2013 Sewing Year in Review

My compilation sewing photos from this year have run to five pages! I kicked off the year with a holiday from work and went on a sewing bender in January



Top row: LTTS drawstring bag, LEGO Jumprope dress, 2x LEGO Sketchbook shirts, Ice cream dress
2nd row: Ice cream dress, Japanese shorts, Family reunion top, Swingset skirt
3rd row: Japanese blouse and Puppet Show shorts, After School top and Japanese skort, After School top detail, Hopscotch dress
4th row: Hopscotch dress with chicken!, Bubble dress, Birthday party dress, LTTS Penguin backpack
5th row: Music Class blouse, Japanese bag, Happy Homemade hoodies x2

A couple of months passed and I was inspired to get into my Japanese sewing books by the wonderful series that Cherie hosted. I enjoyed the posts and found the explanations excellent but I'm always one to figure things out for myself and really just wanted to sew along, and so my blog was born.

More than anything it just had to be created as the Film Petit idea of an Elle Driver Moschino suit was under way...

Top row: Japanese bag 60% size, Field Trip Cargo pants, Field Trip T, After School pants
2nd row: Japanese dress and bag, Japanese dress, blankets for babies x2
3rd row: MADE dressing gown from scraps, Elle Driver trench, trousers and eyepatch, School Photo dress
4th row: After School Jeans, Field Trip Cargo pants, After school "gay pride" pants, After school pants with Music Class blouse
5th row: Woodland Stroll cape, Rolelrskate dress, Sleepover pyjamas, Sleepover pants and flashback skinny Ts
 

What else happened up there? I sewed something for myself! Admittedly it was a pretty simple cape but it's proven to be quite successful and was the start of the idea that I could maybe, just maybe, make stuff for me. During this time I also bought myself my overlocker and those two little Flashback T-shirt pyjama tops were the start of a love affair with the overlocker...

Top row: Flashback/Sleepover pyjamas, sewing a movie screen!, Ottobre dress, School photo dress
2nd row: Flashback t-shirts x 3 two of them with ruffles!, P's pile of long sleeve T-shirts
3rd row: My Kurt Vonnegut tribute Field Trip raglan, Field trip in wool, Flashback Skinny T, Field Trip layered rocket T
4th row: Japanese velour blouse with flower, that Japanese bag again, School Days coats, Sleepover pyjama top
5th row: Sleepover pyjamas bottoms, then another pair. "flipped" Rollerskate dress

Winter was upon us and I was spending the dark evenings crazily knocking things up with my new overlocker. The Ottobre dress was an outsized disaster that has been somewhat salvaged and worn a few times. While my poor little ice skating bear dress has never been worn. Still, I didn't care. This was one of those things I wanted to make, and that was because I'd discovered the world of blog link ups and challenges. My only "flipped" pattern to date but I've got that button proudly displayed and I'm following along.

Top row: Linen top for Lilah, modelled by P, Book Report dress, LTTS Explorer vest
2nd row: Sailboat Top, Music Class blouse, Field Trip sweater, Field trip with car applique
3rd row: pattern mash pants, Field trip footy T, Ruffled Flashback skinny T, Regular Flashback
4th row: Flashback T and Bedtime Story pants, Bedtime Story pyjamas, LTTS drawstring bag, Kenzo knock off pants
5th row: Once upon a sewing machine's ruffled PJs, Japanese blouse, Diplomat dress, Mystery Nicole shirts

There was a lot of fun had in that block of sewing. Challenging myself to make the linen swing tank for Lucinda was fantastic fun and quite simply the most rewarding thing I've done.

Onto another silly idea that had to be made, I did some more pattern mashing and created my Kenzo pants. I seem to have mislaid the Tiger sweater photo from this set, but I was continuing my new found love of painting stuff on clothes and amusing myself in creating another couture knock off after my Moschino suit. I also taught myself some blogging HTML and made my first "button" in honour of my pattern mash pants.

To have been invited to pattern test Once Upon A Sewing Machine's Ruffled PJ's was a real honour. I had figured I was going to need to start using my facebook account and stalking the clever folk who make patterns if I ever wanted to join the "reviewers" set. That's just not my style, so I was really thrilled when I was asked to test the pattern and the pink one's (which also seem to have missed the picture selection) are A's absolute favourite things in the world.

Top row: Musci Class skirt, Kindy hat pocket thing, LTTS Puppet theatre, Nature Walk hoodie
2nd row: Happy homade hoodies for Halloween cloaks, Hat week again!, fairy tale "Cinderella" dress
3rd row: Japanese blouse take 2, Feed the Animals coin purses, Have It All Wallet, hand sewing
4th row: LTTS Travel Quilt back and front, Lisette Diplomat dress take 2, That Japanese bag, again!
5th row: Have It All Wallet, Flashback skinny T's with transfer and stencil, LTTS tutu

As the year drew to a close there were lots of gifts to sew. Gifts for p's wonderful kindergarten as well as for family at Christmas time.

My idea of making everything in the Little Things To Sew book grew wings, gained a sponsor and a Flickr group, and I'm now getting flogged in my own race by Sharon aka mama_knowles03! The fun part is seeing the Flickr pool grow photo by photo and the list of members which, for me, reads like a who's who of the sewing I admire.

Since I sew to amuse myself there were no misses. (sewing to clothe myself would be a laughable idea!) Anything that was frustrating to make taught me something. The freaky sewing luck I had where things worked, patterns/stripes matched, or fabric remnants were just enough, was the icing on the cake. Having a blog (sorry, still can't use "blog" as a verb!) and sharing things made me feel like less of a craft nerd and like I was part of something bigger.

I'm not one to make resolutions but I'd be very happy to keep doing this kind of stuff. It's such fun isn't it?!