Happy New Year and top 5 makes of 2018!

Happy New Year!

I hope you guys have had a wondering Christmas holidays and wonderful start to the New year! 2018 has been full of ups and downs for me, including graduating with a First Class in Chemistry, having to put my beloved German Shepherd to sleep and still hunting for the right job.

Nevertheless I carried on sewing clothings and in fact have made 27 pieces of clothing (not including alterations and repairs). Surprisingly I think majority of my favourite clothes have been made towards the end of the year, and to be honest I don't think I made that many clothes towards the beginning of the year as I was at uni!

I thought I would round up on my Top 5 makes of 2018 to see why they are my top makes and does that reflect on how much I have been wearing them!

1. Black floral dress: This is one of my favourite makes because unfortunately I have quite a few scars on my legs from eczema and stupid hair removal methods so I'm not that confident wearing short dresses. This dress is nearly a maxi dress but you can still see a little bit of ankle. I also really like the fit of the dress as it semi bodi-con. And finally it also has enough room for me to dance in (I wore this on New Years Eve and lets say I did a lot of dancing! I also really like the print and fabric (it is a viscose fabric) so it really nice against the skin and can easily be layered.




2. Blush pink cardigan: As I mentioned in my Walthamstow Fabric Haul 2018 I bought a blush pink ponte knit fabric which I ended up making this cardigan with. What I love about it is the fabric doesn't fray so it was a dream to work with, the fabric is really soft and I ended up added a piece of clothing which I can wear often! It also has inseam pockets which I drafted myself and I really like this feature.
   

   


3. Floral Wrap top: I've been wanting to make a floral top for some time and looked up tutorials on pattern drafting. Luckily on my first pattern attempt, I managed to create this floral wrap top out of 1 meter and I absolutely love it. I wore it to my grandma's 80th birthday celebrating and I got lots of compliments on it. I've actually (not surprisingly) made it again and was able to fit in 1 meter. I'm really pleased that it doesn't require much fabric as it means I can use it on leftover fabric.
   

   



4. Trousers: This is slightly cheating as it isn't one item, but I honestly love all the trousers I have made last month! Especially the black and blue ponte knit trousers ( the blue one hasn't been blogged yet), but I've worn them so much since I've made them. usually when I go out I wear my jeans but I feel confident enough in these trousers to wear them outside and so easy to throw on as they don't require ironing and really easy to move about in!

   

   

   

   
   

   My trousers, with the newest edition- the blue pair!



5. Blue polka dot button down top: I made this top out of leftover fabric from another top I had made. Unfortunately, the fabric had a few defects like a white line across the back so I was contemplating whether to use the rest of the fabric. But I'm not that fussed and I thought with some careful pattern placement I could still make another piece of clothing. What I really like about this top is it is a V-neck top, has buttons (so I can play around with different buttons) and I added a skinny tie belt which turns the top from being really simple to a bit moore going out and it also shows off ma hips (cause hips don't lie....)
   

I also have some other makes which I really like this year such as the billion cami tops I have made which have become a staple piece in my wardrobe, but I couldn't choose which one out of them all.
I think my top 5 makes this year have inevitably been ones which I wear often. For example the floral dress was made towards the end of October and I have worn it twice even during winter so God knows how many times I will wear it in the summer! Similarly I used to complain about not having enough 'pretty' tops to wear when going out and now I have a billion to choose from.

Overall I think 2018 has been very successful in terms of sewing. I don't think I had that many failures either with sewing which I am happy about as I don't like wasting fabric. I think it has also helped having my industrial sewing machine as well because I wouldn't have been able to make the trousers or the cardigan with my regular sewing machine.

In 2019 I want to continue making clothing which I wear everyday and wear each piece often. It could be the simplest clothing like cardigans or trousers or a top, but I want it to be something which I straight away pick in the morning, rather than it just sit there for years. I am also going to start logging my makes and the month I made them into my sketchbook so that I can tally up again how many makes I have made and get into the habit of slow sewing. I also want to see if I can alter any clothing I already have to get more wear out of them.

Again Happy New Year and let's see where my sewing journey takes me!