I love to start with the highlights -- so here are my five favourite items of the year. It was very tough to limit myself to five this year, I had so many things I made that I loved, especially the whole raft of dresses I made in early spring.
However, looking at what I really loved and what I actually wore often, I was able to come up with five things to highlight. Links are to the original posts.
Laundry Day Tee by Love Notions
I tested out this free pattern with one of the fabrics I put onto my MakeNine list, a houndstooth knit. I love the fit, the amazing cowl neck, and this fabric is both beautiful and comfortable to wear. I think this is probably the item I've worn most this year.
I made this dress as part of the Fabricville blog network, and chose this rayon fabric as soon as I saw it. I *love* this dress. The fabric is so, so lovely, both the print and the feel of it. And the pattern was challenging but doable, with a great result. I did make some changes to the lining steps, for a better interior finish, as detailed in my original post. But I love this one!
This cozy dress has a relaxed silhouette and is easy to wear. I also just love the fabric, a fun glen plaid style flocked print. I also enjoyed making a matching belt for it, though the search for a buckle took a little longer than I'd expected!
This is the second version I've made, and it just slightly nudges ahead of the whole batch of delightful dresses I made around the same time since not only is the fit great, but the fabric is wonderful -- both as a print and because it belonged to a lovely lady who passed on last year, and each time I wear it I think about her. Makes it extra special.
I have to count this one in because it surprised me by how much I loved it immediately upon finishing it. The elements came together as more than the sum of the parts, which were each great in the first place. I don't usually make simple tops like this when there is a dress view -- I default to dresses. But in a year in which I made a whack of fabulous dresses, this top took me by surprise. I absolutely love the fit, the fabric and the overall 80s aesthetic of it. And you know I'm going to make a dress version in 2021!
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And then there are the misses....I didn't have too many this year, and most of them were just the wrong fabric choice, although there were some big fitting issues too! Here are my 2020 flops.
Owyn Pants by Lotta Jansdotter
I like the pattern and the concept, but my pants fitting skills are pathetic, and these don't fit at all. As Esme says on the Great British Sewing Bee, they were "a little hungry in the bum". I've now read a ton of fitting books and might try another muslin to see if I can get it right. Maybe.
La Brea Tee by Halfmoon Atelier
I love the woven La Brea Tee I made, but when I tried the knit version, I both made it too large and used the wrong fabric choice for the binding. It's a wavy, sloppy mess, really -- but it's great for exercising in, so there's that!
Dionne Duster by SewAlteredStyle
I haven't blogged this one yet, but I used a thin poly knit that didn't want to behave, plus I had some issues with the pattern markings and, well, this attempt at a long vest didn't work out. At all.
There were a couple of other items I wasn't entirely happy with, but that I wouldn't consider real misses -- just ones I haven't worn much because I just don't know why I don't really like them. I think I'll have to move those on to someone else who might like them.
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| photo via Unsplash |
How was your sewing year? I'm so glad I had too many Hits to easily pick five, and so few Misses that I couldn't even find five. In a tough year, my sewing really came through!
Nice garments for your top 5!
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda! It was hard to pick only five -- I also loved my Cielos, the Maria Denmark dress I made from a sheet, my Burda psychedelic zebra dress and so many more this year 🙂
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