A year in Review!

Its that time of the year again - time to take a look at what I've been sewing and see whats been working and what hasn't.

Based on my pie chart I've done a bit of everything this year - a total of 45 items sewed - well at least that's whats made it to the blog.  There was some other sewing projects - mainly things for my sewing classes and a few other projects for presents but as far as sewing for myself goes here's a quick round up of what has worked and what hasn't

First up - my most prolific category this year was cardigans and sweaters.

I made a total of 5 cardigans and 2 sweaters - 2 of which were knitted rather than sewn.  The most worn out of these is strangely enough the boucle (middle bottom) cardigan.  Whilst it was technically a muslin for the houndstooth cardigan it actually gets worn more - I find it warmer and it also matches better with the majority of my wardrobe.  A close second is the grey hooded cardigan.
Out of my two knitted sweaters Whilst I love the teal and purple cardigan I find myself reaching for the rainbow sweater more often.  The coral cardigan and the Lilian top have been worn a few time but they are not top tier.

Next up is tops.  Whilst these all get worn there is definitely a clear winner here - the simple green top (bottom right)  - If it's not on me it's in the wash.  The rest of these are just a bit Meh - I wear them but none of them excite me.  The batwing (top right)  is probably in second place but it tends to strangle me a bit - I'd like to revisit this pattern and see what I can do with it.

I struggled with pants fitting a bit this year.  The peacock Jeans are by far the winner in this category and are worn on a regular basis.  The rest not so much. 

The wool pants (center top) have been recycled - they shrunk in the wash quite a bit - to the point that I handed them down to my son - at which point they accidentally ended up in the dryer and that was then end of those. The blue stripe joggers (top left) are worn a bit but the purple(bottom left) and striped wool (center bottom) are often found languishing in the back of the wardrobe.

I made a total of 4 jumpsuits this year and they have all been worn quite a bit.  My favourite is the black and white butterflies and this is probably the most worn.  I love the blue jungle print sirocco but the unfortunately placement of the yellow just bumps these into second place.  The green panels Sally jumpsuit is great but a bit low cut for some occasions.  The winterized Sirocco is good, now that I've remade the top, but a it inconvenient now that I need a sweater every day.

Dresses - Clear winner is my rainbow zipper dress.  I love this dress and have worn it quite a bit.  I really love the chiffon dress but as it was made at the end of the summer it hasn't had more than one outing - I'll see how it goes next year.  The gold Keilo I don't love as much as I thought I would - it just doesn't fit as nicely as my first Keilo.  The Red dress is great - but I just haven't found many occasions to wear it.

Coats - I really love making coats and I love all three of these.  But unfortunately I find that I'm not wearing the first one as much as I would have expected.  It's just too heavy to be practical.  The black and yellow is well worn and well loved and I don't think I've taken the blue coat off since I finished it, so those two are definitely winners.

I spent quite some time this year working on active wear patterns.  Not sure I've got it yet.  These are all OK, but none of them are great.  The red roses leggings are definitenly my favourite and also the most worn but that's based purely on fabric not on pattern.

I don't know if its just the season but I'm just not really interested in wearing either of these - even in the hot gym - I'll see how they go in summer.

And finally there is the miscellaneous category.

The bras are all well loved - there is actually one more that I never got around to blogging that is actually my favourite - made using the same pattern as the blue and green but with slightly more supportive fabric it's my go to anytime it's clean.

The swimmers I love and wear anytime I'm near a pool. And the bag is in constant use day to day.  The shoes were worn plenty when the weather allowed to the point where they are just about worn out - will need to make new ones next spring.

So overall a pretty successful year.  I think my biggest take away is I need to do more work fitting pants. I feel like every time I think I've got it something changes (usually my weight) and I have to start all over again.  I think I'd also like to see more brightly coloured tops - but as per usual finding the right fabric is the problem.

You may have noticed that most of my makes this year were cold weather gear - I took a trip back to Australia during the summer months this year so went from Winter to Spring to Australian winter, came back and had one month of Summer and then it was Autumn again and back to Winter so I really didn't have time for much summer sewing - hopefully next year!