No, no flashing lights or little green men -- see that dress there, on the right? The one with the interesting neckline? That's a UFO. An "unfinished object". I was clicking through the Blue Gardenia site looking for a suit/skirt pattern that Madelene sent me (thanks -- it's REALLY cute!) and was arrested by this image. Why? Because it's hanging in my sewing room (okay, the rod of the disused shower in the bathroom NEXT to my sewing room) waiting patiently for me to finish the skirt. I didn't have enough fabric for the pattern's actual skirt, and the Frankenstein solution I found was not a good one, so I need to take the (shambling, bolt-necked, fearsome and unloved) skirt off and try again, and I don't wanna! The bodice is all done, and really cute, and the fabric is this great atomic print vintage rayon, a warm grey with all sorts of wacky colorful dingbats and whizbangs all over it, and if I just spent an hour on it (granted, a HIGHLY UNPLEASANT hour) it would be DONE, and I could wear it. But I have not, and since I am in a hotel room in Tokyo (although I am NOT lounging around in transparent panties and sulky ennui, a la Scarlett Johansson's character in that movie that was referenced, oh, only about ten GAZILLION times in the Time Out Tokyo guidebook I brought) it isn't going to happen any time soon.
If you want to make your very own UFO of this pattern, click the image -- you can buy it from The Blue Gardenia for $25. B38. Proceed at your own risk.
What are some of y'all's UFOs? Tell me, please, of dresses started in high school and still on the project list; of unfinished presents for in-laws you lost in divorces; for-the-want-of-a-button ten-minute fixes that have been languishing for years in the mending basket. C'mon, make me feel better about my shortcomings!
(I've been in Tokyo, like, three hours and spent most of that on a bus, being chatted up by a Hong Kong banker who told me I had "cat's shoulders" and who also took the liberty of adjusting them for me. Was too boggled to stop him. Have never undergone amateur chiropracty on a Japanese bus before. May never again. Hope to go eat soon. Unless I explode from the loop of "OMG I'm in TOKYO!!!" in my head!)
That is so weird that someone would invade your personal space that way.I used to have many UFOs until I made myself a RULE from which I may not deviate. I know I am the only one affected by the rule and the one who made it up but I might not have kept on sewing if it werent for it. Never start another project until you finish the one you are on. While rules are born to have exceptions, I stick with this one because otherwise, I would have so many UFOs, it would paralyse me and I wouldnt know what to do next. That said of course, I have a corduroy shirt hanging in the closet with no arms on it. I chose the wrong fabric and my husband saw it before I finished and said he would never wear such a thing. So it hangs, unfinished because I lack the courage to throw it out. And once I failed to finish this awful brown jacket I was making and I finally threw it out, unfinished. I can be fabric-ly challenged.
Posted by: JuliaR | 01/14/2006 at 06:21 AM
i have a khaki green colour blazer that i bought really cheap, but the arms werent fitted and were quite baggy, so i cut a chunk of material out on the underside and stitched it bac so it wouldnt be too noticable.however, ive only done this to one arm because i got bored and lazy, that was 8 months ago, and im gonna do it now bcos i need a khaki blazer casual jacket..eeek!
Posted by: Anonymous | 01/14/2006 at 12:11 PM
I used to have two UFOs, both green dresses, but then I decided that the zipper on one of them wasn't as badly set as I had originally thought--certainly not worth ripping and resewing--and since then I've worn it once. Project completed! The remaining UFO is the top item on this page, which I still have not hemmed. Now that I look at it again, I think a midriff band might help . . .
Posted by: IA | 01/14/2006 at 12:46 PM
I have two UFO's one is a shirt where the front panel was burned burgundy silk velvet in the design of butterfly, that I was trying to put in a cotton jersey shirt, but it never quite hung right, and then the thought of how to finish the neck off just killed all the joy in the project for me. It's been hanging in my closet since 1998-99.I started a crazy quilt in 1993 that I take out and work on for about a week or so once or twice a year, but it inevitably ends with all my bins of fabric being scattered in every room of my apartment while I look for a particular tiny scrap of green silk that I know would look so cute next to that blue velvet I just pieced in. Then I can't take the chaos anymore and put it all away for another 6-9 months until I think it would fun to work on it again.Despite that, it's about 90% pieced together, and about 30% the seams are embroisered. The silk I bought as a border is now my living room curtain, and the red velvet for the back is still in the original bag, seven years later. It might be finished by the time I retire.
Posted by: Sue | 01/14/2006 at 03:38 PM
Oh, yeah! I forgot that I have a quilt. Somewhere. About eight squares of it. Since 1989 or so.
Posted by: IA | 01/14/2006 at 10:50 PM
My UFOs are of the knitted variety. I don't sew, sometimes I wish I had the desire to learn, but I don't.I have many, but my most egregious is the sweater which has been done for over a year, except for the putting together. My list of excuses is long; I think it boils down to a sinking suspicion that it's all mucked up and won't go together. Frustrated fury will ensue; I'll mutter obscenities; the cats will be afraid; and my boyfriend will wonder why in heaven's name do you knit at all? So it is buried in a bag, where it can't hurt anyone.
Posted by: Lee | 01/16/2006 at 09:51 AM
Ok... Now I am mortified..... I decided, since it is a new year and all, that I would go through everything I own and toss all the junk. The house looks great & I am 92lbs less of junk and clutter, but I found a latch hook pillow kit I started when I was 9 or 10. I don't know weather to laugh or cry... I am 37 yrs old. The darn thing is done, basically.. All I have to do is sew the backing fabric to the latch hooked front and stuff a pillow form in. 10 minutes tops. My 10 year old daughter spotted it before I could send it to heaven. So I guess have to finish it now because it is hers. At the rate I'm going she might get it for a wedding present. :) LOLKelly
Posted by: Anonymous | 01/19/2006 at 03:47 AM
I have a babby quilt that I started 9 months before the oldest of my three nephews was born. He just turned three and the quilt is still not done. The worst part of it is that the front is totally done. And I found some prequilted backing that would save me the times and effort of putting in polyfill backing. All I need to do is tie it and sew it. Like 2 hours worth of work tops. Sigh. Maybe I just found my weekend project....
Posted by: Charlottex | 06/19/2007 at 06:24 PM
soglasen s vami ochen\' zaebatyj blog!
Posted by: Buy Soma | 09/06/2007 at 04:37 AM
Keep up the great work. It very impressive. Enjoyed the visit!
Posted by: Anonymous | 09/09/2007 at 03:10 PM