Top 5 of 2013

I love reading through other people's top 5s for sewing, but this will be a first for me to actually do a round up.

Thanks to Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow's talents I now bring you my Top 5 of 2013!


Misses:
1
Hummingbird... oh how I wished that we had gotten along.  Someday I will return to you but not anytime soon... two tries were enough for now.  I'm not even going to share the first attempt, it was truely horrific.

2
Beautiful top made from my now modified beyond belief Rachel Comey V1247.  Alas, my love of food and of sleeping in has allowed me to gain in girth! So it didn't fit, fits my mum though... I will be making you again... just bigger.

3
I really wanted this year to be the year of the return of painting and drawing.  It wasn't.  Only two abstract splashes of colour. Will be working on this again for 2014.

   

4
Not being on a Home Ec this year has really allowed me to be lazy in the kitchen.  I think these are the only experimental recipes I tried.  Basically done so I could copy something I already knew I loved,,, actually there is one more for Korean sweet and spicy chicken.  So the fail was that I didn't try as many new recipes as much I would have liked, but it's a winner because the recipes I did try are on regular rotation.

   

Hits:
1
I finally bought myself a huge cutting mat.  So I can now pop on a movie, sit on the lounge floor and I cut out all my fabric.

 2
After buying above mat I promptly made a PJs bottom pattern from my old pair.  These are so comfy. I made the slouch pants last week and I have a few more to come.

   

   

3
Meat and potatoes sewing was my goal for the year.  I think I did pretty well.  I've perfected two t-shirt patterns.

The Kirsten Kimono from Maria Denmark as seen in white above and grey below.  I have now made another in magenta, and a black and white striped t-dress using the pattern.

The other pattern was traced last year from a Big W top, but I've used it so much this year.  The biggest hit was this t-shirt... black and white striped.  What I find interesting about the 'stripe phenomena' that has been occurring in the plus sized community is that there never has been a rule about horizontal stripes,,, I've been teaching the elements and principals of fashion design for over 10 years now and I have never told my students they can't wear stripes if they are large.  But we have learnt about how different line widths and the angle of the stripe can be used for optical allusions. I personally don't like thin stripes.  I'll get off my soap box.

4
Leggings and yoga pants. Made from McCall's 6360. I've lengthened the pattern to make long leggings, and really tapered the legs because they were ROOOOOMMY!

   

5
Crochet - another blanket done. This is becoming a yearly thing.

   

5
Finishing what I started.


I often buy something that it's quite perfect and promise myself that I will deal with it later... and then I find that top in the back of my cupboard in my yearly clear out, barely worn.  So this year I either refused to buy it or I actually did the work.

   

No more gaps!

 
I am a serial project starter.  Often I will start a something just to prove to myself that I can do it, learning something new and once I've got the hang of it I'll move onto something else.  I've really tried this year to nail down this habit. Not allowing myself to start a new sewing project until I finished the last.

I got the idea (probably from Gillian but also from Pinterest), I had the fabric, I had it cut out for months. I got it done, and even though it's just a skirt, I also learnt how to use interlining (with silk cotton) and matched up those fricken dots perfectly and hand sewed the zipper within the white dots and hand hemmed. It's an awesome skirt.  I then went on to make my final hit of the year...

    

5 (shhh! It's really 7)
Sewing for others.  I made five dresses for our singing group.  You can find my review here for Vogue 8787. I'm a bit over them myself but there were my biggest hit for the year.

 

Reflections:

Jeez this post is taking so long to finish...

I am feeling more and more confident in talking and posting photos of myself.  I can be my goofy self and crack a smile.  I limit the amount of photographs I take to at most 10 and pick the best ones. 

   

Just drinking some tea during class... don't mind me... I swear it was for educational purposes.

I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished this year - sure my sewing is pretty boring compared to others, but I don't care.  What I care about is that I'm comfortable when I wear it, and most people don't even realise I've made it until they give me a compliment. The crowd's reaction to our outfits was amazing and will be something that I will remember forever... well longer then the lyrics to the songs anyway.

Goals:

I will enter in Made by Me May
I will make a green skirt.
I will make more t-shirts - duh!
I will try at least 2 new patterns
I will crochet another blanket
I will paint and draw
I will play with dolls

Aussie Curves - Cocktail

What I wore on Christmas:

Silky green skirt from Target

Black peplum top - peplum tucked in - from Rockmans

Silver belt from St Vinnies

Cat bag from Romwe

No shoes

Blue nail polish on toes,

 green on fingers

We didn't have cocktails but I did have some moscato!  

And yes that is a wall of One Direction in the background,,, my faux daughter is a 'bit' of a fan.  I bought her a 1D bed set so I was checking out how it looked in her bedroom.

Aussie Curves - Resort

In a few weeks I will actually be at a resort,,, in Thailand.  I'm so excited because it will be my first time overseas.  However, although we are staying at a 'resort' it is in rural Kanchanaburi. We've street viewed the place and it is surrounded by farms :)

Plus, every second day I've booked us on an adventure - so we won't just be lazying by the pool all the time wearing luxurious resort wear.  Seeing as we will be going to rural villiages and temples and all that tourist stuff, I've been reading that we should be conservative with our clothing.

Then I started thinking about what would a Thai actually wear? So I went fashion blog hunting and found this one - Thai Trend Spotting.

Slouch pants (pattern) with a white top and sandals - camera optional.

Sewing challenge - make a pair of slouch pants and a white top because I still don't have a white t-shirt.

Navy floral skirt (elastic waist band) with grey top and jelly type sandals.

Sewing challenge - make a tube skirt using the left over navy floral fabirc and a gray top.

Cheetah top and tan leggings.

Sewing challenge - cheetah top and a neutral leggings ( I don't do tan).

Then while I was searching pinterest for slouch pants, I came upon these from Piper Gore:

Sewing challenge - chambray slouch pants.


Verdict

I wore this today - it was comfortable.  So glad I put pockets into the skirt.  The shirt was made with the Kirstyn kimono tee pattern.

Chambray pants -put pockets in everything actually!  These look like PJ bottoms though... actually both pants use the pattern I made from an old pair of PJs so they really are comfy.

White top - same Kirstyn kimono pattern.

Patterned slouch pants with the leopard pattern - decided I needed pants more then the top.

So I like these but,,, the brown spots ended up being in the worst places.  So I'm not sure if I can wear them without being conscious of those big brown patches!  I can break the back spot with pockets but I'm not too sure about the front!

So anyway - the skirt and the tee shirts are coming with me to Thailand - not sure about the pants.