Well...it's a start!

First step towards the accomplishment of my resolutions for 2014 :

Look, I can knit and bind off!

You can also now follow me on Ravelry if you click the button in the right column of my blog! Not much to see on my account yet...but I'm working on it!

2013 in sewing

So, what did I sew in 2013?

• Caribbean Sea Violet blouse

• Green wool gabardine mid-1930s pants

• Psychobilly Freakout shirt (unselfish make, for my boyfriend)

• Yellow linen mid-1930s pants

• Navy polkadot Lonsdale dress (first UFO that finally got finished, woohoo!)

• Navy capri pants

• 1940s overalls (made for my first sewalong, yay!)

• (plus another shirt for my man, but this one didn't make it to the blog.)

That's 8 garments all in all, and 2 out of these were not made for me...That's not much compared to many other sewing and blogging ladies I'm following, but between my job and the time I'm spending in trains to go to work and come back from it everyday, plus volunteering, plus feeling sometimes too tired to sew and blog...I'd say it's not too bad.

And out of what I sew, what did I wear?

• the Violet blouse was worn...well, a fair amount of times, but unfortunately I finished it at a time when it was too cold to wear it and the appropriate weather didn't show up that much this year, so it didn't get as much wear as it could have. Besides, it doesn't pair really well with the rest of my wardrobe. And one seam came undone at the armscye, which I'll have to fix.

• The first version of my Smooth Sailing pants was worn quite a lot last winter (but only once this winter, WTF???). If I do this pattern again, I'll probably change the fit because it was a bit loose at the waist, but all in all I'm quite happy with this first pair of pants.

• The second version of these (yellow linen - no, I won't be commenting on what I made for my man, let him do it by himself if he likes :) ) was worn. TO. DEATH. Yes, I litterally lived in these last summer, to the point that they've begun to fray around the waist (around the back darts, to be precise). Why? Is it normal for linen to do that, or is it due to poor fabric quality? Anyway, I think I'll have to make more of these!

• The navy polkadot Lonsdale dress was worn quite a lot too and will be worn again next summer. Not exactly office-appropriate (I’m not really a conservative kinda gal but I’m a little mixed up about showing off tattooed skin at work…a bit of it peeking out from the back of a top or under a skirt/pants hem sounds okay to me, but I wouldn’t show it deliberately!), but it’s the kind of dress that can instantly be taken from casual to classy with the right accessories, so it’s going to be one of my holiday wardrobe staples !

• Same thing goes for my navy capri pants. I didn’t get to wear them as much as I would’ve liked because summer was coming to an end when I finished them and I had to go back to work, but they’ll sure be a staple for my next summer holiday !

• And last – but not least – come my 1940s overalls. I fear I bit more than I could chew when I tackled this pattern. The result looks kinda OK from the outside and I think I got the fit right. However – but that may be due to poor fabric choice – the inside is a mess. I wore my finished version only twice but did not feel good in it (let’s admit it, probably because the fabric is too light for winterwear – maybe I’ll feel better wearing it in warmer weather ?). Maybe I’ll make another version, later, in quality fabric and with better seam finishes.

Conclusion : my most successful makes are made from rather simple patterns (Smooth Sailing pants, Lonsdale dress and also, to a lesser extent, B5895 capris) and lean more towards casual, though they can easily be jazzed up into something classier. Although setting myself challenges can be fun, I found I was more patient when sewing with “easy” patterns and more willing to devote time to make something great and with nice finishing touches.

While it's not too late...Happy 2014 everyone!

Just dropping by to wish everybody a happy new year!
I don't know yet if I'm going to review all my makes for 2013...but, for what they're worth, here are my resolutions for 2014 :

• sew more things to fill in wardrobe gaps, and not just on a whim;
• learn to knit!

And you, what do you plan to do in 2014?