New Year Resolutions

New Year Resolutions - Update 2

In this post I made some crafting resolutions for 2021, and in this post I followed up on them - as the year is now very rapidly drawing to a close I thought it would be good to check in on those resolutions!

1. A new project: making myself clothes

Back in January I was determined to start making myself clothes, and I think it is safe to say I have nailed that one!

Katharine, a fat white woman with long brown hair, looks into camera wearing a half finished blue pinafore

My current work-in-progress: another York Pinafore dress in this gorgeous swimmers fabric

I have now made myself two pinafores, two dresses, a skirt and one top, as well as adapting ill-fitting shop-bought garments. I've also made several garments for my kids and an apron for a friend.

Katharine, a fat white woman with long brown hair, takes a selfie in the mirror. She's wearing a white top with one sleeve attached which she's showing off with an outstretched arm. She's smiling happily

Working on my first top, the Ashton, and very pleased that I got sleeves to fit!

2. Finishing something: cross-stitch

Partial success here. I did finish the embroidery for my friend's son, a little later than his 7th birthday but only by a month or so. But my original plan to finish my wedding sampler will not get done, as between now and the end of the year I have to finish the #JDQBS embroidery as well as Christmas sewing.

A completed cross stitch sampler lying flat. The embroidery is brightly coloured and features boats, a train and small animals

3. Learning new skills: dressmaking

I have definitely learned a lot of new skills while pursuing goal 1 of making myself clothes! I've become much more confident in a variety of aspects of sewing, although I still feel like a total beginner and have a long way to go! Next up I plan to learn more about pattern alterations and getting a really good fit. I'm keen to have a go at drafting my own patterns and making myself 'blocks', standard templates customised to my size that I can use to create different styles of bodice or skirt.

In my original New Year's Resolutions post I mentioned learning about quilting and making a quilt from my daughters' baby clothes. I have started to work on this now, the photo shows my most recent test of design - I'm finding the colour combinations are the hardest thing to get right! In the example above I don't like how the two orange squares at the top draw the eye upwards so I'm going to replace them.

4. #StashDown

Nope. Big fail. Now I have to say this isn't a fail because I keep buying fabric, but because people have got wind of my hobby and keep giving me more fabric! Old duvet covers, aprons, clothes - and recently a friend of my mother-in-law was clearing out her stash and I ended up with a huge pile of beautiful fabric! Oh well, I can't really complain!

A pile of different fabrics, laid on the floor. There are multiple colours and textures including pale pastels and dark wools

Some lovely additions to my stash courtesy of someone else doing #StashDown!

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Eco-friendly Upcycled Face Wipes

I recently ran up some eco-friendly face wipes for a friend. These are designed to replace cotton pads or face wipes, and are washable. To increase their green credentials I made the pad section from an old towel. I had some charm squares spare, so used those as the backing fabric. I cut the towel into squares that were slightly smaller than the charm square, and wrapped the fabric over the towel piece to form a small border. I then sewed the top fabric down with a zigzag stitch. This meant I was mainly sewing on the fabric, as my machine can't sew through towel (unless I haven't found the right setting or needle of course)! Very very simple, but pretty and functional! There are lots of tutorials for other ways to make these face wipes, such as: https://www.arosetintedworld.co.uk/how-to-make-reusable-make-up-remover-pads/ It seems to be even more simple with an overlocker: http://juliawithanh.com/sewing/23-reusable-face-pads You can even crochet some! https://dab...

Simple Drawstring Bag

Earlier today I made this little bag from a rectangle of scrap fabric. It's a very basic method - there are all sorts of ways this could be improved such as adding lining, a base or French seams. However, for a quick, easy make it works just fine! I wanted to make a little bag for a nerdy friend - what better than this awesome dice/RPG/DnD themed fabric (from Spoonflower ). I only had this rectangle left over from other projects. Step 1: give it a good iron! Step 2: fold in the ends, iron them down and pin. I folded them by 1/2 an inch. This fold will form the channel where the drawstring of the bag will go. Step 3: sew down the folds making sure to sew close to the raw edge of the fold so you have enough space to feed the ribbon through later. Now fold the fabric in half with right sides together. The edges you've already sewn should meet together at the top. Pin then sew up the open sides - make sure to stop at the fold or you'll sew up the channel for the ribbon! Step 4:...

Dressmaking Mishaps

Today I thought I would share some of the very basic mistakes I've realised I'm making when I sew clothes... I'm entirely self-taught and working things out as I go along, so there are lots of 'oops' moments. That's fine - learning to sew is helping me to confront my perfectionism and understand how valuable errors can be. Mishap Number 1 : This is so obvious that I'm cringing to think about it!! I'm not the most 3D thinker which means sometimes it's hard to visualise how patterns go together. I understand that sewing patterns are all about getting a flat cut out piece of fabric to shape and mould around a lumpy curvy human figure, but that theoretical understanding doesn't always translate to understanding why a pattern is doing something specific. So I was making an Assembly Line Cuff Dress and trying to sew up the bodice and I was struggling to get the pattern pieces to match up in a way that felt 'right' to me, that is, I had the id...

Confined Crafting

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