2015 – A Sewing Year In Review

I’m going to sound like a cliche here, but holy crap, where did 2015 go?  At the end of each year for the past few years, I’ve written a round-up of “best of” posts or “top 5 hits/misses,” but this year, I honestly didn’t feel like doing one focusing on what I made – my sewing productivity in 2015 was much lower than in years past, and I didn’t blog everything I made either.

I’m ok with that – 2015 was the year I slowed down my sewing and took my time to enjoy the process instead of rushing to make something to share with everyone.  I focused on improving my skills and stitching, and making better quality garments.  Oh yeah, and there’s that thing called a “wedding dress” I’m making…that slowed things down considerably!

Instead, here’s some highlights of my sewing year:

Expanded My Tailoring Knowledge

 

Patterns:

McCall’s 6711

Named Patterns Yona Coat

Oh man, I love tailoring so much.  I made a wool blazer in January and it’s probably one of my nicest and best-made pieces to date.  In February, I embarked on making a winter coat during what was one of the worst winters I ever lived through (107+” of snow in Boston, newest all-time record) and took my tailoring skills to a new level.  Coat sewing is so much fun that I decided to devote all of January 2016 to sharing information on coat sewing, so you can make one as well!

 

Co-Hosted the McCall’s Wrap Dress Sewalong

 

Pattern: Butterick 5454

Along with Ruqayyah of ReDpants Designs and Meg at McCall’s Patterns, I co-hosted a little wrap-dress sewalong in March.  Wrap dresses are so much fun to sew, and I shared a trick I figured out to make a SBA adjustment for wrap dresses, which allows me to now wear this feminine silhouette.  There’s always room for more wrap dresses in my closet, and this floral one got lots of wear this year.

Made a Killer Jumpsuit I Could Only Wear Once

 

Pattern: BHL Holly Jumpsuit/McCall’s bodice hack

This one breaks my heart – I made this jumpsuit out of a Monique L’Huiller silk crepe de chine for a friend’s bachelorette party, and by the end of a very tame night of dinner and dancing, the fabric across the lower front of the bodice and upper thighs was pulled/pilled/ruined.  I ended up getting a refund from the fabric store where I bought it, which was very nice of them, but I plan on making another one of these again next year (from a different fabric, of course).  Maybe for my own bachelorette party!

Upgraded To a New Bernina

 

Probably my happiest sewing memory of the year – investing in a brand new Bernina 550.  Oh, it was so worth the wait and saving up my pennies for a new machine.  The sewing is unparalleled to my 1005, I have more control over my stitching, and there’s all sorts of fancy things I can now do with my machine (sewing on buttons, anyone?).  I just took a class last week on all of the features and learned a ton about sewing machines in general I can’t wait to share with you.

Started Sewing My Wedding Dress

After getting engaged in April, I took the plunge and decided that I was going to make my wedding dress, just like my mom did for her wedding in the 70’s.  I collected wedding dress patterns that had elements of what I was looking for, made some mock-ups of different styles, and eventually decided on a Marfy pattern.  In September, I went to NYC and bought all of my fabric, and then just last week I cut everything out and started to actually make my dress.  More to come on this in 2016!

 

Some other notable things that happened in 2015:

• After three years of living on my own, I moved in with my fiancé! It’s been a bit of an adjustment, cramming all of my sewing stuff into his one bedroom condo, which is a tad smaller than where I was previously living.  I miss spreading out my sewing all over the place, and I don’t have the room to cut to fabric like I did before, but it’s wonderful to see him everyday and being able to save money for a house.
• I started a new job at my company that I absolutely love!  I did a crazy amount of travel across the US (never ever thought I’d visit Fargo, ND) and I know next year is going to be full of some exciting opportunities.
• My sister had a baby and I’m now an Auntie!  My niece is so stinking cute and she looks so much like my sister.  We had fun over Christmas playing together and I can’t wait to see her again next year.

That’s pretty much my 2015 in a nut-shell. We don’t have any crazy kind of NYE plans tonight, just going to see the new Star Wars movie (I saw it with my dad already, it’s Chris’ first time tonight) and then we’ll come home and crack open the champagne and watch the ball drop.

Here’s to 2016 – I hope yours will be chock-full of sewing goodness!