Phew! Where has this month gone?! And this year! Ugh… it’s always the same… it flies by. It’s fun to look back though! So I’m joining in with Gillian’s Top 5 again this year to reflect a little (here was last year, in case you’re interested).

Top 5 Hits

1. Halloween, definitely. Just everything about it. My family definitely did not have faith that I would finish (they love me and all but I got more than one comment every time I ran into one of them about whether or not we would actually be wearing any costumes on Halloween) No faith, I tell you! So, yes, you better believe I finished (mostly) ;)

 

2. My Ginger Jeans! They are far from perfect but I’m still excited about making jeans in the first place so they were a definite win. To be honest, though, I didn’t pre-wash my fabric well enough to hold in the color so I’ve only worn them a couple of times because my hands/skin end up blue. They’ve been sitting on my washer for months waiting for their vinegar bath. The sad life of a lazy laundry lady.

3. Puppy Sloan Leggings! How could I not include these in the top… they have my furbabies’ faces on them! They’ve gone hiking and running with me a few times… but perhaps if I get up off my butt and start working out next year they will get a little more use :/

4. My beloved Presidio Purse! I made this one during the re-release pattern testing and have used it nearly every day since. Only problem… I lose my keys every time I toss them into my purse and then immediately spend about 5 minutes searching through it for them. It kinda feels like a Marry Poppins bag and I love it :)

5. Foxglove Tanks! These were definitely the most worn of the bunch (at least when the weather was nice). I couldn’t get them out of the laundry fast enough to wear them again. I definitely plan to make a few more as soon as Spring hits. :) Plus, I wore the flower one to a family gathering and my Aunt recognized the fabric (it was from my Grandma); she actually remembered a blouse that my Grandma wore out of the same fabric. So that made it extra special for me! :)

Top 5 Misses

1. Short sleeve hemlock tees! These were never blogged because I never got them right. Version A (below, left): I over-adjusted the pattern and didn’t pre-wash and thus shrunk it significantly. I wore it once during Me Made May, but have since tossed it into a giveaway pile as it needs to live in the closet of someone significantly shorter than me! Version B (below, right):  The picture is before I “finished” it aka finished it off. :/ I couldn’t decide what to do with the sleeves so I tried a folded hem with some fusible bonded web to keep it flat. I’m not sure what I did wrong but it’s disastrous. Which is really sad because the fabric is a lusciously soft bamboo rayon jersey. I still wear it, but only around the house because the sleeve hems look ridiculous. If ever I get a better picture of them, I’ll share.

  

2. The boyfriend’s Jalie Board Shorts. These are only on the miss list because they have never been worn. Not once. lol… his excuse is the ties/eyelets that went wrong (he says he’s waiting for me to fix them) but I’m pretty sure the fabric/color choice is the true culprit. Not really his style. Whatevs. I still think they look good :)

3. Okay… take a trip back to the same page! I haven’t worn my Maritime Shorts once either! As mentioned back then, the fit was just off. Need to try again.

4. Leather Combo Pencil Skirt. I still like this one it just bothers me that the bottom hem is unfinished so I’ve only worn it once. I’d rather not hem it and make it shorter and I’m not confident the hem would come out nicely on the faux leather. So there it sits.

5. Vintage McCall’s Bird Top. I really wanted this one to be a winner. The fabric had a special meaning to me and so did the pattern. All in all I still wear it from time to time (it’s a decent work shirt), but the fit just isn’t right. I need to do some major adjustments to the pattern if I want to make this one work. Still love the fabric, though :)

Top 5 Non-Sewing Highlights

1. I started a new job back in January! So I’ve almost hit the 1-year mark which is crazy! This is (most of) my new pharmacy crew, in all of our holiday glory: (oh, yes, and I dyed my hair darker) :)

2. I turned 30! And it feels good! (Most days, anyway) :) And I actually completed quite a few things on my 30 before 30 list, including paddleboarding! :D

3. My mom and I completed our 3rd Avon Walk for Breast Cancer! This time in Chicago! (If you missed them… I made our outfits for the first day! See them here. They were close in the running for my top 5) :)

4. Sort of sewing related, but this year I participated in my first ever craft fair! It wasn’t successful by any means, but it was fun :) It gave me an opportunity to work with some fun quilting cotton patterns and play with different color combinations. In total, I made 4 divided baskets, 4 bunting flag sets, 8 luggage tags, 6 men’s ties, 5 coaster sets, 6 dog squeaky toys, 2 SD card holders, and 9 foldover clutch purses. The craft fair and Halloween are definitely the reason you didn’t see very much sewing from me in the second half of the year :/ Which is good and bad, I guess. Gotta try new things. :)

5. Lastly, among other things, I FINALLY took “after” photos of our kitchen! Way back when I did a few posts about our rental that my parents fixed up (see the before here, and progress shots here and here), but I never got around to taking any “after” photos (mostly because once we got all our stuff moved in it was never organized well enough for photos :/ So (after some bugging from my mother) :) I finally got a few shots of the kitchen! They did such a fantastic job. We told them they’ve made it impossible for us to find a house because anything we move into won’t be as nice as what we have now :/

Reflections

1. Since I started sewing, I’ve been very meticulous about keeping record of all of my fabric. I have a running spreadsheet that includes yardage, date purchased, projects, etc. Well, this year I  definitely developed a nice little pattern collection (mostly indie PDFs! yay!). So I’m excited to report that I also finally got all of my patterns organized into a spreadsheet with photos, times and variations used, etc. I’m excited about it because otherwise it’s really difficult to remember what I have. This way, before I start anything new, I can browse my pattern library and see what’s there. I’m hoping this will help me to not over-buy patterns as well.

2. This year I did a lot of planning. More planning than sewing, in fact. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I sometimes have just as much fun planning what to sew as I do sewing, so who am I to stop myself :) But that planning led to a lot of fabric. A LOT. And all that fabric is now sitting in my stash just waiting to live up to it’s potential. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing either. I work well having a bit of a stash (I subscribe to the idea that your sewing room is like a chef’s pantry… you need to have everything on hand for when inspiration strikes). But at some point it just gets overwhelming. And I think I’ve officially passed the point of overwhelming.

3. I didn’t make any dresses this year (well, other than for Halloween). I love dresses, but for some reason I’ve only ever sewn one for myself. I’m not sure why.

4. I posted less than half the number of blog posts this year as compared to last year. Maybe I wrote about more non-sewing related stuff last year, I’m not really sure. But I’ll have to look into it and figure it out. I really enjoy writing and lately I’ve been missing that. I think this year I started following so many new people it was hard to keep up so in a way I kinda fell off the radar. But I have the blogging community to thank for getting me sewing in the first place and keeping me motivated, so I’d like to get a little more involved than I have been.

5. It was definitely a year of knits for me! After breaking my first double needle, I have since taken much better care of my new one and it’s become a good friend :) That and this year I really made some items that I love and wear all the time. It’s a very exciting feeling.

Goals

As with last year, I’ll be keeping with my Sewiversary goals from earlier in the year, but I would like to add one major one — STASHBUST! :D Starting in January, I’ll be following in Teresa’s footsteps and going on a RTW fast, but along with that I will be fabric fasting as well. No buying fabric. No buying new clothes. 3 months. Totally doable, right?! ;)

So that was 2015!

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday! And here’s to another great year to come!

Until next time,