National Sewing Month challenge + New Fabric

September is National Sewing Month, and while I'm not presently living in the 'nation' they're referring to, I've decided to set a little challenge for myself in an attempt to get back into sewing now that we're pretty settled into the new flat.

I'm no where near an 'expert' sewing, and frankly my skills probably tend more toward beginner than intermediate, mostly because I've been lax about sewing for so long.  I do have my old Bernina set up in the spare room, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at a few varying projects.  I think sewing is such a fun, useful skill and it's a nice way to produce new stuff (or use old stuff) and still fit inside my budget.  

So...here are my parameters: 

I'm going to make one new thing each week of September.  Now, that doesn't really sound like very much, especially concisely stated right there, but I think it's an achievable goal.  I've certainly got enough patterns and fabric waiting for projects that there is not real reason to not make a try. The plan is to do a post on Friday of each of the four remaining weeks in September (which is going to leave very little time to do something this week...)  

My planned project for the first week leads me to a little bit of photo showing off (not showing off my sad photo skills, showing off my fabric buys!).

J and I made a run to Ikea in order to pick up some bits and bobs for the flat, and I had to take a dive into the textile section (gah!  my favorite part of Ikea!).  Of course I emerged with fabric - a somewhat modest (if I do say so myself) 4 metres.  

It's actually a nice change because I've been collecting a lot of fashion/apparel fabric, and all these are heavier canvas/upholstery types.  I've got plans for the two on the right, but I'm still contemplating the others.  

In addition, I dug out these two older Ikea patterns that I had buried in my stash bin.

The olive green never really meshed with the other colours I had for decorating, hence the burying.  I decided they'd be perfect for cushions for our new futon (that's it hiding under there) and coordinate nicely with my dalmatian-print fleece throw.

Hopefully some of those other fabrics will find projects, but for now I've got a place to start.