I'm joining in the annual sewing Top 5 sewing-related navel gazing exercise hosted by Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow (via Sewcialists this year)!
This is my 6th year (?!?!) participating in the Top 5 event (see my past posts here). I don't always adhere to all of the categories or even to the number 5, but mold it to make it my own.
I won't delay anymore... let's get to the good stuff! My sewing Top 5 for 2019:
Top 5 hits (OK, I'm giving you 6):
Hands down my favorite of the year. I just freakin' love this thing. I wore it weekly to just about every event I could, and would have worn it more if it was socially acceptable to wear the same floral jumpsuit daily. Fit and style were so spot on that I could overlook the slightly more difficult bathroom breaks associated with the jumpsuit style.
Tim wore this shirt weekly all spring, summer and into fall. A couple of times, I think I might have spotted him pulling it out of the dirty laundry to wear it again.
Are you sensing a theme here? Tim and I both loved tropical-themed garments I made us this year. Maybe I should add more tropical prints to our repertoire for 2020...
Are you sensing a theme here? Tim and I both loved tropical-themed garments I made us this year. Maybe I should add more tropical prints to our repertoire for 2020...
Vintage Snuggie/Cult Robe (made by my mom)
Not much to say here. It's just so cozy and so ridiculous. I'm wearing it right now. Plus the photo shoot with my mom was so much fun!
Shibori Shirt No. 1
I really love this top! I love the simplicity of Shirt No. 1's design, the way my hand-dyed fabric turned out, and the fact that it's a) linen and b) a scrap from another project. Plus it wins points because the shibori dyeing process was so much fun!
Floral Cottesloe Swimsuit
This swimsuit was a stalwart this summer! I wore it tons all summer, and for a scuba diving trip Tim and I took to celebrate the "big" birthdays we had this year. It's a very functional swimsuit, but the fabric makes it fun. It doesn't require a lot of tugging or self-consciousness, and it looks cute, so it's a win-win in my book.
I really love this top! I love the simplicity of Shirt No. 1's design, the way my hand-dyed fabric turned out, and the fact that it's a) linen and b) a scrap from another project. Plus it wins points because the shibori dyeing process was so much fun!
Floral Cottesloe Swimsuit
This swimsuit was a stalwart this summer! I wore it tons all summer, and for a scuba diving trip Tim and I took to celebrate the "big" birthdays we had this year. It's a very functional swimsuit, but the fabric makes it fun. It doesn't require a lot of tugging or self-consciousness, and it looks cute, so it's a win-win in my book.
I just made it, but I love this thing.
It's cute, it's colorful, it hides my shame (aka shit tons of fabric scraps). Enough said.
Top 5 Misses (Ok, there are only 2)
I really wanted to love this dress, which I made for Sew Twists and Ties last year, but I haaaaated the fit (the pulling, the clinging, oh my!) and felt terrible in it. I never wore it. Ug.
This was a bit of an experiment, also for Sew Twists and Ties last year. In the end, the color, the style... just no. Not for me. I never wore it.
I have other projects that need a few tweaks, or maybe are not exactly what I was hoping for, but I wouldn't call them "fails," so I'll stick with just these two.
Other musings
Earlier this year I found myself doing a lot of sewing related things: I was a Sewcialists editor, ran two sewing challenges (Sew Twists and Ties and Sew Bibs), was teaching classes locally, pattern testing for a million designers, doing lots of fabric collaborations with shops and fabric designers, maintaining a very active Instagram account. Whew!
While individually I love each of these things, all together, with a full time job and other responsibilities and interests, it was just too much. I was over-committed, overwhelmed and a bit burnt out.
Mid-way through the year I decided to step down from many of these activities and limit external sewing deadlines so I could start to sew down my prodigious stash, focus on things I wanted to sew, and have fun sewing again. It's been much more manageable since, and I've been learning to be better about saying no to things that don't fit into my time constraints, interests, style, etc. I obviously haven't cut everything out (because "no" is still hard for me!), but I have whittled it down to a more manageable amount of sewing activities.
With that in mind, I'm not going to make any sewing goals for 2020 except to slow down and enjoy my hobby again!