Getting sidetracked. And managing being sidetracked.

 While I don't have ADHD (to my knowledge!) my ASD symptoms overlap to some extent. One big area of dysfunction for me is what is known in my house as the "Oooh shinies" - or "squirrelling" or "butterflies"... Basically it's when I'm happily involved in one project or concept, and stumble across something else, and now need to research the hell out of it. 

I've recently noticed how it affect craft projects too. At first, it wasn't a major problem - researching cloth, colours (hello recent post on Clarence Blue!), or fabric weaves wasn't too far from my existing point of research. I've been stressing at work this week, which has triggered hypersomnia for me (not unusual), so I've been mostly a semi-zombie from mid afternoon for the last week or so. I spent yesterday evening vaguely moving crafty ideas around on Trello to create a list of a) what I own, and b) a plan for making it (whether that be 2 years hence or whatever). The trigger for that was that the other week Black Snail had a sale on some of their PDF patterns, so I bought a bunch, including two full sets of patterns to make for my husband (when I've never made men's clothes before, so guess I'm learning that!). 

I bought three intentional patterns, plus some others because they were on offer (foolish, but at least PDFs don't take up space or get damaged!):

1. Spencer/Redingote

2. Regency/1830s bonnet.

3. Corset, petticoat and chemise pattern (1830s, but the corset still has the line for the 1818 dress, and this is a corded one which I was particularly interested in trying).

4. Jacket, trousers, and waistcoat patterns for c1890s

5. Jacket, trousers, and waistcoat patterns for c1830s

6. Fan-skirt (1890s)

7. Edwardian blouse

I also received my Laughing Moon dress pattern for the Regency dress. So, way forward is obvious, no? Here was my plan:

1. Mock up corset and adjust for sizing - use medieval shift for underneath for fitting
   Adjust, rinse, repeat.
2. Mock up dress with basic corseting for sizing
   Adjust etc.
3. Make a petticoat using dress pattern to follow the same shape.
   Consider cording bottom inch of hem per Black Snail pattern
4. Make corset properly in decent fabric
5. Make dress properly in decent fabric
6. Evaluate time to event
   If time:
7. Make bonnet
8. Mock up spencer
9. Make spencer
   If insufficient time:
10. Buy a large appropriate shawl
11. Buy a bonnet or other head covering

I started looking at each pattern to figure out the yardage, and found myself adding in the Fan-skirt, and then the Edwardian blouse patterns to my mental pile as well.

It now looks like I have found the fabric for making the fan-skirt before I've even started looking for the corset fabric. Argh! 

Having sat down and evaluated, though, I'm more comfortable now with starting with the skirt. It's been a while since I last did a proper sewing project - possibly even a decade now. The fan-skirt pattern is relatively straight forward, only really fits at one point on my body (waist), and is mostly formed of long straight seams. I think that starting with that pattern might actually be wise, because it will get me back into the swing of things - especially if I machine sew the long seams as it's even longer since I last used a machine to sew! Completing something will also give me a boost to work on the longer drag of the complicated corset mock ups, which will be hard and also almost completely new skills for me.

I also want to make the blouse, but that's possibly less urgent (I'll need to have a look at what I own that I can wear with the skirt once it's made). 

My NEW plan is:

1. September into October
   Fan-skirt from a wool blend
   If I like it, and it's not too complex, I'd like to make another in pure wool.
2. October
   Mock up corset
3. October into November (as time off from Regency projects)
   Mock up blouse and then make properly
4. November
   Mock up dress
5. December 
   Finalise corset
6. January
   Final dress
7. February
   Petticoat
8. March
   Chemise

Assuming that I can make one item a month, then I will have time to make make a bonnet - it does looks fun! And even possibly have time to make a spencer or redingote. 

Why that order?
Well the chemise is a) easiest to buy, and b) I can use an old medieval one for the purpose of fittings, so that goes at the bottom of the list. The petticoat can potentially be skipped, although the silhouette will be better with it, so that is next least important. The big change is my decision to weave the non-Regency items in amongst the Regency ones to give myself a break from the project. This is what brings me back to the ADHD comment. The ADHD community is really open about project and self-management, and in acknowledging the perennial problems of accidental distraction. I will write (one day?) about the (complementary) differences in self-help between the two communities. Anyway, one of the suggestions for managing distraction is to acknowledge it, and to actively manage it but NOT suppress it. What does that mean here? Well, basically, I acknowledge that I'm feeling the lure of another project, and I can permit myself add it to my list of things I'm making, but not both the later pieces. Secondly, I acknowledge that I'm likely to start getting distracted during the more complicated parts of my Regency project which means I need to consider two things: Breaking the project into completable chunks, and Building in distraction. Building in distraction for me, means factoring in some different or simpler tasks to weave in around those complicated overwhelming ones. Those tasks can give me the completion buzz to help continue with the main tasks. It's something I've been doing in my career for a while, and I need to bring it into my personal life too. 

And now I need to make do the Tesco order I've been forgetting to do all week. And set a reminder to collect my pills from the pharmacy tomorrow. Reminders - I need them!!

Oh, and finally, yes, this post is indeed a sidetrack in itself - I was actually writing a completely different post. Hey ho...