Its a few weeks in to the new year but .. Happy new year! I had so much fun over the holidays, despite being sick for Christmas. I wish you the best in the new year/decade.
Back to last year, I started the year being accepted to the Love Notions Ambassador Team. Then midway in summer, I joined the Minerva Makers Team. Both have been fun opportunities to challenge myself.
My first Love Notions post was a tutorial on lengthening and shortening patterns, which I do a lot of being petite and wanting maxi length of everything. I used the Cartwheel Collection dress and Rhapsody Blouse as examples.
The second post for Love Notions was all about how best to work with sweater knits. I made the Canyon Cardigan for my sister using two different fabrics lace for the back and sweater knit for the rest.
My two Minerva projects both involved a lot of dying of fabrics. I was gifted some cotton fabric with lacquer. I knew right away that the lacquer would not take the dye, providing a beautiful contrast. The posts for these haven’t come out yet, but here’s a peek.
I also discovered (well, discovered isn’t the right word because I knew this long before) that I really like embroidery. But I did really enjoy the freedom free-motion embroidery gave me; and I stepped up my embroidery making with an impromptu birthday gift for a friend. Which led to expanding into selling embroidered portraits and art. If you haven’t already, visit my shop and follow my embroidery Instagram to see that side of things.
2019 was definitely the year of dresses:
TWO ballet dresses,
TWO twin mommy-and-me dresses (Yellow dresses) (Peach dresses),
an epic birthday dress for Lilli (a knockoff of the Threads feature by Marcy Harriel),
AND a few others.
My biggest accomplishment this year has to be something that was a long time in the making. I have wanted to make salwar kurtas/kameezes for at least 10 years now. At first, I wasn’t confident enough to try it, then I had to look for the right pattern. After making my anarkali in 2018 using By Hand London Elisalex, I dove into changing the pattern to make a kurta. The black one is made using an old maxi skirt I no longer wore and the purple one is my Minerva project. Of course, I made a salwar kurta for Lilli BEFORE attempting my own .. you know, test run of things.
I think my favorite dress for me is the Love Notions Sonata I made for the secret sewist. My favorite dress I made for my daughter has to be this one with white embroidered from that I accented with a deep pink/red.
There were a few unfinished projects like my husband’s coat using Thread Theory’s Goldstream I’m hoping to have that done this winter though. There are a few dresses I have cut out for Lilli as well.
Here is the run down of everything :
Garments
Dress: 6 adult; 9 child
Skirts: 1 adult
Pants:
Blouses & Tops: 3 adult; 2 child
Underwear: 3 child
Pajamas: 2 child
Swimwear:
Kurta: 2 adult; 1 child
Aprons: 2 child
Alterations: 2 adult
Home and Accessories
Bags: 1 backpack
Doll Clothes: 2 for a stuffed owl
Embroidery Art
Portraits: 2 adult
Art: 2 adult
Coasters: 4
Unfinished: 2
I have a few big projects a lined up for this year: first one would be my husband’s coat and the other one is my sister’s wedding dress! I am a bit scared about that one but with enough muslins I should be fine. I just hope there is enough time for it since the date hasn’t been set!
Do you like to look back and see your accomplishments? I want to sew more for those that I have neglected (aka husband) and sew some salwar kurtas for myself. I have one in the works already but other projects took priority.
What are your plans for 2020?
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