Those garments that have left the wardrobe involved some dubious choices - wrong fabric for pattern, wrong garment for me, incorrect sizing - but they did all provide an opportunity to learn.
In sewing we don't always learn quickly from our mistakes sometimes we have to repeat them many times before the lesson sinks in. Maybe this is true of life too I am just more conscious of it with sewing! I have got better at knowing what garments I like for my shape and how those garments should fit - how much ease they should have. My number of sewing mishaps has diminished significantly over the past two years.
Dresses have been re-discovered and this category of my wardrobe has expanded significantly. Because I wear trousers so much my tops never seem to be quite suitable to wear with skirts. The proportions never seem to leave me feeling I am looking my best. With dresses I don't have to worry about the combination being wrong I have the top and bottom in one garment.
My overlocker and I are also now friends. I feel confident using it, more able to manipulate the fabric around the corners without chopping some vital part off. The blog has also helped focus my attention - enabling me to sew consistently, be less sporadic. So I think all in all it has been a good sewing year for me.
Taking photos for the blog is still something I am getting used to and I am no less wooden at the end of the year than I was at the beginning.
In the photo montage I haven't necessarily chosen the most obvious picture to showcase the garment and the way some of them came out it actually shows other parts of my outfit more than the self-made item. But it does capture my outfits and what I have done sewing wise over the year.
Silhouette Patterns Traditional red flower dress
Bargello quilt kimono jacket
Vogue 1454 DKNY Gorgeous butterflies top
Megan Nielsen Briar sweet bubbles tee
Butterick 6232 morse dot sun top
Style Arc Rosie Elevenses top
Silhouette Patterns Ice-cream shop sweater
TSW Odette zebra top
Home Sewing Windswept swirl top
Ready to Sew Janis Two Ronnies top
Style Arc Maris moon top
Self drafted leggings and Vogue 8976 tree top
TSW Odette tundra top
Silhouette Patterns peach rayon knit sweater
Home Sewing Meandering chrysanthemums swirl top and Scottie bag
Silhouette Patterns Giorgio's busy city dress
Ready to Sew Janis feather top
Self drafted Tessuti leggings and TSW Bristol top
Papercut Patterns Bowline NY circuit sweater
Vogue 1250 DKNY Elevenses dress
Vogue 1836 Issey Miyake Gorgeous raincoat
Silhouette Patterns Traditional Ahipara dress
Self drafted Tessuti leggings
Ready to Sew Janis sand bar top
Vogue 1203 Tracy Reese zebra cowl top
RTW alteration Moochi revel tank
Vogue 1203 Tracy Reese blue wavy stripe cowl top
Vogue 1250 DKNY Meandering chrysanthemums dress
Style Arc Hedy Liberty dress
I wanted to include the photos for my year in review in arty montages. I found a review which recommended a piece of free online software called Fotojet. You make your collage and then save the result as an image. You can determine the size and quality of this image too. So I decided to have a play with it and have spent many a happy hour manipulating photos in it. Only to go back to the automated collage tool in Google Photos. Here is one of my attempts with Fotojet.
The reason I went back to Google was because Fotojet only gave me the appearance of control so I got frustrated when my montage didn't show the bit of garment I wanted to show or I couldn't make it small enough to fit everything in. Google Photos doesn't always show the images as I want them but I start off knowing this so am more accepting of the results. So in the interests of doing a year in review post before the end of January I gave in and settled for the Google Photo montages.
And what about the year ahead?
The idea of choosing a word to represent what I want from the coming year appeals to me but I can't come up with a word that really resonates. Probably because my life was so work ruled last year the only word that I keep coming back to is BALANCE. Not sure it is multi-dimensional enough for what I want of the coming year. Yet if you think of it in a wider context of social balance; balance and harmony; emotional balance; savings balance - maybe it is my word. And given my age maybe I could hope for temperature balance although this is somewhat out of my control. I will continue to think about this but the word is growing on me.
From a sewing perspective having just gone through twelve-months of photos I have noticed a bit of a theme on my sewing table. The pile of possibles. I would like it to be gone with all the items made not tidied away into a box. So maybe that is my resolution for the year to turn the possible into finished. There is another item to be added to the possible pile which I cut out between Christmas and New Year and has been sitting on the ironing board ever since. As the cutting out is the part I find most tedious you would think that once I have completed that stage the rest would be easy.
My excuses are feeble. The yellow top in the foreground on the right wasn't made because I needed to change the overlocker thread. The pile on the right is a half made Dana Marie Designs 1007 Kimono Jacket which stalled because I didn't like the fabric used for the sleeve, but when you consider I bought the replacement sleeve fabric on 21 February 2011 (memorable date because the replacement fabric came from the Korean quilt shop/cafe which didn't survive the earthquake) it should really be finished by now. Then there is..... A jacket not finished in time for our trip to England in May 2016. The muslin of my Flat Bottom Flo pants which has never made final version status. A cardigan not finished for my trip to Design Outside the Lines in October 2016 yet the top made from the leftovers has been made and worn. The TSW Zayn top bought and cut out in huge anticipation when the pattern was first released. Etc etc etc.
If I took a sewing project to Wellington each week they could be finished and at least from a work life perspective I would be on the journey to achieving balance.
A very productive year and I spotted the teapot top you made me. I'm looking forward to wearing that next summer. I think balance is good word. Perhaps it could balance of types of projects or balance of WIPs and new projects.
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