Mrs Rat's Cold-Weather "Make Nine" Plans and Some Thoughts on the Power of Endurance

I've been intrigued by how many #makenine references I've seen around the internet over the past few years.  If you're not familiar, it is a challenge set up by Rochelle New of the blog Lucky Lucille and the small business Home Row Fiber Co.  The concept is to choose nine sewing (or knitting or crocheting, etc.) projects to be completed throughout the year at any pace.  Since my end of the year review shows that I make far more than nine projects a year, and one of my goals is to plan out more of my projects in advance, I thought that I'd try to make two sets of "make nine" plans: one for cold weather, and one for hot weather.  Utah doesn't have much in-between weather---it hardly ever hits the 60s or 70s.  Mostly it is in the 50s or below or the 80s and up.  So while we live here, I think it might help to have two defined wardrobe planning categories, and I thought I'd start by sharing the nine patterns that I have cut out and ready to sew over the next three months of winter.

Starting in the upper left corner and going roughly clockwise:
McCalls 5994 - I have the jacket and skirt cut out of thrifted navy pin-striped wool.
Simplicity 7752 - I thought this might work to layer under the jacket of McCalls 5994 as another option from the matching skirt.  This is cut out of a thrifted navy cotton-polyester sheet.
Simplicity 9842 - This is also cut out of the same thrifted navy cotton-poly blend sheet.  I'm going to make the long-sleeved version, which should work well year-round, and I can wear it with the navy wool McCalls suit for a monochromatic look.
McCalls 5766 - I cut this out of some black flannel that I bought from JoAnns on sale.  I wear my flannel dresses a lot in the winter, and would like another option.  This one will be maxi length, and I'm excited to try out this pattern and to have a cozy long dress.
McCalls 5771 - This one is almost done, actually.  It is laying on my sewing table waiting to have the cuffs finished and buttons done.  I made it out of a thrifted white sheet with pale grey stripes.  I think this will look nice with my grey wool skirt or grey wool jumper.
Simplicity 7880 - I just cut out a new version in black flannel, to add some warmth to my selection of skirt bottoms for the colder months.  I wear my other versions a lot, but they are mostly made out of broadcloth, and I need some heavier, warmer ones.
McCalls 5531 - This is going to become my new brown wool winter coat (although lengthened, and with the skirt widened a little).  My mom gave me the wool for my birthday, and I have it cut out, as well as brown flannel left over from another dress I cut out for interlining the bodice and sleeves, and lining that I bought using a birthday gift card from JoAnn fabric stores.
New Look 6073 - I started sewing this before I got my coat supplies, and have been taking a long time finishing all the hand top-stitching, which is why I haven't started my coat.  But I'm getting close to finishing, and I think I should be able to wear it over my coat for extra warmth on extra cold days.  This is made out of thrifted camel colored wool and thrifted rayon lining (a really lucky find, especially considering it is in a matching, slightly darker shade of camel-gold!).
​McCalls 6209 - I have this cut out of brown flannel, also bought on sale at JoAnns.

I do have two other projects I'm tempted to add in, even knowing that I might not get all this done during the winter months.  The other two are a black and white cotton-poly blend dress that would work for the warm months, too, and a brown twill jumper dress, which could also be worn year round.  So if I don't get to them yet, they will probably be on my warm-weather list.  And if I don't get to all of the projects I have cut out, I'm not too worried.  I will just start up again on them in the fall, as they are all things I want to wear, and I will still need warm clothes next winter, too.

When planning out sewing projects (especially nine at once!), it's hard not to think about the time needed for the projects, the patience, the skill-----the endurance.  When I was writing this post, I wondered if "thoughts on patience" might be the right title, but then I felt like endurance is more accurate: sticking with something until it's done, even if it is tiring, or hard.  Mr Rat and I were having a conversation about sewing and other people's perceptions of it.  When he tells his coworkers that he likes to sew, or when I mention that we sew to people at church, we both experience the same reaction: sewing is generally seen as being too time-consuming, and scary to start doing because it requires the acquisition of so much skill.  But like making art, or learning a language or a musical instrument, it is really endurance that is required most of all.  There are two important steps in sewing: first---to get started, and second---to stick with it.  Mr Rat and I started this blog almost three years ago to record our projects and to make that record public in case our sewing pattern reviews and the other things that we post might be helpful to anyone else.  But Mr Rat wondered if our current intermediate to advanced level of sewing might seem daunting to a sewing-newcomer, which made us both reflect on how we got started sewing.  It was messy!  It was frustrating.  I learned the basics as a child, and I can assure you that there were temper-tantrums and crying on the floor, and claims that I'd never get over being scared of the machine.  Anything that we do with our hands requires muscle memories built up over a long period of time to really get comfortable and skillful.  Mr Rat just decided to recycle two of his oldest self-made shirts into fabric he can use as patches on new shirts.  And they look so different from his most recent shirt, finished three years later.  I had been sewing my own clothes as an adult for at least three years before we started this blog, so my first wonky projects are not on the internet.  But I remember them, and how when I made them I wished to be better, and sew more complex things.  And years later, I am a better seamstress (although striving to get better, still) and I can sew my own coats and capes and complicated blouses and dresses (with tucks and handmade buttonholes and darts that are not bubbly), things that I struggled to even attempt when I first started sewing regularly again.

I just wanted to mention this as an encouragement to the beginners, as well as all of you more experienced sewers: it's important to keep on enduring.  Practicing is the only way to get better, and even if it is tiring, it is worth while.  Because after a year, two years, a decade. . .  then you can look back and see that elusive progress that you dreamed of.  The process may feel hard, just like looking at a long list of projects can be daunting at the beginning.  But I know that over months of an hour spent here or there at the sewing machine and the ironing board, these projects will get made and posted about here, and then I will get to have the pleasure of wearing them, and feeling like myself every day.  And getting a little better at sewing along the way.  All of our goals have to be reached one step at a time, and just sticking with it----enduring----is how to get there.  It doesn't take anything more special than to just keep trying.