2025 Review

At the start of the year I got back into sewing with a vengeance. 

I spent ten weeks creating an outfit based on a Kinuko Y. Craft painting, with accompanying jewellery. This won overall champion of sewing at the Canberra Show.

Then I modified the underdress pattern to make a shorter summer dress.

I duplicated a purchased dress; adjusting the pattern to be a bit more me shaped.

I made two new corsets. I fear the quest to create the ideal pattern for me may be never-ending, but it's a lot closer than it used to be.

I used my contour pants pattern to make some pyjamas.

The year finished with making a butterfly window hanging as a Christmas gift for a friend's 6-month-old. I satin-stitched a thin satin onto a remnant of curtain fabric, then cut away the curtain from behind the image so the light would shine through.

2024 Review

I didn't do a lot of sewing this year, at least, not until December. During the year I did a handful of practical things – developing a T-shirt pattern for remaking purchased shirts I didn't like the fit of; and updating purchased cargo pants to take up the hems, take in the waist and put zips on the pockets – but nothing notable.

I'm trying to make a standard skirt base (including this, and this) but haven't quite got the fit consistent, so while I did make a plain skirt this year, it's currently in the mending pile.

In 2023 I had a couple of lessons with Rockstars and Royalty to develop a custom-fitted corset pattern, based on Truly Victorian TV110. Having now got a pattern that fits (like, really nicely) I've made a few this year refining the design using whatever fabric I had roughly half a metre of. 

Then in December I got completely obsessed with recreating an outfit from a Kinuko Y. Craft illustration. I spent 2 weeks developing the pattern and making mockups (everything went astoundingly smoothly) and am a good way through a couple of the pieces. More details to follow…

2023 Review

My big sewing project this year was setting up a new sewing room. I have done this before, but then covid meant everyone in the house needed a private office (and I wasn't sewing much) so the sewing room got packed up and turned into my mother’s office. When I began spending more time sewing again, the temporary arrangement of taking over the kitchen table with my sewing machine became less practical, so we rearranged once more and now I have my own room.

Unlike last time, I am now in a furniture owning stage of life. Instead of just moving the old coming-apart cupboards back upstairs, I bought new (matching) cupboards and sewing desk, and everything got sorted. Embroidery stuff is now in a drawer, not a random hatbox; the beads are in the sewing room rather than downstairs with children's crafts; some horrible fabric that definitely won't come in handy one day has been got rid of; and my sewing books are in my sewing room. It's going to take a while to get used to where everything is but it is all consolidated and ordered and I am very pleased.

As far as actual sewing goes, I started the year with a pyjama set. I reused my contour pants pattern and traced new patterns from bought pyjamas.

Then I christened the new sewing room with a Midnights themed outfit to wear to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie.

I ended the year with a spur-of-the-moment jewellery project, recreating the body chain worn by Sleep Token's backup singers at their Wembley concert.

Source

 I took some patterning lessons, the fruit of which should come into play next year.

Also, I finished another Bayeux scene (and started on the next one).

2021 Review

If you find yourself losing interest in a long-term hobby, you may be growing and exploring new parts of life, or you may need to see an endocrinologist. For me it was the latter and, now that I am much healthier, the motivation to sew has returned. (And I'm still fitting in songwriting alongside.) Last year, my sewing room was sacrificed to a combination of disinterest and the need for everyone to simultaneously be on private zoom calls, so now a sewing project begins with commandeering the kitchen table.
Here are the dishes for the year:

Appetiser
A simple cotton knit t-shirt, garnished with painted butterfly.

Entrée
Miniskirt with asymmetrical yoke and pleat variations.

Main
Gold chiffon evening gown, 1930s style. Includes bias cut, ruching and 2.5 circles in the skirt.

Dessert
A refreshingly symmetrical selection of contour pants in black and black & red, with coordinating crop top.

For Pairing
Like everyone else who owns a sewing machine, I made a stack of masks this year. I thought I was going to say that "I made masks in a variety of colours to match different outfits" but when I photographed them I realised that of the 6, 2 are gold and 3 are purple, so 'variety' might be too strong a word. But I couldn't wear a light gold mask with a dark gold dress – it would clash.

Palette Cleansers
I have a purple A-Line skirt that I made in a sewing class in 2016 that I have never worn. I like the colour but the cut did nothing for me. I remade it into a pencil skirt, a style that does work for me, and am much happier with it now. (I've even worn it!) The dotted lines on the before picture are where I threadmarked my new seam lines. Thread marking was my number one sewing discovery of the year. I haven't thrown out my chalk, but it's tempting.

I also mended a bought skirt with flawed fabric by adding some flowers to cover the holes that appeared after the first wash.

I did some more embroidery too.

2020 Review

Thus endeth another year. I did some sewing this year, mostly for practical reasons but given the shortness of the list I am including more construction details than in my usual reviews.

Creating
The black knit skirt I made in 2017 has been a staple of my wardrobe ever since and was starting to wear out. I knew it would need replacing at some point during the year, so in March I made a trip to Spotlight to pick up some fabric. The next weekend lockdown started, so I got there just in time. I got a plain black, to replace my current skirt, and dark purple. The pattern is McCalls 6608.

I made a new corset, from the Laughing Moon Dore pattern, using only stash materials (except for the eyelets). I've changed shape a bit and am working out how to fit it – this was about 80% there. The fabric is two different curtain samples.

Adjusting
In utility items (usually my mother's sewing arena) I made myself a pillow. I prefer a thin, firm pillow and have found no commercial ones complying with those requirements so I bought an $8 piece of foam and covered it in some leftover cotton. Then I sewed a new side and back seam for my existing pillowcase to go over it.

I significantly altered a bought dress to fit me. I ordered the dress online and when it arrived it was the right size but was definitely made with a differently shaped person in mind. The dress consists of a knit underlayer and a woven mesh overdress. The underdress measured 10 cm smaller than my hip measurement and, while it could stretch around me, it got stuck on my hips and didn’t hang neatly or comfortably. The underdress has a feature print and, with the dress held still at the hip, the print got bunched up in places and did not look good.

My initial plan was to add some gores to the side seams but after I unpicked them and tried on the dress, I found it wrinkled horribly in the back. I cut the back up the middle and, on trying it on again, found that the fabric sat more naturally with a large split in the back and only a narrow separation at the sides.

I cut a gore the size of the back split and inserted it into the dress. I cut the side gores as strips and freestyle-tapered them in to the seams. The dress has its side seam allowances facing outwards (being a lining) so I matched that with the side gores but did not use that method for the back gore, where it would be more visibly messy.

It's not the neatest sewing I've ever done but from the outside, it doesn’t look like anything happened to it and the dress sits nicely now. While I was taking the dress apart, I also shortened the shoulder straps by 2 inches. The neckline had been lower than I like and the armholes were positively gaping. For this adjustment I did make a particular effort to be neat. I was quite happy with the experience of customising the dress and may figure this into my clothing shopping options in the future.

2018 Review

My main goal with sewing this year was to work through my fabric stash and backlog of plans rather than add new projects. To that end, I made several items for which I've had designs or fabric lurking around for years.

Real clothes
I did have one final 'proper shop' in Cabramatta's fabric district at the start of the year but it didn't do too much damage to the stash as I turned out two maxi dresses the next weekend. Turns out not buying fabric is a great way to save money that I can then spend on... fabric. I have always loved paisley but even though it is 'in' now, it never seems to be in my colours. I decided to search etsy on a whim one day and came away with busy purple paisley for a maxidress. I’ve got eight of these dresses now, which is probably enough.

In a moment of ‘I need to sew something’ I turned, as I have done before, to the 1940s. A modified Simplicity 1587 resulted in two dresses, one of fabric bought (last year) for the purpose and another from the stash. And then I made a hat to match, because I could.

Turning to my other favourite 20th century decade, the 70s (I hadn’t realised that was a category for ‘favourites’ until someone asked me what mine were, and turns out it is), I made a halter gown with attached cape from Style 1353.

I added a peacock tag to my blog because five garments make a Thing. This year in peacock fashions, I used the bleaching technique I developed for the Assassin's Creed Revelations costume to add a peacock design to a bought tank top.

I finally found fabrics (including a peacock feather print) that would work for a shirt design I drew ages ago. I like how it turned out but haven’t worn it yet as I don’t know what wear it with.

Speaking of styles of clothes I don’t wear, I gave myself a shock at the start of the year by buying, and regularly wearing, ripped black skinny jeans (that actually fit me). I also wanted what would be, I guess, the skirt equivalent but there the shops were less helpful so I made my own heavily-eyeletted black skirt.

Costumes
Also in the interest of Finishing Things, I had leatherworking classes at Birdsall Leather in preparation for finally completing my Assassin's Creed costumes. When I got back from the trip I promptly didn’t do any work on them as the Jane Austen festival was looming.

Mum bought and set up a lovely little leather workstation for me for my birthday. I made a start but had to let the Gamma.Con deadline slip as my health required that I slow down a bit.

My blogging and sewing reduced a bit in the second half of the year, partly for health reasons and partly because I've been putting more of my 'hobby' time into music. I started with a new singing teacher at the beginning of last year and the process of switching from classical to contemporary style has been a (fun and exciting) challenge requiring more practice than I used to do. And then I decided to learn bass guitar because, you know, not enough stuff to do.

For Jafa I made a pink ballgown based on an 1815 fashion plate and a silk 1830s ballgown. Turns out:
a) silk is great,
b) free silk is better (I won a voucher), and
c) not enough silk can, in fact, be a good thing. This design was very much an exercise in limitations causing creativity and the dress is better for it.

Besides the ballgowns, I also made a chemisette, two chemises and a pair of gloves. (The gloves were finished after Jafa and are incredibly dodgy.)

Other people
I was commissioned to make a onesie based on the Amygdala character from the book Hey Warrior. This isn’t the first commission I’ve done but it kind of felt like it was, as I am a bit more socially distant from the commissionee and I had to write an invoice like a Professional Adult.

A lot of the clothes I make I wear to work and one of my colleagues asked if I could give her lessons to make Butterick 6018. I was keen to do this as, while I have done some sewing with people before, since then I have had lessons myself and can show people proper techniques instead of ‘this is what I made up’.

Events
My most significant event this year was Jafa, where I had a great time. I gave Gamma.Con a miss but did make it to Ironfest wearing Eowyn’s riding outfit. As events go, I have done Ironfest now and don’t need to go again.

I finally got to History Alive this year after many years of missing it due to uni exams, starting work and being overseas. I had great fun riding a 'ye olde' bike and doing more regency dancing. My cousin made an 18th century dress in the week leading up to the event, which is super impressive. I wore my 1830s gown and my dad dressed to match in his regency suit.

The saddest event was the closing down of Cardif Collective's haberdashery storefront. It will be missed (although, thanks to the closing down sale, I now have a bolt of ludicrously cheap silk taffeta I can cry into).

I entered the Canberra Show again this year and my 1830s day dress, entered in the miscellaneous category, won champion of the sewing section. Please bring back the historical and costume categories! I got a first with a 1940s dress and second with my 1830s bonnet – my first time competing in millinery.

Speaking of miscellaneous
I made swimming togs last year and actually wore them this year, so I can report that this was a successful venture.

Despite all appearances to the contrary I have not forgotten my Bayeux tapestry dress. I spend 20-30 minutes on it a week (a sermon’s-worth) and have got another two scenes finished.

Plans
I was pretty happy with knocking planned and prepared projects off my to-do list so I think I’ll keep trying to do that next year. I have two significant projects in that category: finishing the Assassins and a ground-up 18th century outfit to be ready for Jafa 2020. I have already started the stays.

I want to make a distinctively 1920s gown as well but I don't have a design as yet. If anyone has advice about how to do a historically accurate flapper look when you have hips please send it my way – I'm struggling.


Now... bring me that horizon!