I’ve been feeling that way myself lately.  And I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes it may just be better to shelve a project rather than to keep working on something that is no longer bringing you the joy it once was.  Sometimes its better to shelve it and free yourself up to take on other projects that will bring you joy.  After all, isn’t the fact that they bring us happiness and some measure of joy and fulfillment the whole reason we do these projects in the first place?  Besides there is nothing that says you can’t come back to that old project at a later date.

So I’ve decided to step back from the projects that haven’t been bringing me joy so that I can focus on the things that are.

What am I putting on hold?

1. The eBooks. Working on them and selling them through the site just hasn’t been as fun as I thought it would be so I’m shelving the project.  What will I do with the two I already have?  I’m not sure yet but I’m pondering several options.
2. The Flanders Gown. It was so much more fun when I started it but once the fur went down hill it just wasn’t as inspiring anymore.  Since all it needs are sleeves I will probably finish it but I’ll do something more simple that I had originally planned.
3. Commissions. I’ve enjoyed working on the commissions I’ve taken but now that my most recent one is done I’ve decided to take some time for myself for a while.  I have about 20 buttons to make and that’s it.  I’m going to finish them in the next couple weeks and then I’m going to focus on some personal projects that have really been calling to me.  The calendar will probably open up again for commissions at some point in the future but for now I’m going to focus on personal projects.

What am I still deciding on?

1. The Etsy Shop. I just don’t know what to do about it.  On the one hand I’ve enjoyed it and I have some big ideas for changes to it but on the other I’m not sure that the things I want to produce fit in best at Etsy.  Still pondering this one.

What am I going to do more of?

1. Fight. Fighting has been bringing me a lot of joy lately and I want to free up more time for it.
2. Sew and Embroider for myself. I have several personal sewing projects that are calling to me.  Plus less free time has meant less time for my embroidered jacket.  I worked on it recently and it reminded me how much I’ve enjoyed this project and really want to free up more time for it.
3. Enjoy the fresh air and warm sun. This winter was rather stressful but the thing that always made me feel better was going outside and walking around the building.  Now that its starting to warm up being outside is even more pleasurable.  I want to spend more time outside, go to fighter practice in the daylight, move my workouts outdoors, and get in a little diving.  I can’t wait for Spring.
4. Write. I’ve really enjoyed the FR and YWU articles that I’ve written and I have several ideas for new tutorials and HMA articles that I’ve been neglecting.  I have two more FR articles in the works and I want to get started on at least one of the HMA articles after Ymir.  I might even see about teaching at summer University.

KASF was really inspiring.  I’ve been rather uninspired project wise lately and it really helped to get my juices flowing.  I’m currently brainstorming a couple of projects and I’m getting back to my long sidelined jacket project.  I am doing some reevaluating of the jacket project though.  My vision of where I’d like it to go has changed a bit and I don’t know whether it’s better to alter to project to suit my vision or to continue to push on to finish it as is.

I’m also considering a website reorg and maybe a new template.  It’s been about two years since the last one and since I usually get this itch every 2 years or so this one is hitting me pretty much right on schedule.

2010 Goals:

1)  Continue to work on my physical fitness and fighting.
2)  Only have one embroidery project at a time.  Until it’s finished this means my jacket.
3)  Do more sewing.
4)  Learn to play 2 pieces of music appropriate to Elizabethan England by Pennsic.
5)  Spend more time with my students.
6)  Continue to post Silver and Swetnam installments weekly.

I had a lot of false starts with my first goal of working on my physical fitness and fencing.  I would stay focused for a few weeks and then drop off.  I was really disappointed with myself in this.  These were really important goals for me and I let myself set them on the back burner over and over again.

I did OK with goals two and three.  I couldn’t maintain working on a sewing project and an embroidery project at the same time but I did enjoy more sewing projects this year and kept myself focused on the one embroidery project (my jacket) even if I didn’t get as far on it as I would have liked to.

I wrote about goal four recently already.

I did enjoy spending more time with my students both on and off the field this year and I’m looking forward to even more next year.

I did not continue with my Silver and Swetnam series mostly because I’ve decided to change those projects slightly.  Instead of working on them in a series I’ve decided I want to publish them all at once.

2010 Planned Projects

Get my fencing in top notch shape In progress
Embroidered Jacket In progress (Started August 2009)
Flander’s Gown In progress
Silver Training Blog Series In progress
Swetnam Training Blog Series In progress
Steampunk Gown Finished! January 2010
Wrapped and Stuffed Buttons @ Etsy Opened! January 2010
Grey Wool Bias Cut Hosen Finished! February 2010
Linen Kirtle Finished! April 2010
White Linen Bias Cut Stockings Finished! April 2010
16th-17th Century Stocking Tutorial Finished! April 2010
Blue Linen Bias Cut Hosen Finished! May 2010
14th Century Hosen Tutorial Finished! May 2010
Saviolo Dueling Blog Series Finished! June 2010
Early Modern English Dueling Class Finished! June 2010
Green Linen GFG Finished! September 2010
Burgundy Linen Effigy Bodies Finished! October 2010
Recreating Elizabethan Bodies Tutorial Finished! October 2010
Monochrome Embroidery Tutorial Finished! December 2010
French-Cut gown
A new linen suit
Natural Form Gown

2011 Goals

1)  Continue to improve fitness and fencing
2)  Have one sewing project a month
3)  Publish a new ebook every 1-2 months
4)  Be able to play 1 Elizabethan popular song by December

In December I rededicated myself for improving my fitness and I’m pleased to say that I was able to stay pretty straight and mostly narrow even through the Holidays.  I have also begun outlining my plan for working on my fencing one already and I plan on discussing them in more detail when their more firm.  My first fitness and fencing goals revolve around Gulf Wars and I will be discussing them in future posts.  My other goals are all pretty self explanatory. In order to keep myself on track and focused I’ve decided to keep my total number of goals this year lower than last and I will be posting monthly updates.

2011 Planned Projects

Get my fencing in top notch shape In progress
Embroidered Jacket In progress (Started August 2009)
Flander’s Gown In progress
Silver Training Manual In progress
Swetnam Training Manual In progress
14th Century Cloth Hosen ebook
New Rapier Armor
Shirt, Brais, Hosen
Charles de Blois Pourpoint
Edwardian Lingerie Gown
Arming Garments Class

The first non-fencing related projects I will be working on are the 14th Century Cloth Hosen ebook and finishing my Flanders Gown.

There are things I had hoped to finish this year that I haven’t been able to devote the time to that I wanted (my jacket project) and things that inadvertently ended up on the back burner as other projects took over (my Silver and Swetnam series).  But I also accomplished a lot of things that I hadn’t even thought about last year when I set my goals.  I’ve written three tutorials for Foundations Revealed, I wrote and taught a new class on dueling, I finished my green linen GFG that had sat on my shelf for embarrassingly too long, I learned a ton about working with fur (even if my Flander’s gown isn’t done yet), and I learned a lot about myself and my own fencing.  It’s not where I want it to be but I did learn a good deal about myself and my own mindset this year and I feel good about that.

The year isn’t done yet though.  There is still time to make some good headway on my jacket and now is a great time to start training for Ymir.  It’s also a great time to begin reflecting on 2010 and to start to think about goals for 2011.

So in the spirit of getting back to my unfinished projects I pulled it down last week to get to work on it.  All the pieces had to be re-ironed and the interlinings needed to be basted to the outer layer.  I then assembled the outer layer and the lining and stitched them together.

The next thing I did was assemble the sleeves and prep them for inserting into the gown.  But part of the problem with picking back up old projects that have been sitting on the shelf for a while is that sometimes you run into one of those “what was I doing here?” moments.  The sleeves I had cut ended up being much too large to ease into the armscyes.  This could end up being a bit of a blessing in disguise though.  The sleeves I had originally cut were short.  I had thought about making new long sleeves but in the end decided that I’d just go ahead and use what I had already cut.  Now I get to decide whether I want to alter the short sleeves a bit or just cut new long sleeves.  I think the long sleeves would be more versatile and could be layered with other gowns and surcoats but the short sleeves would be cooler.  Decisions, Decisions.

Anyway, I put up a few pictures in my gallery.  Left to do I have:

1. clip curves
2. press front opening
3. make up new sleeves
4. insert sleeves
5. hand finish front opening and sleeves
6. eyelets
7. hem

Not such a bad list.  Also, for those of you who missed it I have new pictures up of my jacket in addition to the stills I pulled out of the video from last week.  I also finally got my dueling article for the class I taught at June University up on the site.

I realized Sunday night while I was starting work on the second sleeve that I hadn’t updated my gallery for this project in several months.  Unfortunately when I pulled out my camera last night to snap some quick pictures I noticed that my batteries for the camera were dead.   So I pulled out the Flip, shot some quick video of the completed sleeve and gore, and then pulled out some stills from the video so I’d have something to show you guys this morning.   The stills I was able to pull out don’t give you a good overall view but I did charge the camera batteries last night so I can snap a few more pictures this evening.

So there are new pictures up in my jacket gallery if you all want to check them out and more are on the way soon.

For every one else trying to master this stitch, Make It Mine Magazine has a great French Knot tutorial on YouTube that I hope you will find useful.

1. The Geoffrey Nightcap Embroidery Pattern: Created by Laura of Extreme Costuming this nightcap pattern is simple and elegant.  A great place to start for a new embroiderer!
2. The 1560s-70s Flanders Gown: I’ve been working with this pattern for my own Flanders Gown and I’ve been very pleased with the clarity of the directions and how easy it has gone together.
3. The Netherlandish Working Women’s Outfit: Netherlandish working class clothing is always elegant and comfortable.
   
4. The 14th century Grand Assiette Pourpoint: It can be hard to find a pattern for the grand assiette pourpoint and draping a pattern on yourself is difficult.  I was really pleased with the quality of RH’s pattern and I’m looking forward to starting mine as soon as my Flanders Gown is finished.
5. The Fruitseller or Common Woman’s Dress: I just love the simple elegance of RH’s Italian working women’s dress pattern.

* To see more of Reconstructing History’s many patterns and notions from a wide variety of time periods visit their website.

The truth is that sometimes you get part way through a project and you make the decision to change it.  It happens and it’s no big deal.  But sometimes those thoughts about changing the project are just our mind’s ways of tricking us into copping out.  In this particular case I think it’s the latter.  I’ve been working on the jacket off and on for a long time now.  I’m not as far along as I would like to be (there’s that “off and on” thing rearing its ugly head) and sometimes I think about other embroidery projects I’d like to be doing.

It’s true that I could finish the sleeves and enjoy wearing them while I finished the rest of the jacket but my fear is that if I did that I would have a much more difficult time time completing the project than if I went on the finish the rest of the embroidery.

And I really do want to finish this project.  Not just the sleeves but the whole thing.  In order to do that I need to dedicate regular time to it and banish those mutinous thoughts.  I’m back to regular embroidery sessions and I just need to keep at it.  Slow and steady may not get things done quickly but it will get them done in the end.  And I really think once I have the sleeves finished it will start to seem like it’s all down hill from there.

So I must banish my mutinous thoughts and complete project!  Even if the sleeves would look totally awesome with my Flanders Gown.  Maybe when the jacket is done I start some scarletwork sleeves for it.

Hmmmmm…scarletwork….