Reflections and plans for 2020

Don't you love the tradition of looking back on the sewing year that just came to an end? So let's dive into my best 5 makes, my top 5 misses, and.....o, wait. Who am I fooling? I only documented the grand total of 5 garments here in 2019!
The picture above shows what I added to my winter wardrobe, a Knipmode sweatshirt and a Knipmode designer dress. Both big hits and often worn.

And here's my summer output: a Zadie jumpsuit, a summer version of the Blackwood cardigan and a Burdastyle top. Again all incredibly popular wardrobe additions!

And, although a bit silly given the numbers, the annual pie chart sorted by pattern company.

On the upside I can celebrate a 100% success rate, but what happened to all those plans?? 

In short: life. 

As you may remember I started the year with an improved sewing room layout, a sorted stash and a new sewing machine. I was not very satisfied with my sewing in 2018 and wanted to make more adventurous choices. And I did! A year ago I could not have imagined sewing a jumpsuit and actually LIKING it. Both the plaid dress and floral top are new to me styles as I have been experimenting with different shapes.

The sewing room layout worked like a dream and after some cursing and threats to throw the new machine out of the window we became best friends. We bonded over working with many different fabrics. I sewed with sustainable fabrics from Enschede Textielstad, made a silk blouse, a linen jacket, cozy sleepwear in double knit jersey, experimented with decorative stitches and am now working on a boiled wool winter coat. My new Bernina passed every test with flying colours!

So I did in fact sew more than I showed here. But if it isn't recorded on the blog, it didn't happen.

Last year wasn't the best of years for me health wise. It's one thing to be sewing when on antibiotics or painkillers, but posing for blog pictures is something else. So one of my plans for 2020 is to deal with this this back log as soon as I can and have all my sewing notes up here, well documented and in a safe place. Those sticky notes in various notebooks drive me crazy! I hope the weather will be cooperative to take decent blog pics, and if not I do have some indoor action shots of a few of those garments that will have to do.

Of course I have a long list of sewing plans. (And too much fabric, as you didn't think I only bought fabric for five lousy projects, right?) First I'm going to pick up where I left a month ago with my winter coat. I made a muslin, altered the pattern where needed, cut all three layers and basted fashion fabric and underlining together. Somewhere in the mess that is my sewing room there must be a pile of lining pieces waiting to be marked....

When my coat is finished I hope to fill a few wardrobe gaps. I could use some summer dresses, tops, pants and sleepwear and I have a lovely fabric waiting to become a spring coat. I'll keep working on improving my sewing skills, both online in the Susan Khalje Couture Sewing Club and in real life as one of my birthday gifts is a workshop with a tailor. I'm really looking forward to that.

Here's to a wonderful and creative new sewing decade where we make all our sewing dreams come true!

Back with a Zadie jumpsuit!

Hi! It's been a while! In my previous post I was standing in the snow having zero intention of putting this blog on halt for over six months. But then a string of unrelated medical issues interfered with my plans. I kept sewing, but it's not hard to imagine that when you're on a diet of painkillers and antibiotics taking selfies is not high on the list. I'm as good as new now and happy to be back!

At the beginning of the year I promised myself to make 2019 more adventurous sewing wise. Ah, little did I know... Well, I did manage to make a few unexpected choices in recent months. Who knew I'd want to sew a jumpsuit? I checked, and the last time I did was in 1982!

I think it was the wrap that got me interested in the Zadie Jumpsuit by Paper Theory. My wrap dresses are firm favourites, so why not try something related?
My measurements put me in a size 20 and I decided to make a quick toile.

Uhm, no. Unfinished and unpressed, as I was about to throw it in the bin at this stage. I decided to give mr Foxgloves a good laugh first but much to my surprise he saw the potential of this garment. The verdict: overall too big, fabric on the heavy side and 'weird spoilers' above the bust. All excellent observations!

I decided to go down a size, do a small FBA and add darts. I found the fabric of my dreams during a trip to Rotterdam. It's a drapy rayon from Schroder modestoffen.

Apart from the FBA / bust darts I made a few other changes. I used lightweight interfacing to give the ties a crisp look and angled the ends. I also changed the finished width of the ties from 3 to 4.5 cm for better proportions and lengthened them by 10 cm.

Sizing down was a good call, and perhaps I could have gone down another size. Hard to tell with these loose fitting styles. When does a wide leg turn into a too wide leg?

Despite the FBA and bust darts there is still some folding above the bust. Probably inevitable with cut on sleeves on my busty frame. The folds disappear when I move my arms and I did not want to over fit. Same goes for the crotch length. The crotch felt a little low at first, but a trial run to the supermarket proved the extra length is much appreciated when bending over or reaching for high shelves.

There's one thing I will change for a next version. My front waist seam ended up a little too low as a result of the FBA. The ties automatically sit at my true waist and the waist seam does not. (Back waist seam is fine) For the time being I'm okay with that. Taking out any length will make wiggling into this jumpsuit even harder than it already is. (One of my medical issues was an acute hernia so my acrobatic skills aren't top notch at the moment)

I'm very happy with this style experiment! I'm considering making a navy version for autumn. Perhaps turn the pleats into darts and change the bias tape finish for a facing to create a slightly more formal look.

But now it's harvest time Chez Foxgloves! Apples, plums, raspberries. All kinds of cooking, baking and freezing going on. Till next time!