Knitting and sewing review of 2015

Well, another year has nearly finished and looking back on my intentions (here) I've clearly achieved very few of them!

The frugal thing hasn't gone as well as I'd hoped - I've bought both knitting and sewing patterns, and yarn and fabric - although on the plus side I've destashed a lot more yarn than I've bought so there has been a net decrease in my stash which I'm pleased about, and I haven't really bought much fabric this year (although probably more yardage than I took to the sewbrum meet up for the fabric and pattern swap, so more in than out...).

The one very good thing though is that I have not bought any clothes except an orange coat.  I had a bit of a binge-watching session of Audrey Hepburn films after going to see the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery earlier this year, and she wore a fabulous (presumably designed by Givenchy) orange coat in Breakfast at Tiffany's.  I took some screenshots thinking I would try and hunt out a vintage pattern and some orange wool cloth to make one, and then made the mistake of idly doing a google image search for orange coats...  But, you know, I love it, it's a great fit, it's not a 'fashion' item (well, I say that mainly because I have no idea what's 'in fashion'), and if I ever do find the perfect pattern and fabric and make one then this can go to Oxfam.  Oh, and I also bought a pair of Freddies jeans earlier this month.

I've also done virtually no mending or altering of clothes which need one or the other, or both, so maybe next year I'll make some progress on those.  In fact, I've done very little sewing at all this year - I finished two dresses which I started last year, and made three others.  And that's it!  No making of separates, no dipping my toe into the sewing-with-knit-fabrics water, no dresses with buttonholes.  Well, there's always next year.  I've therefore completely failed on the vintage pattern pledge front - I've made loads of dresses in my head, just not in reality.  Yet...

I haven't read any of my sewing books either; the most recent book I read was this,

and I've now just started on the Lucy Siegle one.

I've been much more productive on the knitting front though, with seven cardigans and three jumpers for me, and four baby items, all of which I've blogged about.  Which doesn't sound like much when I say it out loud, but was quite a few miles of knitting! I've also just noticed that the first item I finished this year, and the one I shall still be knitting at the end of this year are both purple.  Coincidence rather than intention I think!