2023 March Recap

I’ve enjoyed keeping track of my projects, spending, and time. It’s helped me focus my efforts for sure. As a result, I got a lot done this month.

Summary

For myself, I made 4 pairs of period knickers, finished a second backpack prototype, Brassie joggers, and Haslam hat. For Ryan, I finished his Champagne cardigan and Haslam hat. If shipping were faster, I would have also finished his Iron joggers. Next month, I will be finishing a lot of projects for others.

For someone who hates polyester fabric, I’ve used it a lot to make our hats and fleece joggers. The big project this month and next month is making daypacks.

If you’ve been following along with my daypack adventures, you’ve seen a breakdown of the cost for each prototype (1 and 2). I’ve lumped thread and needles in with equipment since it’s not a notion (i.e., zipper, buttons, clips, snaps, etc.).

I’ve been able to buy just what I need this month. I’ve just not been able to sew everything yet. Ryan’s cardigan took a whopping 17 skeins of yarn! I haven’t bought any yarn for my next project because I’m re-knitting the dark green Sille slipover I completed in January. My gauge was too tight.

I love seeing that I’m evenly split between sewing vs. knitting time. I’ve slowed down my knitting in the last week because I was getting tension headaches from poor support. My new knitting chair is en route, and my headaches have ceased, so I should be ready whenever the chair arrives!

Completed Projects

The hours in the graph above don’t equal the total time I spent this month (59 hours) because I have projects in progress. This graph is just for complete projects only.

• The period knickers were an easy project, but it just took time because I hand-basted a lot.
• My second daypack prototype was intensive because I finished every seam with grosgrain ribbon. Testing involved making general prototypes with muslin fabric to get the angle of the shoulder seam correct.
  • I include sewing the test garments in the test category and not in the sew category, which is reserved for sewing the final item only.
• I think you’ll find with all my garment projects, I’ll spend more time testing than construction. For example, I spent time making sure my Brassie joggers were going to fit correctly.
• The y-axis for knitting is on the right, and the y-axis for sewing is on the left. Ryan’s cardigan started in January before I took time measurements, so this doesn’t represent an accurate value. I would guess it took me more than 40-45 hours to complete.
• The Haslam hat was a quick sew, but then I seam-ripped everything apart afterward to adjust the pattern. I haven’t written a post about this pattern yet, but plan to soon.
• The Haslam redo is the time it took to seam rip, adjust the pieces, and re-sew together.
• I also made Ryan a hat.

I thought it would be cool to show how many days it takes, not just hours, to complete each project. To understand these two graphs together, it took me 6 hrs 15 mins across 6 days to complete the Period Panty Set of 4, it took me 10 hrs 50 mins across 8 days to complete the Backpack No. 2, etc.

Yay for data!