Sewing Goals & Plans, 2024

 

It's time to make some new Sewing Goals and Plans for the New Year. I never go nuts with specific plans, and am not going to try this year, either! I prefer making loose goals to guide me.

Looking back at 2023's Goals, I didn't do too badly. They were: 

Sew from stash - I was doing great at this until about halfway through the year when I ended up buying more than I'd sew up all year long. There was a great sale at a thrift store, and then at the fabric store, and I succumbed. 

Finish some art quilts - I finished a couple, one of which is in an exhibit currently. So I am happy about that! But I do have a few more which are half done and I'd like to keep going and try new things as well as finish the current ones. 

Take classes & learn more - I did take a few online classes, and went to an art quilting conference which was amazing. I signed up for the Jasika Blazer course but have not completed it yet. That's moving forward to this year!

ON TO 2024! 

This year I have some pretty simple goals: 

1. Tailoring: I'm going to finish the Jasika Blazer course and make the blazer - and hopefully learn a lot in the process

2. Focus on special details: I want to include more unique details in my projects that I add in myself. The book on Couture that I've just talked about will help with this, as will some others in my collection. I am thinking of both fabric manipulation and surface design/embroidery as special add-ons. 

3. Wardrobe Planning: I've enjoyed doing this and want to go over my current wardrobe ideas. I find it really helps when looking at fabrics and patterns, and makes it easier to decide if something is for me if I've made a plan first!

4. Watch classes & lessons that I have available to me through my library (CreativeBug) and the Craftsy membership I splurged $2.49 on (and immediately opted out of autorenew for). 

5. Make more textile art! 

Those are my general goals for the year. How about you? Are you setting big goals? Or going with the flow? 

The Busy Month of May!

 May is turning out to be a super busy sewing month! I have so many things I'd like to do this month...I'm going to note them all here and see how many I've tackled by the end of the month ;)

May of course brings #MeMadeMay, one of the longest standing and most-participated-in sewing community challenges out there. It's not a photo challenge, as host SoZo always reminds us. So I'm not really planning on taking daily photos, but I always enjoy the challenge to look at your me-made wardrobe and see how it's working for you. My 'pledge' is to see what I reach for most, and incorporate those findings into future makes so that my wardrobe will be based on things I actually wear. My recent MyBodyModel 3x3 sketch is helping me to test out ideas for my next few projects, and I'm working on another sketch now to test out some other summer pattern ideas. 

May also brings one of my favourite contests over at PatternReview, the Bargainista Fashionista! This is a challenge to knock-off a piece of designer clothing, and estimate how much money you saved doing so. It's such fun to look at outrageously expensive clothing and think about how you could make the same kind of thing. I have a few high end couture pieces I've always wanted to copy, but I don't know if I'd actually wear them in the end, and am I really saving anything by making them if I'm not going to wear them? So even though May has already started, I'm waffling between project ideas. 

The Stratford Garment Guild has a monthly sewing challenge, and this month's is to make something from the classes on CreativeBug, as this is a database that is widely available in our local library system. I've downloaded the Adrienne Blouse by Friday Pattern Company as my project, I just hope I can get it finished (um, started...) before our next meeting. 

Of course, I am also working on a project for my own Literary Sewing Circle! The project link up will be posted later this week, and we'll have to the end of the month to post something. I have one project underway and another one as a potential addition, so we'll see. 

There is also a great Instagram challenge that has been restarted, the #DressLikeYourGrandma2021 vintage challenge. I love this one, the makes and the pictures are always so much fun to go through. I have a picture of my actual Grandma that I'd love to use, but there are also some other vintage images that are really, really tempting me. 

So what I really need this month is more time...I have lots of ideas, no problems there!

Fashion Sketching with My Body Model

 I was lucky enough to win a premium package from My Body Model in my recent #BHMPatternDesigners Challenge win. I've been intrigued by My Body Model for a while now, and this finally gave me the impetus to measure myself and get my personalized croquis downloaded and printed. It was so easy, and promises to be addictive. 

I watched the three videos that Erica has posted about the basics of garment sketching for total beginners (that's me) and tried out some of her tips and tricks. It's easier than I thought it would be. The croquis with the right proportions makes a big difference in getting the feel of a garment right for me. Some of the tips included using the line drawings and model images from your chosen pattern to note the shapes, starting with dots to mark the edges and shapes of things, then drawing in the curved lines to connect it all. That made it work so well!

I started by sketching out some of the items on my 2021 #MakeNine list, starting with the ones I'm planning on making next. I started just with pencil sketches to get the feel of how this works. It's really neat -- so fun that I can see doing this a lot! I'm not a plan oriented sewist in general; I tend to have a mental overview of the patterns I'm interested in and then make things according to mood and whatever fabric is currently speaking to me. So this should be an interesting addition to my sewing process, maybe I'll get my sewing queue a little more organized this way. 

I found that using the tiny adjustments to the way lines curved that Erica talked about in her videos made the sketches immediately more realistic. I haven't really tried using colour or representing fabrics more realistically yet, but I'm already hooked. Have I mentioned how fun it is? It feels like the grownup version of FashionPlates ;) 

I'll have to practice more to really get the hang of it, as I've seen so many people sharing their garment plans using this technique on Instagram which have inspired me. I really love Nateida's paper doll process that she shared at the beginning of the challenge, and want to give that a go once I get the garment drawing bit down. So much potential! The next time Erica offers her drawing class, I'm in 😍