I'm not sure I can really improve it though, so we'll see.

Clam Diggers & Co.: I am total need of shorts. Dress shorts, to be exact. My current ones aren't fitting me so well, so I thought that it'd be a great opportunity to make myself a range of shorts. Some to perfect the fit, some to wear to work, some to use up old t-shirts, and some for the heck of it. And of course, that playsuit/romper I talked about ages ago. I still have to do that too.

Here are the current plans:

Short shorts and then dress culottes/shorts for work from this pattern (that I got at Value Village a few weeks ago):

T-shirt refashioned into little tennis shorts, using this pattern that I recently bought from kateandskippy's etsy shop:

Photo credit: Vintage Patterns Wiki

I'm hoping to have maybe three pairs of shorts done, if I can manage. And one romper. I still have the original pattern I was considering, but I recently acquired this one from kalliedesigns on etsy: 

Photo credit: Kalliedesigns

No commitments on that, folks. I know I've been talking the big talk lately with little to show. I'd rather get some shorts first, and then see if I can't get in a romper or two.

Sweet & Sassy Skirts: Not sure on this one yet. I've got some vintage polyester in my stash that I'd like to use, because it's a super cute, bright and happy, stripey fabric. The only way I can figure to use something like 70s polyester while keeping it from actually suffocating my precious, heat-producing skin is by making a small, short, super cute skirt. Like this one, perhaps?

Photo Credit: Burdastyle

The Sundress: Not sure on this one either. I think I have a good stash of summery dresses, and I want more separates in my wardrobe these days. I may go for a maxi dress, to use that awesome fabric I received for my birthday, but the let's be realistic. I'm trying to make three pairs of shorts, a romper (or two), and a skirt. Let's leave the dress for another day for now. Unless it's a refashion, in which case I won't feel so bad about it. 

Tees, Tunics & Blouses: Okay, so I bought this teeny-tiny remnant of polka-dot crepe a few months ago. I thought about making it into a purse just to practice with crepe before making my Crepe dress, but skipped that. Because it's polka-dot crepe. And it'd make such a cute little top. I'm thinking something along these lines: 

Photo credit: Of Dreams and Seams

 Only with teeny tiny short sleeves, and perhaps a shorter bodice. What do you think? The cool part is that the shirt you see above was self-drafted by Katja and super simple. So I think I could actually pull it off with minimal time and still get some sweet shorts to go with. (I love the pair she made to go with the shirt. She altered a skirt pattern to make them. Oh the plans she gets rolling around in my head!)

No other commitments on the shirts at this point, though. Like I said, the shorts and skirt and romper are ambitious enough.

Those Summer Nights: Meh. Not a bad idea to consider making something to keep me warm in my frigid work places, but I'm not going to worry about it until I've actually gotten myself together on these other projects.

Wow! In review, I can't tell if I'm being ambitious or ambivalent. I think that five or six pieces would be reasonable to set as a goal for the summer. Perhaps even ambitious. But then, I look at all the things I have to brush off just to settle on those five, and it makes me feel like I should be doing more. Or that I should have a more cohesive approach to this sew-along. Or something. I am going to take that as simply a symptom of my internal overachiever--the one I have been trying to learn to ignore. In the meantime, I've got some sewing to do.