Top 5 Goals for New Year

Time for that final list just in time for the new year, it's my top 5 goals.

1. Save for a new sewing machine.
My dear Janome has been with me since the mid 90's and has been beaten to hell.  Getting it serviced in the summer helped a bit, but some damage just can't be undone. It's time for a new machine, preferably one that makes pretty buttonholes.  Sadly this means less fabric purchasing as I try to save up my pennies.

2. Continue to sew from the fabric stash.
Out of 65-ish garments completed this year, 40 were from stashed fabric.  I'm surprised and pleased with that total. One could almost call 2013 a stash busting success....if I hadn't bought at least as much fabric as was sewed. I don't keep any hard records of stash in/out. All I know is that my closet storage area is still packed to the gills  In 2014 I'm gonna try to sew up more fabric than I purchase, god help me.

3. Learn some new skills.
It's relatively easy to stay in my current sewing skill plateau.  I'll also admit to being annoyed about learning new sewing skills.  I don't like finding out that I'm not good at something immediately. "You mean I have to practice at this? SOB!"  Even so I'd like to became better at my craft. My goal is to read at least one of those cool new sewing books I got for Christmas.

4. Draft a few of my own ideas.
I've got the skills and the know how, I'm just lazy and easily distractible. However I harbor a certain about of guilt about my languishing education as I purchase other people's patterns. MOAR PATTERNS?  Let's make that more patterns from me. For concrete tracking purposes we'll say 2 self drafted patterns for the year is the goal.

5. Give back to the sewing community.
This is an area where I feel some improvement is needed.  Maybe because the sewcialist community is so giving in general, it's hard to keep up. :)  I've directly benefited from the generously of many people in 2013 and I'd like to "play it forward." In 2014 I'm planning on doing some more pattern drafting tutorials/fitting tutorials and hosting a few giveaways.

Hope everyone had a great Holiday Season and is ready to start a New Year.  I'm hoping my sewing mojo returns from it's holiday vacation soon cause I've got plenty of plans.  Also I have some exciting, well exciting to me, sewing related news to share with you soon. Squee!

Top 5 Inspirations for 2013

I might not have enough time, money, or energy, but inspiration I've got plenty of. Maybe you can tell my brain to stop keeping me awake at night with various ideas.  Or maybe I should just stop visiting some of my top 5 sources of inspiration.  Yeah right, you'll have to pry my iPad out of my cold dead hands.

  1. Twitter -  This actually means all of talented ladies that I talk to on a regular bias on twitter.  I can't even count the number of sew-a-longs that were spontaneously generated this year.  Half of the time I was just in the background yelling stuff like "I Like Red Garments!"  Someone should really turn around and say, "Shut the F*** Up Donny! You're out of your depth."  Thankfully twitter sewcialists are nice and also seem to enjoy "The Big Lebowski."  Now I would like my undies back.

2. Instagram - I'm married to a semi-Luddite.  If a technology is not related to watching movies/TV then he doesn't see the point to it. I really wanted to be on instagram ages ago, but lacked any sort of device to run the app. Then my lovely sister gifted me an iPad and now I'm on there alllll the time.  I love seeing process shots, people's fabric purchases, finished garment pics.  It's pretty much my twitter feed distilled into pictures and I Love It Like My Own Child.

3. Kollabora - Confession, I'm not the best about regularly checking any sewing websites. But when I do get in the mood to do a little random browsing then Kollabora is where I go first.  Their project search is easy to use and I like the large thumbnails.  Often I just browse over the new projects posted to catch garments from bloggers I might not know about.

4. Pinterest -  I'm not a master pinner or anything, but if I want to see a bunch of RTW inspiration then pinterest is the first place to go.  Motorcycle jacket inspiration? Just do a search.  I also love having a place to store all the random garments that I'd like to knock off.  Instant eye candy when ever I'm at a loss of what to sew next.

5. Independent Pattern Designers - Thank God for independent pattern designers people, without them I would so bored.  I don't think of myself as a pattern snob, but this year the Big 4's new offerings have left me cold. Even my favorite Simplicity Project Runway patterns have been a bust.  On the flip side I have enough unsewn independent patterns to last me well into next year.  Bless you intrepid entrepreneurs for giving me fashionable patterns so I don't have to draft my own.  I'm too lazy to do so anyway.

Top 5 Reflections of 2103

Confession - I'm not a big reflections person.  I'm more of the "buy more fabric and plan new projects" type of person.  MOAR NEW THINGS!!......Oh excuse me, I've had a lot of Christmas cookies/candy.   However on reflection, I do have some reflections for the year. Here we go.

1. Being more mindful about fabric purchases pays off in the long run.
This year the fabric budget was reduced and I had to cut down on the impulse purchases. Having to think about a purchase for a few days was good for me.  My purchases ended up being fabrics I was really excited to sew up.

2. I can blog regularly....just not 3 times a week, every week.
This year one of my goals was to blog regularly and for once I stuck to it. There were some hits and misses... turns out scheduling my blogging for a month is not for me.  "No one tells me what to do, not even me!"  I did enjoy coming up with the "Secret stash" segment since it allows some vicarious shopping. ;) There's still some more work to do on this front, but I'm pleased with the progress made.

3.  I like sew-a-longs if they are general in nature.
In the past I've had a lot of trouble joining sew-a-longs and never finishing.  It seems like the whole idea of having a project planned for me never works out.  "You're not the boss of me, I'll sew what I want. I'm a renegade!" Ummmm yeah I've got sewing authority issues.  However sew-a-longs like the "Stash Busting Sew-a-long" and "Red October" were super fun.  If you give me just a general guide line then I'll be happy as a clam.

4. Twitter is so much fun and sometimes dangerous.
Soooooo I joined twitter just to get new fabric posting tweets from Emmaonesock.com. I'm sure none of you are surprised.  Little did I know that there was a whole community of like minded people out there.  I've had a ball talking to people, being inspired and helping out when I can.  Of course the downside is that you can talk about sewing so much that you never actually sew. ;)  Doesn't matter though, Twitter peeps I love you always.

5. I've still got plenty to learn.
When you've been sewing in a vacuum for most of your life it's hard to gauge how good your skills really are.   Meeting so many people on the web gives me plenty of inspiration, but also made me realize that my skills aren't to the level I might think. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of my comfort zone and try learning some new things in the future. Guess I should start reading all those sewing books instead of using them for paper weights.

Top 5 Misses of 2013

Uh Oh, time to air the list of grievances...I mean sewing misses. One of my favorite things to tell people is that muslins keep me from making mistakes garments. I do believe that's true up to a point, but no sewcialist is gonna get through the year without a few missteps.  Now let me don the "Ribbons of Shame."

1. Burda 102
Cool pattern, nice fabric, but they didn't work together at all. Turns out that a mid weight cotton is just too thick with all the seaming going on here.  I still like this pattern, but this dress should just go into the "circular file".

2. Gertie Lobster Shirtwaist.
To recap I thought up the idea for this dress while deep in the "pants fitting cycle of hate" and I might have been a little crazy.  The dress too out there for me to wear and not feel like everyone is looking at me and thinking WTF?  It's well constructed and those lobsters do make me smile, it just sits in the back of the closet. (Still totally worth making it for taking photos with Leila.)

3. Cordova Enforcer
Ummm this just doesn't go with anything I have in the closet. It should because blue and black are main colors in my wardrobe....but no.  It looks great in this pictures, right? Who knows.

4. Tania Culottes.
This is another garment that just didn't get worn. I'd guess that my main problem is the length.  I feel comfortable with shorter lengths when wearing tights, but not in a summer bare leg situation. I'd rather keep my lily white "German" legs covered.

5. Simplicity 2443 the Tree Dress.
This is only a semi-miss because I did wear this garment out of the house several times.  However it always makes me feel fat.  I tell myself that my friends wouldn't lie to me and it looks fine.....and then I continue to feel fat. Oh gathered waistlines, I think you're just not for me.

 
Good news on the germ front - We are all enough recovered to enjoy Christmas.... it's a Festivus Miracle! *Snort giggle*

Top 5 Hits of 2013

Hello blog readers, I'm currently in a germ tsunami with all members of the house falling like dominoes. According to the doctor it's only a "minor sinus thing," but someone in this house has been down with it since the 8th of December. Good news is the the toddler not waking up every 2 hours anymore and I have antibiotics. My husband is still in the "I'm not that sick" stage/state of denial and says he only requires some extra sleep.

Needless to stay sewing has crawled to a stand still and I have no more secret pattern testing posts in reserve. So what better time to do hop aboard the Gillian Crafts top 5 lists train and do a little year end review.

Let's start with the top 5 hits.  Honestly I have more than 5 hits this year but I've narrowed this list down to my super favorites.

1. New Look 6097/Lady Skater Mash-up

I thought it was going to be just a test garment, but it turned into my favorite dress of the season.  Small tantrums were thrown when it was found in the laundry basket instead of being ready to wear. It was in the laundry basket cause I wore it two days ago, but never mind that, it made me feel put together and comfortable. The dress is now covered with pills/grease stains and not fit to wear outside of the house. I'll bury it under the cherry tree and give it a 5 seam ripper salute......and make a new one next summer.

2. Burda 135 Motorcycle Jacket

Sewing a black jacket was a mind numbing process but that baby is a "mother clucking" wardrobe staple. It goes with 90% of my other makes and feels on trend. Right now I wear it inside my icebox of a house to stay warm and make my toddler wonder if I've got a motorcycle gang ready to enforce nap time. Oh yeah kid, they're out there with nun-chucks.

3. Lady Skater Version 2 in ITY.

When the green dress was dirty then this dress was next on the to wear slot. Big flowers on a black background?  Give all such prints to me!! The polyester ITY served me well during the summer, only being too warm to wear on the hottest of days. Other than a little pilling at the waist area, I must rub up against my counter tops a lot, it's good to go next year.

4. Plaid/Ikat Archer

Confession, I love ALL my archers. I could go for a second closet full of Archers. They go great with my faux cowgirl look of skinny jeans and quasi cowboy boots. Some weeks I just wear Archers for a couple days in a row. I am the Archer Queen!  But if I had to pick my favorite, it would my the plaid/ikat one.  Why? Because plaid/ikat is the shit and the handwoven fabric feels like a hug. Mmmm makes me feel happy as soon as I put it on.

Many thanks to Katie for photoshopping me this picture. I laugh every time.

5. Simplicity 2444 Giant Roses Dress
I should really have all my knit Renfrews here but whatever that's boring!  Instead it's the Simplicity 2444 giant roses dress.  This was one of those rare projects that was a joy to sew from start to finish. I can not get over how much I like that big pleated skirt. And the fabric.......the fabric is still my favorite purchase from the summer. Yummy roses I want to eat you like a cake!  Oh good I have some cake that looks like you right here so I just eat that. Nom, nom, nom.

My "watching the toddler" shift is over and it's time to lay in bed playing "Tiny Death Star". Stay well everyone and enjoy the rest of 2013.