2014 - A Year of Sewing

Well, all things considered this has been a really good year for my sewing. In the grand scheme of things I know I really didn't make all that much, but when you compare it to my output in previous years it's an astronomical increase, lol. Something clicked with me at the end of the summer and I started to crank things out, all of it spurned on by having success with one dress. Heck, I even made enough wardrobe items to warrant giving them their own tab at the top of my blog :) You can click that tab for specifics about each of the things I made.

So here's the breakdown of what I made:

• 1 dress
• 7 tops
• 2 skirts
• 5 sweaters

I certainly spent a lot of time fitting my upper half this year! That's 15 finished items - not bad considering most of them were made September of later. These are the items that I finished - there were several others started that ran into snags that I just couldn't diagnose yet. One of these days I will re-address my WIPs since I really would like to have something to show for all that work, but life got in the way this year and I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Even though I feel like I make very little in comparison to many of the other blogs I read, I am very proud of the items I made this year :) Most of these I wear very often - some even once a week! My obvious trends from this year are knitting sweaters, refashioning/refitting thrifted items, and my biggest - knit t-shirts! I officially have three TNT patterns: the Plantain by Deer + Doe, Parisian Top by Go To Patterns, and the Renfrew by Sewaholic. I love each one of these that I make and they just get better each time as I learn more about how different knit fabrics behave. Plus they only take a few hours to make

So, what types of goals/hopes do I have for 2015?
Clearly, I need more things for my bottom half, lol. I focused on my upper body since I knew I prefer that area to be fitted. This was true with dresses as well - I tend to make my muslins of just the bodice since I favor full skirts and this has worked for the most part. In the coming year, I hope to have more successes to show for my work. It's kind of funny that I get so frustrated with sewing and toss things in the corner, but in knitting I'm fine with ripping something out completely and restarting multiple times. The only explanation I can think of is that I'm more confident in fitting knits - they stretch, hooray, lol!

I'm sure I will make more t-shirts this coming year, and I hope to get a few higher quality solids knits so that I can really make some basics that will get tons of wear. I know some people think making plain t-shirts is boring, but I'm thrilled to think that I can make some exactly how I want them and not just rely on what Target has available at the time, lol. I only have one main commitment that I want to treat as a hard set goal for 2015 - novelty print dresses! I love all the fun prints I see on Modcloth, and I know I can make them myself for a fraction of the cost. I came close to a TNT with Simplicity 2444, but I want something with straight darts so I could use it for striped prints too. I'm going to start with Simplicity 1873 and I'm confident it will be what I'm thinking of. I also WILL work out the fitting on the Colette Dahlia. I was so excited about it when it was released, but it has been an incredible headache resulting in wasted fabric and time. I LOVE the design though, so I will persevere - I may even seek outside help soon.

As far as my bottom half goes, I have plans for simple skirts (a corduroy Peggy by Blue Ginger Doll is traced and ready to start work on), and depending on how well things go I may try out some simple shorts. I never buy shorts because I don't like them, well, short. I'm not talking making jeans or anything yet since I'd like to get more successes under my belt before I delve that deep, but some cotton prints could be fun. We'll see.

My biggest goal is to just learn to appreciate and enjoy the process of sewing more. As much as I love the sewing blogosphere, it can be easy to feel like you stink when you see all these wonderful successes had by others. I keep having to tell myself that there was much more work put into those makes than the blog shows and most of those people have been sewing clothing much longer than me. I emphasize clothing because I've known how to sew for most of my life but a purse is a big difference from fitting something to your body. I'm pleased that I've stayed positive as much as I have, but I still need to improve my patience so I have more fun and enjoy the journey :)

Here's to kicking 2014 out and hoping for better things in 2015!