The last time I had sewn something for myself and blogged about it was when I made this dress.  It’s been over four years.  I have good and bad memories of this post.  I remember how happy I was when I finally clicked “post.”  A couple of hours later, that moment of happiness was eclipsed by gloom when my husband suffered a severe pain in his jaw.  That was the start of his battle with cancer.  I guess I can say, that was also the start of how I can’t even look at my sewing machine without feeling the gloom of that day again.  My brain somehow associated it with that memory.

Fast forward to four years.  Czech Republic was on lockdown in spring and everyone was ordered to wear a face mask anywhere outside their own home.  I had no choice but to dust off my sewing machine to sew face masks for myself and my husband from scrap fabrics I have.  That old memory attached to the sewing machine had to be exorcized with the need to dodge this virus that is affecting our lives.

At least something good came out of the bad.  I started sewing again.  The first few minutes were awkward, like it was my first time to sew.  After that initial haze, procedural memory kicked in.  I guess sewing is just like riding a bike.

Here are my little sewing projects after four years of hiatus:

I made a dozen of these reversible masks. When I started searching for an easy pattern, the one I found on YouTube in spring had less than a million views. When I checked it again in summer, it had over five million. Tells you something about the times we have now.

When I was rummaging in my fabric stash, I found this leftover fabric from a dress I had sewn for a colleague. She chose this particular pattern. She wanted to wear something festive for the Christmas dinner she was going to attend in Spain with her boyfriend and his family. I never got to know how it went because we lost touch afterwards. I wonder if they’re still together. 🙂

Anyway, I decided to make summer shorts out of this fabric. I’m quite happy how it turned out.

These shorts have back pockets and I thought two back pockets would be enough. Later I changed my mind and added two front ones. Shorts without front pockets just don’t work for me.

And it’s quite difficult to stop once I start the ball rolling. I also made shorts for my husband. The fabric is actually quite thick that these shorts can be worn outside if, say I would use drawstrings instead of just a thin elastic for waistband. Husband said a simple elastic will do for him so elastic it is.

So there. Feels good to be back posting about sewing projects no matter how small they are. I hope I won’t become lazy again and will finally do something about the rest of the fabric stash I have sitting in a box.

xoxo