A sort of 2014 round up, and some sort of goals for 2015

So after my last post, where I said I was going to try and post more this year, it’s almost the end of January um, February and I’ve yet to get any up…oops! I seem to have lost my sewjo a bit at the moment, and when that goes, everything sewing related goes with it. I do seem to go through definite phases, and when I’m not in a keen sewing phase, my blog reading, blog posting and even my use of twitter, which I use mainly for sewing related stuff, all drop off as well. Conversely, my use of facebook always increases during these phases – seemingly I just can’t keep up with it all all the time, so when one drops off, the other goes up! I am definitely in an ‘obsessed with roller derby’ phase at the moment, and seemingly I only have time to be obsessed with one thing at a time, and so my interest in sewing wanes slightly.

But I am fine with that :) I can’t do all of the things all of the time, and I am lucky that I have multiple hobbies that I enjoy doing – if my interest in one of them drops slightly for a while, it just means that I have more time for other things that I enjoy doing, and that is great! I haven’t been feeling the desperate need to sew, which has also been nice. In fact, I basically haven’t touched my sewing machine so far this year! Usually, when I get a bit of free time at the weekend, I really want to sew, but I also have about 5 other things that I need/want to do, and I can get a bit stressed about trying to fit it all in. But this weekend, when I had some free time on Sunday afternoon, instead of feeling like it was the only time I had to sew, I went over to visit some friends (and their cat!) for a cup of tea, and that was time very well spent. I’ll get back into the sewing when I get back into it :) I’ve got plenty of other projects I need to work on this year, like trying to decorate the downstairs of my house, and so it’s good to have some time to think about those.

So, this post is not the post I sat down to write today (um, and by today, I mean the end of January when I wrote most of this post, but didn’t quite finish it…), but let’s go with it! At the end of last year, I intended to do a round up of 2014, but I didn’t get round to it, so let’s call this a sort of review of 2014, and sort of setting some goals for 2015.

By my count, I made 14 items of clothing for myself last year, although there may be some I’ve missed. Of those, 7 haven’t made it onto the blog yet! At least half of those 7 were made in November/December, and I just haven’t managed to get photos of them yet, due to it always being dark by the time I get home from work! Once I add in Bonnie and Francoise, which did both make it onto the blog, that’s 5 items of clothing (as well a few smaller items – a passport wallet, a glasses case and two pairs of baby leggings) that I made in those two months, which I am pretty pleased with. The end of the year was definitely a productive sewing period for me. Of the 14 I made during the year, 8 were made with knits – I do love the knits for a nice quick win!

My makes consisted of:

– 2 Renfrews (yet to be photographed/blogged)

– Another lady skater (also awaiting photographs)

– Francoise

– 2 Cocos (one awaiting photographs)

– Bonnie

– Espresso leggings

– Miette

– Flora

– Anna

– Zinnia (a bit of a disaster but I will blog about it soon)

– Margot PJ bottoms (you guessed it, waiting for pics!)

– An infinity dress

And the non-garments (only one of which has made it onto the blog so far):

– Passport wallet

– Glasses case

– My grandad’s tie

– Napkins as a wedding gift for some friends

– 2 pairs of baby leggings for the twin daughters of someone in my roller derby team. They were born on my birthday so I feel a particular attachment to them, and they are incredibly cute. They have the leggings I made them in team colours, babygrows with their names and numbers on, and one of the other girls in our team crocheted them super cute jammer and pivot hats!

It was quite a social sewing year as well – I went to 4 meet ups (Rachel’s NYLon meet up in May, Charlotte’s SewBrum meet up, Lauren’s Goldhawk Road meet up and then that awesome trip to Paris (details of which I will get up here at some point!)). I also did quite a lot of meeting up with other sewists in Oxford (Claire, Hannah, Vaire, Elena and Marcie) for drinks/sewing chat/actual sewing, and we have plenty more planned for this year.

I’m pretty pleased with my sewing output this year, not least because I’ve had a lot of other stuff on, and achieved a lot this year in life in general – I’ve bought a house, changed jobs, taken up a new sport, and Marcus and I (ok it was mainly him, but I started it off by buying him the kit last Christmas) have also brewed over 220 bottles of wine and 120 bottles of beer this year!

So, what do I want out of 2015? I’m not going to set myself too many overly specific goals, as I don’t want to feel under pressure, but there are a few things that I’d like to try and achieve this year:

– Make a coat – I made a toile of Minoru a couple of months ago, but after realising that it was a bit small and I needed to size up, I didn’t have the energy to retrace the pattern! I would like to get on and make this made. I’d also like to make a Robson, but we’ll see how we go ;)

– Make trousers – I’ve got a couple of trousers patterns I’d like to make at some point, but I really want to give the Ginger jeans a go this year. I’ve got the pattern, I’ve got suitable fabric, I just need to get the hardware for it and I think I should be good to go. I’m doing a trouser fitting session with some of the other Oxford sewists tomorrow, so that should start me on the right track!

– Make a shirt dress – I’ve been desperate to make a Hawthorn for ages, and I also have plans to make a Bruyere. I get put off by the buttons and buttonholes, as I’ve had bad experiences with them, but I just need to get over that. Or just put poppers on them.

– Make leggings for my roller derby team – This seems like a good place to restart my 2015 sewing given my current pre-occupation with roller derby. It’s a fairly big commitment, but I like a challenge! And I would love to see our team all in matching leggings! I’ve spent the last few months trying to source some decent printed lycra in the right colours, and finally found some from Spandex World. Now I just need to figure out how to get 20-30 yards of lycra over from the US! If anyone happens to be going over there, or coming over here, and wouldn’t mind bringing some over for me if I get it shipped to them, please let me know! I’ll happily pay for an extra case on the flight, and reward you suitably ;)

When looking through my blog for what items I’d made last year, I came across the goals I set myself for last year, which I had completely forgotten about! But having a quick look at those, I haven’t done too badly:

1. Conquer fit!

Ish…I definitely did this on my Sew Dolly Clackett Anna, but other than that, I haven’t really needed to. I have been sewing a lot of knits, at least in part because I wanted quick wins, and then meant avoiding dealing with fitting issues. I still want to try and get a few more fitting alterations nailed, but knits work for me too!

2. Attend some blogger meet ups

Definitely did this one, and they were all awesome!

3. Actually finish my projects

I’ve been much better at doing this – mainly I think because I was often sewing things to deadlines because I wanted to wear them for a particular event, and so not finishing them was not an option! Not been quite so good at finishing my blog posts…

4. Make the most of my sewing time

I’ve got a bit better at this, having a dedicated space has certainly helped, although my space is far from completely organised. Still room for improvement, but I’ve made progress.

So it’s been a slow start to the year sewing wise, but it’s given me some time to focus on other stuff, and I have no doubt that my sewjo will return vengeance at some point! Right, I’m going to hurry up and publish this post before it sits in my drafts folder for another month! Have a great weekend everyone!