December 2018

December began without much hope of sewing. As I keep saying, I've had trouble carving out that time for myself.  I think that part of it, to be honest, was feeling a bit blah on living in this huge, crowded, polluted city. The weather was particularly awful in November and the first half of December - overcast and smoggy with very little sun.

I attempted to  jumpstart my sew-jo with a tiny project.  We had a Girl Scout campout in mid-December, and bandanas were on the packing list.  I used to have a drawer full of bandanas, but it turns out that only one survived my ruthless pre-move purge - I forgot about the fact that maybe my kids would need bandanas at some point too.  Hoping that it would jumpstart my sew-jo, I decided to make a couple the day before the campout.

2019 Sewing Goals

I wasn't planning to make a sewing goals post this year.  I actually wasn't really planning to make any sewing goals, since my time at the machines has been so limited.  But while browsing Bloglovin' this evening, I was energized and motivate to lay out some priorities and plans for the next twelve months.  I think this may actually help me to maximize the sewing time that I do have, since I won't be floundering around wondering what to do.

Top 5 Hits of 2018

Though the move to South America hampered my sewing production somewhat, I think what I did make was fairly successful.  2018 was, in particular, the year of the dress for me. Counting my pinafores, I made seven dresses this year, and three of them are in my top 5.

Top 5 Misses of 2018

My 2018 sewing wasn't particularly interesting, but I ended up with a lot of pieces that got a lot of wear.  Choosing my top 5 misses was relatively easy, then, as a few things I made just didn't get worn very much.

2018 in Review

Well, it's time for another review post! Writing this post last year was an involved process, but I've been happy multiple times this year that I put in the effort. That post (and the monthly round-ups I did this year) have been very helpful references for me.

My sewing was broken up by our move in 2018, and it's taking me some time to figure out how to fit my hobby into life here.  But I feel as though I was definitely more purposeful in both my sewing and fabric purchasing in 2018 than I have ever been before.

First, let's talk about the sewing.

In 2018, I sewed 73 items.  (If that sounds like a lot, consider that I really do mean "items" - so whether I spent four weeks working on a dress, or hemmed a square of fabric to make a bandana, either way that counts as one item.)  Of those 73 pieces, 47 percent (34 items) were for myself, and 53 percent (39 items) were for others.  Here's the visual breakdown of what I sewed for myself this year.

November 2018

Just a wee bit of sewing happened in November this year.

PROJECTS

I sewed a black velvet shrug using this Lekala pattern (my first, thanks to a gift voucher from lovely generous Nicole). I needed the shrug to wear with my Marine Ball gown. I was nervous submitting my measurements, thinking, what if it is too small, but it fit quite well. I would have liked a little more coverage on the sides and upper chest, but based on the line drawings, I think this fits as it is intended to.  It used about 3/4 of a yard of some stretch velvet that I purchased locally for this purpose.

July and October 2018

Oooh, this move has really kicked me in the behind a little bit. I have found it difficult to find time for sewing, much less time for blogging. I really miss both, but just haven't been able to figure out how to get the time in.

In any case, I've determined to finish up what I started with my monthly roundups and yearlong tally of fabric in and out, so there will be a few posts forthcoming even though I haven't sewed much of anything lately. There was no sewing or fabric-buying activity at all in August and September, but here are the stats for July and October.

JULY PROJECTS COMPLETED:

A Blackwood cardigan using 2 yards of cotton windowpane knit I bought from Cali Fabrics in June. Due to fabric shortage the windowpanes on the neckband don't line up with the ones on the body, and the neckband pulls the body a little too tightly.  I haven't worked out how to salvage it yet, but I do wear it around the house because it's cozy.

JULY FABRIC PURCHASES: 

4 yards of olive green cotton/lycra bottom weight for a pair of Ginger Jeans and maybe another pinafore.

OCTOBER PROJECTS COMPLETED:

2.5 yards of the olive green bottomweight I bought in July for another pair of jeans.  Blogged here.