2020 wrap up, resolutions and good riddance

 So... it's the last day. It would be stupid to pretend that the nightmare is over, but symbolically it's great to see the back of this godforsaken year. 2020 has been awful to everybody, some much worse than others, and I'm so sorry for all the losses we've collectively suffered. I hope everyone who is able to gets vaccinated at the earliest opportunity, and that we're able to hold the shitty governments of this world to account for how inexcusably they've let their people down this year. In many, many ways. 

But for now, let's not. Fighting the populist menace can wait two days. 

Obviously, my success rate with last year's resolutions was... low. I put all the energy I had into making sure I was sewing at all, and even that didn't work half the time. I did reasonably well in clearing out fabric - I only have 7.5m of what I bought in 2019 left (plus three or four older pieces) and about 15m of what I bought this year. In 2020 I bought less than half of what I bought in 2019. Everything else fell a bit by the wayside. I could not persuade myself to make a swimsuit or a ballgown or anything else that would have to languish in storage for a year or more. 

This year I'm planning five resolutions. None of them will depend on Covid going away, none of them will rely on me becoming a fundamentally different person, only one of them is a specific project. 

1. I will set up my new sewing area to give me the best chance of keeping organised and on top of things.

Patrick and I will probably move into our new house sometime in January. We definitely won't have sofas and might not even have a bed, but we want out of this flat and will most likely book a moving van as soon as the decorating is done. To begin with the second bedroom will be a combined sewing room/office, but eventually Patrick wants to build a garden office so he can work at home without having to keep work in the house. So I'm going to end up with an entire - small, but entire - sewing room, which is amazing but I really need to set it up so it doesn't get out of control. I am incredibly disorganised (just generally, as a human), and sometimes the barrier between me and a productive sewing day is a giant pile of stuff. Basically I need it to be easier to put things away than to leave them out. This is my number one priority for the year and I think its success is key to whether or not I succeed at anything else. I'm thinking I might make a couple of posts about my progress and how I've tried to overcome my massive executive function problems. Niche, but I hope it might be useful to some people. 

2. I will find a way to catalogue my patterns and notions.

In a way this is part of the previous resolution, but it's such a big job that I wanted to make it a point by itself. I already keep a pretty good up-to-date record of what fabric I have, but I really need to expand that to notions too. I keep being surprised by what I do and don't have (e.g. somehow always every length of black zip except the one I need right now). I haven't worked out what format is the best for storing this kind of information, but I want something that's fairly easy to update and to sort through. My plan is to work on this as I move, at the same time as reorganising my storage. 

3. I will watch all of, and complete some of, the Suzy Furrer Craftsy classes.

My 2019 resolutions included making my own sloper, and early this year pre-lockdown I went to a couple of classes claiming to teach just that. They... didn't really. It was very noticeable that the people in the room who got the best fit were the people who were more likely to have success with a standardised draft. I might be able to work with the trouser draft but the bodice draft is basically nonsense. There was a lot of "you'll get a number between X and Y... you got Z? No, nobody's Z, let me measure you... oh, you are Z. Well, just put Y" which I didn't think was really the point. Having got the cheap Craftsy premium deal I'm planning to walk through the Suzy Furrer classes and see if I can come up with something better. My main goal is to get a better idea of how to tweak things; I don't want to try making all my own patterns but knowing how to alter necklines and armscyes and crotch curves and so forth would help me out a lot. 

4. At least once this year, I will make several items that could be considered a collection or a capsule.

A couple of years ago I was very into the idea of having seasonal themes, managed it really well once, then got a bit stymied by actually having to come up with a new theme every few months. I ended up reverting to "a couple of random colours" which wasn't really enough. I don't expect myself to suddenly find enough inspiration to do this four times in 2021, but I reckon I can do it once. I will come up with a theme that suggests a few colours and also a print, silhouette or technique, and I'll do my fabric shopping with that in mind. I don't want to go back to buying masses and masses of fabric, and this might be a good way to keep me focused. 

5. I will make a corset.

So this is something I've always wanted to try but thought would forever be outside my reasonably attainable skill set. It's clearly not, though, and in 2021 I am going to try and make the Ralph Pink Laila waspie (which seems like a good beginner starting point) and if that goes well, a slightly more involved one too. My waist is inside but my hips are outside the Ralph Pink size range, so the waspie will be fine but I'll need to learn to grade corset patterns if I want to make a full one. 

I haven't made a sewing plan for winter and I'm not going to. I still have some stuff from autumn to catch up on, and as my sewing space is being transplanted it feels like a fool's errand to make a list now. I'm going to use the next couple of months to get my UFOs done and my room set up, so hopefully come March I'll be ready to go and full of ideas for the eternally-difficult spring plan. 

Here's to a stronger year. Cheers. 

sewing resolutions for 2020

Christmas is done! It was extra chill this year - Patrick's sister is heavily pregnant and we had his grandpa's funeral during our visit, so nobody was feeling especially bouncy. It's still exhausting to be in someone else's house for a week, so we're currently decompressing ready to start the new year. I did start writing a "sewing year in review" sort of post, but it just ended up being me ranting about the stupid Sierra jumpsuit pattern again so we're skipping that this year and moving straight on to the resolutions.

I went about 50/50 on my 2019 list. At the beginning of the year I assumed the one I would definitely do was the ballgown toile, but when I actually got the pattern out and looked at it I realised I don't actually like the style lines that much. What I liked was the general vibe and the idea of having a swanky red ballgown. I also didn't make the jeans (couldn't find the denim) and didn't take any fitting classes. Money was a bit of a thing this year and my back-up plan of Craftsy classes got a bit scuppered when Craftsy rebranded and became much worse. However, the resolution is not dead! Patrick has very kindly bought me a couple of sloper-making classes for Christmas, so I'll be doing a bodice block in two weeks' time and a trouser block in February. I'm interested to see how this goes and I'll be doing a class review here.

What I did manage to do this year was make an acceptable shirt (!), improve my twin needle stitching and get much better about planning and purchasing. Most of the fabric I bought has already been used, and I've not bought a random pattern without a plan in ages. This is solid progress.

On to 2020!


1. I will either use or get rid of everything that's currently in my stash.

With the exception of my aubergine silk double crepe, which needs to wait for the right pattern and occasion, I want everything in my stash to be used or donated by the end of the year. Even the expensive stuff. I really hate having a massive stash and would much prefer to just keep fabric for my upcoming seasonal plans and maybe one or two other pieces (sometimes Abakhan has amazing swimsuit fabric in October and you just have to buy it and wait). I've been trying to work on this over the past year and the number of metres in my stash has definitely reduced, but I don't think I'll feel like it's really working until all the old stuff is out of there. I'm currently working on pairing every piece to a pattern, or at least a type of garment.

2. I will make a good quality swimsuit.

I've tried and failed at this several times now, but I am determined to make it actually work. I probably want two swimsuits - a bikini with proper underwired cups, and a one-piece swimsuit because I have stripy multicoloured fabric that I don't think will work as a bikini. Sewing pattern designers thus have a year (six months?) to come up with a swimsuit pattern I don't hate! Yay!

3. Following on from last year, I will pick some more areas that bug me about my sewing and work on them.

This worked pretty well as a resolution last year and I think I could benefit from making it a permanent fixture. My number one goal is to be able to sew a lined/faced woven V neck that actually looks like a V. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here - I clip my seam allowances extensively - but I want to work it out and have one nice V neck garment by the end of the year. I'd also like to be able to improve my topstitching to the point that I'm happy to do it in a contrasting colour and make it a feature. During the year I'm planning to remake my Cashmerette Ellis skirt (there was a flat fell failure) and I want to put the proper topstitching on.

4. I will try out some of the patterns I've acquired but never used.

My hard drive is full of PDF patterns I've never had a go at. Most of them aren't ones I've paid full price for, but if I downloaded them I must have liked something about them (a free pattern you hate is still a pattern you hate) and it would make sense to start working through them. I'd particularly like to get to the Sew Over It patterns I harvested, and some of the other patterns from the Named book that I've been putting off because of the neckline modifications I'll need to do. I've also got a bunch of printed patterns I've never used that I'd like to either work through or get rid of.

5. I will make the swanky red ballgown.

I think not making the actual 1920s pattern was a smart move but I also think I should have a ridiculous red gown. What I specifically don't want is to end the year saying "well, I made a long red dress at one point, so that totally counts." It does NOT. I want to make something that I haven't made before, and I don't want the fabric to be doing all the heavy lifting. Usually the ballgown factor comes from the dress being big and poofy, but I don't like big poofy dresses so I need to find another way. I want this to involve me learning at least one new technique and possibly even trying embellishments. Where I find my starting point pattern for this I have NO idea, but I'm dreaming big on this one.

6. I will learn to use all the different sewing machine feet I have.

I have a box of different feet I got when I first started sewing, but I only ever really use a couple of them (standard foot, regular and invisible zip feet, walking foot, and recently buttonhole/button feet). I'd like to know that I can, should I require it, use the rest of the feet I have. I want to make sure I know what they all are and what I'm supposed to do with them, work with them until I can reliably make them to the thing they're supposed to do, and integrate the useful ones into my regular sewing. I'm sure I'll mostly continue to use the same half dozen feet, but I'm also sure that it would add to the quality of my sewing life if I were able to, say, do a nice blind stitch or rolled hem.

7. I will wear everything I make at least twice before I post my review.

Something I've noticed over the past year is that I sometimes make something I like, get very excited, post a glowing review immediately, and then over the next few days of wear I start to notice things that make me like it less. Then several months later I'll get a blog comment that says "thanks for the review, I'm definitely going to check this out based on your recommendation!" and I worry that I've accidentally misled said commenter by not including things I discovered when wearing the item out and about. Obviously I'm not going to stick by this so rigidly that I can't post my ballgown until it's had a few trips on the 344 bus, but for everyday clothes I'm going to test run them for a week or two until I'm sure I'm able to give a complete picture.

That's a fairly well-rounded set of resolutions, I think. Fewer than I usually make, but the stash-clearing one in particular is enormous and I don't want to overwhelm myself. My hope is that 2020 is going to be a year of change and upheaval for me, where I have to work very hard whilst also protecting my health, and my sewing needs to serve that this year and not end up being an extra chore and source of guilt.

Happy 2020, everyone! Good things for all of you!

sewing resolutions for 2019

We're back from Nice! I'm putting off the post about my velvet Magnolia til next week, as I haven't managed to take proper pictures yet. For some reason Patrick and I both had massive skin problems as soon as we got to France and haven't quite recovered; all pictures of me at the moment look quite a bit like someone smeared melted brie on a Sticklebrick. So for now, resolutions!

In all honesty, I did not do well with my resolutions for this past year. Partly for mental health reasons, partly because I'd not thought through the issues I was trying to solve before writing the post, but mostly it came down to a simple point: I wasn't specific enough. I've been making and writing down non-sewing-based resolutions every year since 2001 and I KNOW I have to be as absolutely specific, concrete and measurable as possible for these things to work, but apparently I thought that sewing-related resolutions might be different? I don't know. Anyway, it's not, and I'm not going to do that again.

Here are my extremely specific plans for next year:

1. I will at least make a toile of the ridiculous 1920s ballgown pattern I bought two years ago. A few weeks after I started sewing I saw a picture of this dress, pined after it for a year, finally decided I was sufficiently committed to sewing to be permitted to purchase it, and it's sat sadly in my stash ever since because I'm worried it'll look terrible. It's a reasonable worry; it's a 1920s dress designed for 1920s bodies, i.e. the exact opposite of my body. But I do need to try it, and this is the year I will do that. I will buy some cheap fabric, treat it as a sewing challenge, and not expect it to look amazing.

2. I will plan and make one fun piece every season. I've been much better this year about not getting bogged down in practicality, and I want to make sure I continue that by actively making space for the fun stuff. I've found an occasion for every ridiculous dress I've made thus far, and I also have a guarantee from Patrick that whatever I make, he will find somewhere I can wear it. I don't intend for it to all be OTT dresses; variety is good. I'd very much like one of them to be a crazy print coat.

3. I will be much stricter about planning and purchasing. Another thing I already KNOW doesn't work is writing in my plans "so I don't know exactly what this will look like yet, but I want this vague kind of thing" and yet I continue to do it. Going forward I am not going to put anything on my list if I don't have either fabric or pattern for it, and for at least three quarters of each list I need to have both. If that means the list has to be smaller, so be it. I'm going to start keeping a separate running "Vague List" of ideas I've had, but I can't put it on a plan until a) I know exactly what it looks like and b) I know the means for making this exact thing exist.

4. I will take some kind of course or class in fitting and/or sloper making. This is something I'd really like to get a handle on - I've got to the point where I can, for example, adjust a bodice so that it's the right size for my shoulders and bust, but not necessarily the right shape for my shoulders and bust, and I think if I could understand what pattern pieces need to look like to fit me properly, it would make a huge difference to the overall appearance and feeling of the things I make. I have three different avenues I might take depending on finances: the London College of Fashion course in making all your own slopers; a couple of smaller-scale fitting/sloper evening classes; or the Suzy Furrer Craftsy classes. I will do one of these three by the end of the year.

5. I will make a pair of black jeans. I haven't worn jeans in years, but I have one specific outfit rattling around in my head that requires black jeans. Also I think it would be good for me to have a go at it and stop thinking of it as a giant scary complicated thing. Where one acquires acceptable quality black denim in this country I have NO idea, though. I'd love some suggestions from UK people.

6. I will learn to make shirts. This is something I never thought I'd do because I do not like buttons and I never have. I don't like the way button-ups look or feel on me, I have never once wished to wear a shirtdress, and I deeply dislike the idea of adding decorative buttons to things. I took off my last school-uniform shirt in 2001 and vowed that I would never wear buttons again, and so far I have not. In the sewing community, Land of Shirtdresses, I'm aware this makes me a tremendous weirdo. I've made all sorts of complicated garments, but I literally made my first and only buttonhole a few weeks ago (and I spent some time thinking about whether I could get out of it first). However, recently Patrick has started making noises about me abandoning my no-shirts rule; he really likes shirts and has very specific taste that literally nowhere is currently catering for. I'm nervous about it - it's a LOT of new skills and he's used to spending fair amounts of money on very high-quality shirts, but he doesn't ask me for much so I'm going to try. Also, there are some times when it would be easier to just sew a button on a pair of trousers instead of going to huge lengths to work around it.

7. I will make a list of things that bug me about the quality of my work and actively practice/research and experiment with ways to improve. I haven't got very far with the list yet but two things I definitely want to work on are the quality of my twin needle stitching on thinner jerseys and better finishing on waistbands with a zip. I want to have the list written by the end of January and have solved or noticeably improved at least six of the things by the end of the year.

8. I will only buy fabric if I can visualise what I'm going to do with it. Last year I resolved to use my three most expensive pieces of fabric and I didn't use any of them. I realised this year that the problem wasn't fear (I have cheerfully cut into fabric at least that expensive before), it was that I'd bought them without a plan because they were beautiful and expected the plan to present itself later. It has not. I have neither the stash space nor the bank account to hoard fabric, so if I don't know what I want it to be I can't buy it no matter how pretty it is. I will also actively look for patterns for the three pieces I already have, but I don't want to make using them an actual goal again. If the match isn't there it's not there.

I'm going to leave it at that. Three specific item goals, three planning goals and two technique goals seems like a decent spread and not an overwhelming amount. Some of it feels a bit intimidating right now, but I'm pretty sure that there's nothing here I won't be able to handle when I get into it.

We're off to a New Year party tonight, and the host has requested I turn up in my velvet Magnolia. I'm pretty sure nobody else has been asked to wear an evening gown, so it'll just be me sitting there on the sofa demanding that people in jeans fetch me Negronis. But at least it's getting a second outing. Happy New Year, everyone, and thank you for sticking around. Here's to more pretty things!