Knitting and sewing review of 2019

Knitting

Well, I managed to knit only from stash and not buy any wool at all this year apart from some Drops Baby Merino to knit a Christmas jumper for my grandson (and a couple of other colours to make the order up to value for free p&p), and I justified that because I didn't have the right colours in stash.

So this year's tally is
yarn bought = 2,275m
yarn knitted = 11,021m

Overall 8,746 metres less in my stash than at the beginning of the year - hooray!

I knitted quite a few things from my plan for the year which I'm pleased about - I got stuck in to my Home Fires knitting project, I blogged about the individual knits here, here, here, and here, and wrote a general update on patterns and my visit to Bunbury (where it was filmed) here.

I also knitted two jumpers and three cardigans from my 2019 plan and one other, a baby cardigan for my newest grandson

and a Christmas jumper for his older brother (I ran out of time before I could knit one for my granddaughter, so if she'd like one she can have one next year - the Rudolph jumper was specifically requested!).

The cardigan is from a vintage pattern that I've used before.

Although I didn't knit the dress (again), and two cardigans are carried forward to Spring 2020 - by the time I got around to thinking about knitting them autumn was well on its way and I knew I wouldn't wear them for months if I started them in September - I'm very pleased with the total output.

Sewing

This year's sewing has consisted entirely of sleeveless dresses all of which, apart from the navy daisies one, were sewn from fabric I already had.  And all except one (Anya) had a pleated skirt.

Bodice patterns used
Sew Over It Betty (10)
Butterick 5748 (3)
Simplicity 2444 (3)

Skirt patterns used
Simplicity 3749 (7)
Butterick 2248 (2)
New Look 6824 pleated version (6)
New Look 6824 straight version (1)

It turns out the most popular combo was Betty bodice and Simplicity 3749 skirt - I made five of these,

closely followed by Betty and New Look 6824 pleated - four.

These two both have Butterick 2248 skirts - only suitable for 56"+ width fabric (Betty bodice on the left, Butterick 5748 bodice on the right)

And here are the rest - the three dresses with Simplicity 2444 bodices (bottom left and the two on the right) and the other two with Butterick 5748 bodices.

I bought 5.5m of fabric this year - daisy print poplin which quickly became this dress, and some bee print corduroy which I have yet to sew up.  I also took quite a few metres of fabric to Sew Brum for the swap table, so much more out than in!

Overall I'm pleased with what I've sewn, having made good inroads in to my stash, although the output bears little resemblance to the original plan beyond the first paragraph!

Knitting and Sewing Review of 2018

Well, it's that time of the year again.

Looking back at my knitting plans for this year I have actually achieved quite a bit of what I hoped to do.  The first two knitting projects (Love Potion cardi and the spotty 30s top), are done.

The third (navy Arroyo peplum cardi) is still waiting in the wings.  Project no 4 (ultramarine cardi) got knitted.  Project no 5 - 50% successs rate - I used the yarn (for a different project), but the design idea is still on the to-do list.

No 6 (Judy in Disguise) - yes, done.  No 7 (vintage v-striped top), carried forward.  No 8 (green Wollmeise lace vintage cardi) - yes, knitted.

So 5.5 yes vs 2.5 no - a resounding success in my book - possibly my best since I started writing these planning posts - I don't think I've gone beyond 50% achieved before now.  I do wonder though whether this year's achievements are partly down to setting the bar at a more realistic level than I have done previously.

There are also still quite a few items outstanding from previous years.

From autumn 2014 (and therefore also into 2015) - Purl Alpaca dress and Grasshopper cardi.  From 2016 - of the two Excelana cardis I planned I knitted up one this year here, although I didn't use the pattern I'd originally intended, and I destashed the wool for the second, so that's never gonna happen now.

The rust cotton DK cardi is also still pending - possibly because if it's warm enough for a cardi I want it to be wool, if I only want a light layer in the summer then DK is too thick.  So... not sure what will happen with this yarn/pattern combo.  The Grasshopper cardi appears here too... must get round to knitting it!

I also destashed the wool I planned to use for the Wallis cardigan, so that pattern is in hibernation at the moment - I still like and hope to knit it, I just don't know what with now... or when.

From 2017 -  two Kate Davies Buachaille patterns are still outstanding, the Purl Alpaca dress popped up here again as well.

In addition to the planned projects I knitted a cardigan for my granddaughter which I haven't blogged about - it's a Drops pattern (this one) which I modified because I wasn't going to knit squirrels.  I finished it back in February and surprisingly it still fits, although I think the sleeves are getting a bit short now.

Back view

I also knitted two cardigans and a top from vintage patterns,

two cardigans which I designed myself

and two shawls.

I've just done a quick totting up - yarn bought this year  - 27,285 metres, (eek...) yarn destashed 21,070 metres, yarn knitted 12,777 metres, so I've ended the year with about 6.5 kilometres less yarn than I started with - hooray!

The sewing hasn't been quite so much as planned, although I have made quite a few dresses from fabrics that I've had in my stash for a while (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 11, 12), which I'm pleased about.

Here are the non-maxi ones

I finished the denim skirt (and made another one),

I didn't do anything with the Dreyfuss dress, or the Vogue irises dress.  Shirtdresses and 40s dresses are also a big fat fail.  Regency dress - I've cut out a muslin (actually using muslin which was a pain to cut out because it's loosely woven and was therefore rather slippy) but can't remember which pattern I used now, and also I think I changed the bodice slightly, although I can't remember how...  this will end up being a nightie, because I'm not leaving the house in a white see-through dress.

The two skirts and two Coco tops are still unmade (although I did ask a work colleague who has used the Coco pattern if she had any tips / advice, and had intended to get at least one made before Christmas, but ran out of time).

Maxi dress yes (no 8, above), and another one for the Outfit Along challenge

Seaside print dress no, which was daft really, because we had such a glorious summer this year... dress for granddaughter, no, vintage dress yes (no 12, above), Colette Rae, Marilla Walker Isca, coral stretch all no.  However, the last entry, although I haven't used those patterns or sewed that fabric yet - yes, quite a few!  Two dresses were from fabric which I bought this year, but the rest were stashbusters.  I have a few as yet unsewn other fabrics I've bought this year, but if I include what I took for the swap table at this year's sewbrum this year there has definitely been more fabric out than in, which pleases me.

All in all, a very satisfying year on the creative front.  Roll on 2019 for more of the same!

Sewing plans for 2018

I've had quite a few posts popping up in my Instagram feed recently relating to the #2018makenine and #2018usenine challenges, and they've reminded me that I need to get on and finish writing this post!  So today I made some time to go through my fabric stash, think about what I'd like to sew and take photographs during daylight hours - always a challenge at this time of year.

This year I really want to focus on using fabrics in my stash which, for one reason or another, are still in my stash...

The reasons vary but can really be aggregated to

• I can't decide what style of dress to make (and it is mainly dress lengths that I dither over)
• I know what style but can't decide on a particular pattern
• It's such gorgeous fabric that I don't want to make the wrong decision (or a cutting out error - they have been known), and end up with no dress at all

Maybe if I put things in black and white here, with photos, there will be progress!

I'd also like to finish a few items which are at various stages of completion - a denim skirt from this pattern

which I cut out back in June and have done nothing with since.


An Emery / Cambie mash-up dress with these two fabrics which I bought in Dreyfuss in Paris several years ago.

I cut these out last summer and have got as far as sewing the darts and no further.

Then there is a Vogue long-sleeved shift dress which I started making in January 2014 and has therefore been languishing for four years...  I've marked the darts on this one, but I haven't got as far as sewing them.

Next, I would like to tackle buttonholes (I think I've probably said this before...).  So the photo below represents this - I may not use this pattern with this fabric, I've got a fair few vintage shirtdress patterns so might end up using a different one, but I really would like to cross making buttonholes off my to-do list!

I would also love to make some 1940s dresses.

The fabric in the picture above is a Liberty voile and so will have to be fully lined.  The fabric below is also Liberty, both of these were my mother's, and I'm not sure how old they are - 1980s or 1990s I guess.

What else?

I had a spell of binge-watching Jane Austen dvds last summer which ignited a desire to make a Regency-style dress.  I bought some navy dotted Swiss fabric at GBSB live to make up with one or other of these patterns - which remind me of a couple of Laura Ashley maxi dresses I had in the 70s which were really very similar in style.  Whatever happened to them I wonder? 

Next, a couple of skirts.  A pleated one with this gorgeous harlequin border print,

and a fitted one with this pink and red checked wool which I bought at Barry's in Birmingham on the 2015 Sewbrum day.

Two Coco sweatshirts with fabric from Guthrie & Ghani, again, from Sewbrum 2015.

A maxi dress with this fabric, not necessarily this pattern though (but definitely a maxi)

A fitted bodice pleated skirt dress from this gorgeous summery border print fabric which I bought last year

A dress for my granddaughter with this fabric, which is a leftover from this dress I made four years ago.  A friend of mine gave me the pattern - isn't it fab?

A dress with  this lovely vintage fabric which I bought from Hammersmith Vintage Fair a couple of years ago

A Sew Over It 1940s wrap dress - I've been waiting for this pattern to be released since I first saw a version of it on a mannequin in Sew Over It's Clapham shop a few years ago.

A Colette Rae

A Marilla Walker Isca shirt dress.  I'm not sure whether I've got enough of this lightweight chambray - I hope so!

A fitted 60s dress in this coral coloured stretch cotton - this reminds me of the dresses which Emma Stone wore in The Help.  I already had the original version of this pattern and then was tempted to buy the re-release in a sale, just to see what differences, if any, there are between the two patterns.

A navy and turquoise floral print voile 1940s style tea dress

And I am sure there will also be some fitted bodice / pleated or straight skirt combos too, because these fit right into my lifestyle and actually get worn.

I'd like to make up this fabric this spring...

I am also being increasingly drawn to the styles of the 1930s (take a look at Cate's blog - she's made some gorgeous garments) but I don't have any 30s dressmaking patterns in my stash.  I have got a few knitting patterns though so maybe my foray into 1930s clothing will have to be knitted not sewn.  Watch this space!

Baby knitting

Along with knitting for myself, this year I have been knitting for my new granddaughter (actually it's last year as we're now in 2018...).  The first thing I finished was this vintage cardigan (bottom left).

I love this pattern, I think it's so pretty and I knitted one for her mother when she was a baby.

Then I knitted a quick bobble hat to go with it - this is a pattern from Debbie Bliss Baby Knits book which I bought when I was first pregnant.

This is actually the same shade of wool (Drops Baby Merino) as the cardigan, the lighting must have been different when I photographed it.

And most recently a pram set - again, another vintage pattern which I'd knitted for my daughter.

I changed it slightly though - no criss-cross stitching, I just did plain  moss stitch, and an i-cord neckline.  The grey is Drops Baby Merino and the yellow was some I had left over from this cardigan.  The little flower buttons came from John Lewis.

This also got a matching bobble hat.

And I also made one exactly the same (minus the button) for one of her friends.

Baby/toddler knitting

While I'm in end-of-year catch up mode, I realise that there is a cardigan which I knitted for my grandson back in February which I haven't blogged about.  He's obviously grown out of it now, but it did last for a few months!  This is the second version I've made from this pattern, but I made a larger size than the first, and used different colours and stripe sequence.

He's a happy little chap

The second item is a simple pom-pom hat for one of my daughter's friends who had a baby girl in the summer.

And the third and final bit of not-for-me knitting this year is a hat for my grandson.  This pattern originally came up as a project in my friends' activity feed on Ravelry and I thought it was so cute that I wanted to knit it anyway whether grandson wears it or not (we haven't really had much hat weather yet this winter).  It made a nice change to be knitting with 2.5mm needles rather than the 5mms I used for the ten of hearts cardigan, although I'm glad it was for a small item rather than an adult-sized cardigan!

Three different pom-poms - red, navy, and mixed

I wrapped this up and gave it to him for Christmas - it fits but didn't stay on his head for long, after all, who needs to wear a hat when it's warm indoors!