Analyzing the Year 2009: Successes

Well, I certainly am not a prolific seamstress, but I definitely did better than 2008.

I have compiled a list of my sewing successes for 2009.

Let's start off with pants. Pants that fit! It is extremely hard for me to buy pants off the rack. When I find a pair that fit, I buy several or one in every color (I have 3 pairs of same pair of jeans from Lane Bryant).

I also finished an unfinished project from 2008: Bonnie's jumper. It fits her well and she wears it often.

I made several costumes for the kid's school productions. Gus had one of the better (or best?) costumes for his Egyptian play. Carl looked absolutely adorable in his big bad squirrel costume. Unfortunately, cute is the kiss of death in 2nd grade. He may never let me sew a costume for him again.

I made Bonnie's last minute skirt for her pilgrim costume. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and didn't get a picture of her in her full pilgrim attire.

Bonnie was very happy with her Disney princess outfit. It was very simple, but sparkly and princess purple, so she was a happy camper.

This was a good year for knit tops. I made 3 cowls from a BWOF pattern. The purple cowl was one of this year's sewing winners. I also made black and a silver version.

In addition to the cowls, I made the pattern for the navy knit top from a top I bought from Macy's. I wear this top a lot and love it.

I made 4 skirts this year, 3 with invisible zippers. The first, worn with the navy knit top, is this white linen skirt. It has a nice fit and I wore it a lot over the summer.

I also made this red linen skirt from a Sew Beautiful magazine pull-out pattern. I love the color and fabric. The fit is OK. It is a little fuller that I would like. If I wear fitted tops, I can get away with it.

The last two successful projects for the year are the gray and green skirts. Both cut from the same pattern, but the gray one was severely altered because I didn't take care while cutting out the plaid wool of the skirt.

Analyzing the Sewing Year 2009: Failures

I really only had two true failure and one not so great. I generally make muslins, so I guess it's just time lost realizing that no amount of tweaking a muslin is going to make it wearable. I had 2 pants patterns, 2 jacket patterns , and 2 blouse patterns that never made it past the muslin stage. I really envy the sewing bloggers who can whip up patterns in their fashion fabrics right out of the pattern envelope. I am by no stretch of the imagination close to standard pattern sizes.

This top was made from a top I had purchased from Macy's. I had already made a successful version. There are two major contributing factors to this failure. #1 was trusting the judgement of my husband. Like most men, my husband is a boob man. I think you can see the problem with the fit from the picture.
Problem #2 was that I wasn't totally sure if the fabric it was silk or rayon. I am now positive it was silk. I washed it once after wearing and it shrank significantly, making the fit even scarier.




My second failure is the purple blouse. It was an unfinished project that I finally finished. It fit, but it was just too blousey to be worn untucked and tucking for me is generally not an attractive look. I only wore it one time. It's too bad, because the fabric was a really beautiful sueded silk. The silhouette is just too matronly. Blah....



I don't think this skirt is a total failure. I just don't think the fit is the best. I think it could be fitted a little closer to the body. The fabric is a little too heavy to not be fitted. I have worn it a couple times so it isn't a total disaster.


Next up: Sewing successes of 2009 (not winners, but definitely wearable).

Analyzing the Year 2009: The Winners!

My job involves a lot of analysis, so it seems only natural to analyze the year of sewing - what went right and what went wrong.

My most successful project is probably my jacket. It looks and fits great. It has certainly generated the most comments. It was a lot of work so I was very happy it turned out nice. There is nothing more depressing than spending hours on a project only to have it turn out unwearable.

The most successful project as measured by how many times worn, would have to be my purple cowl. It is beyond comfy, sort of like wearing jammies. I get lots of compliments on it and it matches a large percentage of my wardrobe. This is my first (and only) Burda pattern used. I liked it so much I made the top 3 times.

I also think Bonnie's Halloween costume was a resounding success. It fit her perfectly and she was a very satisfied customer. I'm sure all of her cousins will be lining up to use it for future Halloweens.

Stay tuned for analysis on this year's failures and projects that "fit the bill".

Candy Houses

OK. This isn't a sewing post, but it is creative....

With a foot and a half of snow outside, we had to find something fun to do. Time to break out the candy houses.

The houses are made of graham crackers.

The "glue" is meringue powder, powdered sugar and water. This is called royal icing. It hardens like cement.

The base is the only thing that is inedible. I cut out cardboard squares and frosted them with the icing. Instant snow.

On Saturday, I made a batch of frosting that I totally used up icing the bases. Unfortunately, I was out of powdered sugar and we were snowed in. This meant a day and a half of the kids staring at me until I could get to the store to get more powdered sugar.

I carefully showed each child how to hold the frosting bags so that they stayed closed and each child managed to squeeze giant globes of frosting all over the table and themselves.

Gus did a nice job of creatively and carefully placing his candy.

Bonnie has a story for the placement of every piece of candy. I don't understand the logic, but I guess it makes sense to a six year old.

Carl's house looks like it is vomiting candy. I think he figured he would get to eat the house when it was finished, so the more candy the better.

I have been sewing. Unfortunately, it is a silk blouse with french seams. It is taking me forever.

Just in time for Christmas

After the gray skirt, I was blessed with a nice easy project.

Introducing the holiday green wool plaid skirt.

This fabric is old - at least 20 years old. I'm not exactly sure where I got it, but I've had for a long time. I finally get a chance to use it, and I still have enough left over to make another skirt! It's the fabric that never goes away.......

I used McCalls 5637 again. It's the same pattern that I used for the

gray skirt and white skirt.

Oh my. Disregard the seamy white underbelly.

I added a kick pleat again. You can't really see it too well here. I matched the plaids. (Go me!)

I didn't use the facings. I stabilized the waist with selvage again. It works pretty well to keep the waist from stretching out.

I put in an invisible zipper. OK. I'm sold. I love these zippers. They go in easily and look great.

I bought the lining from JoAnns. I had to make ANOTHER emergency run to JoAnns for seam lace. I bought the last pack, so I guess I'll be back soon.