I ended 2023 with a round of covid and started 2024 with a bout of flu. When I sat down at the end of my Christmas break I decided that if I was to go back to work whilst still being so tired and worn out, I would have to make some time and room for rest and creativity. So I promised myself to carve out at least an hour every day to be creative in. I have a ton of creative hobbies, so it can be knitting, sewing, embroidering, painting water colour or gouache, journaling, crochet, handlettering, drawing, writing (I think that’s the lot of them). So far it’s working out great. I only had to skip a few days because of health reasons and two days because I wasn’t at home, but otherwise I had some restorative creative time every day for the entire month. For the days when I couldn’t be creative I kept my book with me and made some time for quiet reading.
Second, I wanted to be a bit more mindful about my creative endeavors and document them more. When I read through my blog I’m always enjoying the memories and I want to be more purposeful this year in anchoring my creative memories. I might not have the stamina and motivation to make a separate blogpost for every single thing, but I’m going to try to keep a running entry for the month and publish it at the end of every month.
Last year I participated in the Last Sewist Standing challenge in the heavy weight category, which meant I couldn’t buy fabric, haberdashery or patterns. The new round of this challenge will start in February. You can participate in the lightweight category too, where you just don’t buy fabric until the end of the year. I’m not going to participate this year. I do not intend to buy fabric, but I do enjoy buying digital patterns a lot. I know I have more patterns than I can ever use, but I just love browsing through them, reading the instructions, looking at the pattern pieces and support creatives in the sewing community by buying their patterns. After completing the challenge last year I basically bought patterns that I had been wanting to own for the entire year and immediately had some of them printed to make this month. I also bought some fabric I had gotten birthday money for to buy and that luckily wasn’t sold out.
The first thing I made this year was this shirt from Knipmode Magazine. It’s from the September that I got as a gift for Sinterklaas. The most challenging part of it was tracing the pattern as the front had two parts that had to be joined and the joint was shown in a different place in the pattern instructions than where it really ended up being. I just sat and stared at the lines for what felt like an hour. It was at least for the duration of a large cup of tea. Then I finally realized the difference between the pattern instructions and the actual pattern. I would make a lot more patterns from magazines if tracing wasn’t often such a mindnumbing experience. I made an XL based on my measurements, but could have sized down to an L.
The fabric came from the old fabric collection. It’s from 3 or 4 years ago and it’s a cotton jersey. I made a different top with the first metre of this:
That was my accidental hack of the Adrienne top (I sewed the sleeves together as if they were the bodice and vice versa).
For the Knipmode top I only changed one thing to the pattern and that was to cut the front twice in full. I was suppose to cut one of the fronts a lot shorter than the other one, ending just below the armpit, but I wanted this to be a bit warmer and so I made it fully double layered. Should have done that with the back too, as the front is perfect now.
For the January edition of the Make a garment a month sewalong the hosts picked the theme ‘Jungle’.
I tried to participate over the past few months with a pretty involved garment, but life continually got in the way (I really have to get a start on this garment though, because it would be perfect for spring and it’s been years in The planning). For ‘Jungle’ I went with something less involved especially because I wanted to use a scrap I had leftover after making these two garments:
It’s a viscose jersey from LadyMcElroy. It’s got a bit of texture to it. I turned my scrap into another Named Inari tee (number 6). I made size 46 again, though I might have to size down for a next one as I’m losing weight at the moment and I’m starting to notice clothes getting roomier (not on a diet, but a weird medical thing that happens every now and then).
I still didn’t change the arm scye. I just don’t raise my arms enough for it to irritate me enough to remember to change it. I did shorten the sleeves to what I consider to be the perfect length for a t-shirt.
The first pattern I bought and had printed this year was a Patreon pattern from Gertie (Charm patterns). The Francie top and skirt. You can combine these to make a dress. It has batwing sleeves, a rolled funnel neck and it cinches at the waist. I made both the top and the dress.
For the top I used an angora knit from the collection that I hadn’t really known how to use.
I’ve been wearing this lots. It’s perfect for weekends and lounging about. I’m wearing it here with another new garment: my Seamwork Nash flared leggings.
This is the dress version:
I made this in a soft sweater fabric. I had been switching back and forth on the pattern I wanted to use for this fabric , but when I saw the Francie dress I knew that this was going to be the one. It also used up almost all of the fabric so I had just tiny bits left. I love this dress. It’s so different from my other ones and so cozy comfortable and warm.
This next pattern I had in my collection, but hadn’t made yet: the Seamwork Nash flared leggings. Flared anything is my jam. I had leggings like these years ago and it was pretty cool to be able to make another pair. I had a velvet rib jersey in my stash that had been meant for a wrap dress, but that I thought would be great for this. I had to cut one of the panels on cross grain though, which I think looks really nice. These are a size 14 and I added 10 centimeters to the length. I’ve been wearing these on weekends, they’re great for everything you do during the weekend!
Another pattern I’ve been wanting to make and had printed at the start of the new year was the Grainline Tamarack jacket. I saw so many cool versions and I had the perfect fabric in mind. But first I wanted to make it through the Last Sewist Standing challenge.
Because of the version shiftbandit made I am actually contemplating making a quilt myself and then turn it into another Tamarack, but I also thought it would be perfect for this Kokka Keshiki from Nekoneko:
I used a black wool remnant as lining and didn’t use batting. I used the embroidery stitches on my machine for some lines. This is a size 14 with about 2 centimeters of length added to the sleeves.
Another pattern that I really loved and hadn’t bought when it came out was the Sew Over It Portia dress. I love the twist and overall silhouette. The fabric I used for it is one of many cotton jerseys that I bought with the Deer & Doe Sirocco jumpsuit in mind (there are about 20 fabrics that entered my fabric collection that way). I thought it would make a joyous Portia:
I made a size 14. It was a pretty fun garment to sew and came together very quickly.
I had enough fabric left for another Inari shirt which has become a bit of a uniform for me: shirt + flared jeans + long cardigan. There’s still some fabric left for underwear and a headband.
I painted a lot this month. I’m not the best painter in the world, but I do enjoy painting immensely. It seems to be one of those things where my mind gets really still and I don’t mind making mistakes, but just enjoy the process. Even though I don’t mind making mistakes, painting is a skill that you can develop and grow, but that means practicing and making time to practice. I’ve been trying to make space for this for a while now and hopefully this will be the year I will make painting at the very least a weekly thing to do. I joined Ruth Wilshaw her online gouache space last year and her fun and pretty mix of tutorials really motivated me to paint more. Every tutorial takes at most an hour or two and there’s such a variety of subjects and styles that there’s always something that I’m in the mood for.
I started this year with a little magical winter painting:
Then I made this autumn trail:
And then I painted a monochrome winter village:
Followed by this hidden valley in which I painted my best rocks and mountains yet:
I’m very much a beginner in watercolours. I’ve been practicing the basics on and off since October. I want to be able to take my paint with my on holiday and paint the things around me. I made a lot of small and quick things this month to practice brushstrokes.
I have some other projects that I’m working on, but that aren’t finished yet. I’m knitting a spencer and am embroidering a pillow. I need to think about how I’m going to keep from sewing too much in the coming months. I don’t need this many clothes. Though sometimes I feel like that as long as the fabric is already in my house I might as well make something and use it instead of having it sit there.
My plans for February are to paint some more, finish knitting my spencer, finish a button up I’m working on, sew a button up for Wybe and try out some quilting with this tutorial from Cocowawa Crafts. I’ve dabbled in quilting, but I think I would like to learn this properly and I have so many fat quarters lying around.
Just another blog 