#SewingTopFive Reflections & Goals

Reflections

Making up my list of hits and misses, looking at my various highlights, and thinking about the goals I set myself last year at this time all helped me to see how my sewing rolled out this year.

My hits were mostly things that were of a little higher quality, whether cottons, linens and knits -- both new and thrifted. They also fit my body well -- while most of my misses were made of poly or there was a poor fabric/pattern match so that the fit was off.

So one reflection is definitely that I need to stick with better fabrics, and greatly reduce the amount of poly in my stash. This is both for sustainability purposes and for better wearability too.

And I need to think a little harder about the silhouettes I'm choosing. Maybe it's time to do a Wardrobe Architect kind of project, to narrow down what I most like wearing.

But one more reflection is that I really enjoy bright colours and fun prints. And I'm going to continue using them because they really make me happy!

My highlights show that getting together with other sewists is something I really enjoy, and making is definitely my favourite thing to do. Easy to continue focusing on that for 2020.

And looking at last year's goals...well, I haven't really met them all. I hit my targets for sewing more from stash and blogging more, but not sewing menswear, working through my Craftsy classes, or creating more textile art. I only entered one textile art call this year, not the four I was looking at. But there is always next year :)



Goals

1. Sew from stash

I joined the "50 Yard Dash" sewalong on PatternReview this year, and just having that goal really inspired me to sew up some of those long held pieces of fabric. It didn't stop me from buying more new fabric, sadly... so I am going to be trying to hit that goal of sewing at least 50 metres more than I buy this year. That is really only about 4.5m. a month, so it is doable!

2. Menswear

This is always my goal but I never seem to get around to it! I *will* make something for my husband this year.

3. Craftsy Classes

I bought the whole series by Suzy Furrer on Craftsy before it became Bluprint. I am planning to work my way through them all this year and really up my sewing game.

4. Draft my own pattern -- at least one!

This is tied to my previous goal! If I can do the pattern making classes on Bluprint, I will work along and hopefully come up with something I can create, from design to drafting to wearing.

5. Slow Down

This is counterintuitive -- but I hope to take more time with my projects and consider them from fabric to finishing, and try some new, more complex techniques in 2020. Also to think about the fabric more, right from the beginning, and choose better quality. This is tied to my desire to be more sustainable overall in my life.

That's what my 2019 looked like, and what 2020 is shaping up to be. I hope you feel as excited about what you can accomplish in the next 12 months as I do!