Tuesday 30 December 2014

Sewing in 2014

It's time to look back on the year that was. This is my version of Gillian's wonderful Top 5 in 2014, but I'm going to try and keep it short and sweet and fit everything into one post.

What I've Sewn in 2014:
I've recorded 132 Garments in my sewing notebook, not including a few half makes / WIPs.
Of these, 95 were made for myself. It feels like I sewed a lot more for others than I actually I did. I guess that says something about the extra mental effort and time it takes to sew for others. The below pie chart shows the number of garments I made by recipient.


Suffice to say my wardrobe is pretty full! Focusing only on me, me, me the below pie charts shorts the number of each type of garment I sewed for my own wardrobe. One quarter of everything I sewed for myself was dresses! No surprises there. 



I mostly sewed up Indie Patterns with only 10 garments made from Vogue, Simplicity or McCall's Patterns. The Indie Pattern Companies I made most garments from were Colette (15 garments) and Grainline Studio (12). Overall I sewed up garments from 38 different designers!

Highlights of 2014:
This is super hard to narrow down. I've sewn so many things I love this year. So, I've chosen a few most made and worn patterns that fitted effortlessly into my wardrobe and I constantly reach for: Coppelia Cardy
Alder Shirtdresses and Moss Skirts. I'm so darn chuffed with the way my colour blocked Jackie coat turned out and I feel proud every time Tim wears shorts, shirts or the Albion Coat I made him.

Left to right, top to bottom: Grainline Studio Alder Shirtdress; Iconic patterns Jackie Coat; Colette Albion coat; Grainline Studio Moss mini; Papercut Pattern Coppelia cardigan; Colette Negroni Shirt

Misses of 2014:
While quite a few items didn't turn out as planned these are four that I finished that have had least wear. The Elisalex dress took me almost the whole year to complete and now I cant stand to look at it and the grumpy gathered skirt was much the same. I made a few mistakes and now cant stand to wear it. Knit dresses are just are not for me! I'll probably pass my Moneta dress pattern on to someone who will get more use from it.


Reflections of past goals:
  1. I'm amazed at how much I've learnt this year. I sewed like a maniac, particularly at the beginning of the year when I took a few months off my studies and work. I don't think I'll ever have the drive to sew as much and as quickly as I did at that time and that's ok with me. It was a great experience to learn as much as I could in a short period of time.
  2. Slowing down and enjoying each sewing process: I found a nice balance. I really took my time on certain projects like my colour blocked Jackie coat but I also enjoy racing through an easy project from time to time.
  3. Get social with my sewing buddies:  Success! I attended Social sewing days, fabric shop crawls, coffee/lunch catch up, Mocktails and Sewaway. 
  4. Participate in Me-Made-May: I participated, wore me-made everyday and blogged all about it. I really enjoyed MMM '14 and look forward to doing it again next year.
  5. Sew Cheap Challenge: In January I blogged about my Tips and Tricks for Sewing on the cheap and a taste of some of the great free patterns available online. I also made a goal to Make 12 new-to-me free patterns during 2014, one for each month, and review them here. I achieved this goal and have some of my favourite garments because of it. I also have a few wadders. I wont be continuing with this monthly challenge in 2014 but I will continue to make up and review free patterns as the urge hits.
New Goals:
  1. Pants: yeah...I should make pants. I don't wear pants much as I don't like the way RTW pants fit around pretty much any of my lower region. But perhaps making my own will change my pants wearing world. Or perhaps it will be terrible awful experience?
  2. Winter coat/jacket: I'd like to make a yearly tradition of making myself a new winter coat. I'm pretty keen to try out the Minoru jacket and a women's version of the Albion.
  3. Sew more things I don't have to iron! I'm wearing dresses all the time because I just cant be bothered ironing my blouses. I need to iron more, and make more tops I don't have to iron.
That's it, thanks for sticking with me. Wishing everyone a happy and sewing-filled New Year. 

No comments:

Post a Comment