Yes, it’s that time of year again, and I’ve been enjoying everyone else’s summaries and best/worst lists, so I need to buckle up and get on with my own. I’ve spent a couple of hours listing my posts, doing some numbers, and totting things up, and surprised myself somewhat.
Numbers
I’ve blogged far fewer posts, with sizeable gaps, so I’ve felt more obliged to drop in from time to time to post an ‘I’m still alive’ piece. 74 posts over the year, more than I thought, but a considerable drop down from 2016, ’17, ’18 [186,165,90 posts respectively]
My 5 most-viewed posts were ‘Can Do Kondo’ [400 views], ‘The Lying Bitch That’s My Wardrobe’ [379 views], ‘Da Bomb’ [Bombshell swimsuit, 351 views], ‘Purple Passion Pants’ [ Chelsea pants at 345 views] and ‘Cashmere Coat #5’ [342 views]
I sewed:
26 garments for me, plus one costume for World Book Day.
2 shirts for the missus
1 dog
LOTS of costumes for the school play and the LGBT panto:
75 garments from scratch, lots more alterations and re-fashionings
26 hats, masks, odds and sods
AND my school sewing club is thriving, with several kids completing their trousers last term, and itching to start on tops in the New Year.
Not as bad as I thought!
What have I spent?
The costume making got me rummaging through my old patterns, and using lots of them multiple times, which always feels very thrifty. All the costume making let me use up all sorts of stuff, old zips, buttons, scraps and so on. It was all fun, very creative and I got to make a transformation dress woohoo! I’ve still not got rid of the crateful of fabrics I’d sorted out to go to a Facebook destash, but did scavenge some of it out for costume making. I’ve still been buying goodies, and not got round to doing much with them apart from move them from pile to pile, musing over combos…swings and roundabouts.
What next?
The sewing room is in a HIDEOUS mess…time for one of my deep purges and sort outs I think, hopefully before I go back to work in another week.
Going through the year’s posts reminded me to go and look at the 2019 SWAP rules… I’m not madly inspired, but it’s meant to be a thoughtful process, so even starting late may get me on track. I’ll have a ponder and come back to that one.
More for the missus- she adores her white shirts, and has managed to find a little kilt on line which fits her reasonably well, so I can finally get to grips with the beautiful Black Watch tartan wool I got for her YEARS ago, make a pattern from the RTW one, tweak it a little, and make her happy again lol
Something for World Book Day…got to be Gentleman Jack inspired hasn’t it?
Although we haven’t done ANY steampunk meets this year, I may make myself a new corset to suit my thicker girth, and possibly jump on the costume community’s bandwagon of sewing something inspired by the 20s. Hmmm another one to ponder.
My wardrobe contents are being well-worn to work of course, and it’s great to have so many co-ordinating garments. I still need to get some really GOOD trousers though- most of the last year’s attempts have not been worn as much as I would like as there’s something slightly off with all of them dammit. VERY few items which have not been touched for so long they clearly need to go [and some of the ones I cleared out LAST time are still hanging in the hall, waiting attention. Oops.] A separate post will be needed for that too, and a mahoosive cutting out session will be a good way to start me off.
Top 5 makes
The cashmere coat and hat of course
McCall’s 6436 shirts, 2 each for me and the missus {but I’m calling this just one lol] Skulls and trees for me, both white but different weights for the missus
Another multi-use, New Look 6735 T shirts. I made SIX of these babies, in all sorts of fabrics.: bees, science chalkboard, stripes and combos of stripes and plain scraps. Love ’em all
Jennifer Lauren ‘Afternoon Blouse’ in cute otter print cotton- I LOVE this it always makes me smile
Toto! Pedigree Royal’s ‘Scribble’ in very posh fur with all the trimmings. Far from perfect, but my first ever effort at something like this, and now happily adopted by my mum and dad, who treat him like he’s alive, lying him down on a cushion at night. Sigh. They’re where I get my crazy from, what can I say?
Not so good…
Trousers. Always trousers. I’m too impatient to spend sufficient time toiling and re-toiling, and just dash on. Eventually I get annoyed and do some cobbled fixes on the overlocker to take up the excess [it’s ALWAYS excess, on hips or crotch]. I knew I needed to make plenty of trousers this year, I’ve nearly killed the reliable pair of smart black trousers I made years ago, and wear them at least once a week for work. I tried the Greenstyle Chelsea flares, and a couple more incarnations of tried and true Style Arc ‘Linda’…and rarely wear any of them unless desperate. All are too baggy, need constant hoiking up, and annoy me. All are going to the sewing room this week for some sort of fix.
The bombshell swimsuit sort of worked, but the more I look at the photos, the less happy I am. I got another pattern, less revealing, and some more swimsuit fabric, so may bash on with that at some point.
The lovely ivory silk satin ‘Victoria’ blouse from Style Arc, so carefully put together with much hand sewing…SPLIT under the arm. It makes me sad. The fabric may be too delicate to repair, but I will try at some point. So sad…
The ultra cosy thick jumper in navy wool/acrylic [Butterick 6248] is SO warm I can’t really wear it…more sads.
Pretty good really!
Right, one more post to write on my final make of the year, back soon!
Happy New Year everyone!
Busy year for you and very productive too–I love the costumes. Dawn’s hair is always great too! Happy new year to you both. Oh, and my partner actually started playing cello seriously, so I have the sound of that in the house now. The rental cello looks more traditional though and not gothy-spooky like the one at yours–
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doesn’t cello sound gorgeous? I love it. I honestly didn’t realise I’d done so much sewing, and so little blogging…time to up my game for 2020 I think!
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I’ve done none of either myself, so I can’t judge you. To me the best part of cello is that even if it is full of mistakes, it still sounds fine, especially through closed doors!
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How is the chalkboard knit holding up? Fading? Breaking? I’ve bought so much black knit that just failed and faded, I’m soliciting reviews now.
I’m surprised the sewing kids did trousers before tops, but I wish them every bit of good luck. And a whole lot of it for you and yours, too.
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chalkboard knit is fabbo- really good quality jersey, with good recovery. Baggy elasticated/drawstring trousers are easier than dealing with sleeves and fastenings- they’re doing really well. I opted to let them pink seams rather than any other more complicated finishing just to get fast results. They are insanely excited, it’s really cute!
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I am surprised you actually managed anything at all for yourself, in the cracks of all that extravagant costume production… Really fun for the rest of us to read about though.
I only have one word for pants: Burda. It’s much easier to get somewhere if you are starting with something that’s well cut to begin with. Also: get one down and make it over and over. It’s been scientifically tested (sample of 2 people, but dozens of pairs) that making the same pants in different colors and fabrics is absolutely impossible for the public to perceive, even if you tell them, while making a very different pattern every time in the same color leads to people thinking you only have one pair.
That said my January plan is to hire the local fitting genius to help me get a good block going – between the physical therapist reforming my shoulders drastically, and the girlfriend stuffing me with good food, I need some help. The previous block was from a theater costume person and allowed me to get every pattern in shape easily, so I highly recommend that approach if you have repeated difficulties with bottoms.
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Sounds like good advice- I was fine with Style Arc Linda, but my ever increasing girth, plus non bum and slim hips does make me a weird shape to fit! I’m just very lacking in patience! I’m totally with you on re-using the same style infinitely, I already do this with favourite T shirts and dress patterns, no one ever notices!
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I’m in awe of your productivity as usual! Really enjoyed seeing all the costumes; that must have been a lot of fun.
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It’s an excellent way to keep sewing for sheer fun, when you don’t actually need all that many clothes lol
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Your costume making is fantastic – so much work.
I’ve found my non-bum and slim hips fit much better into boys’ jeans. I am tiny, so am currently wearing Next 152cm boys jeans – aimed at 11-12 year olds. All RTW women’s trousers have the same problems – baggy bum and hips and make me look odd, whereas the boys jeans fit and I don’t look so deformed.
Having tried really hard to fit a couple of patterns of proper women’s trousers, with massive bum and crotch alterations, and not being really happy with any result, I tried making a boys’ jeans pattern and got a fit first time. Have you tried men’s jeans or trousers? You can reverse the fly to feminise them
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In my teens, ALL jeans were made for men, and Levi’s were my thing…then they started making them to hips and ass, and they’ve not been right since! I did try a men’swear pattern some years back and they were awful [ but it was from Hot Patterns which are totally shite, so hey ho] Style Arc crotch shaping is quite flat and narrow, and they do actually have a specific couple of ‘flat bottom’ styles, it’s my excessive fat belly and-ahem- lady area that cause the issues right now. I’ll get there. I’m not actually inclined to try for proper jeans, I am a devotee of elastic waistbands these days! Again, a slight adaptation of an existing Style Arc may be the way forward…
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Impressive production levels here – and you’re still blogging way more than me. I think being busy actually helps you fit more in! Well done 😊
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It’s been down to the costuming I think- you get things finished quickly!
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It’s been fun following along with all the costumes you made this year! Whatever that school pays you, it’s not enough haha
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