One year in - reflections and homemade Christmas update

At the start of last year I made the first New Years Resolution that I would ever keep - to write this blog. And what a year it turned out to be. I appeared in Love Sewing magazine on 4 occasions, was interviewed for a bookazine, won a bundle of fabric and. New Coverstitch machine, was linked to from my favourite sewing blog (So Zo), was a Girl Charlee knit pick twice and gained over 430 followers on Instagram. I didn't start the blog with the intention of anything other than recording my own sewing journey, so to have received this level of recognition in year one has been beyond what I could have imagined. More than anything, I have loved becoming part of the growing and very helpful online sewing community. I've gained and given advice, been inspired and even been gifted patterns. So I'll definitely be keeping this up, with some more surprises in store for 2017. 

As usual, my family held another 'Homemade Christmas'. Despite my grumbling, I love doing this and the presents get more impressive each year. My gifts this year were very cheesy matching pyjama bottoms. The patterns I used were the Margot pyjama bottoms from Tilly and the Buttons (ladies), Taylor's pyjama pants (little kids), GBSB book one (Gareth) and a Simplicity pattern - can't remember the number (Dad, Ian and Fin). They were easy to sew and the fit was good on all except the Simplicity ones which were too big of all three. By the end of making them I never wanted to see a pair of pyjama bottoms again!!

 

As I mentioned, the presents everyone made this year were amazing. I didn't manage to get photos of them all in the chaos, but here are a few:

 

 

 

 

 

Hello (plus a round up of my Xmas 2015 sewing projects)

I'm not sure if anyone will read this, or if it will just be my personal record of sewing triumphs, frustrations and progress.  Either way, I'm delighted to finally be starting my own sewing blog.  I received a sewing machine as a Christmas present three years ago.  Since then, I have attended several courses to improve my skills and become pretty much addicted to sewing.  I'm always on the lookout for a new and challenging project, and I'm looking forward to sharing these adventures in fabric here.  Learning to sew has been a real challenge, and reading other sewing blogs has taught me so much.  In the spirit of new years resolutions, I promised myself that 2016 would be the year that I share my own adventures in fabric!  I'm completely new to all of this, so would love to hear any feedback!

Homemade Christmas 2015 and other festive projects

For the last 4 years, my family has had a 'Homemade Christmas'.  We only give homemade presents (for the adults, we do buy presents for the kids or that would just be mean!).  Coming from a family of knitters, sewists and crocheters, the quality of gifts has got better each year, and being a tiny bit competitive, I have felt the pressure to up my game.

I am most proud of the Slouchy Gilet from Simple Sew (free pattern with Love Sewing magazine) that I made for my Mum.  It was a bit of a nightmare to sew to be honest, I found the instructions confusing and it was made in jersey with an open-ended zip which were both tricky to work with.  I used a medium weight jersey knit from Abakhan fabrics in Manchester with a large dogtooth design, and I'm pretty chuffed with the result:

I made a tweed patchwork scarf (pattern from Love Sewing magazine) for my Dad, using fabric cut from old trousers and skirts from a local charity shop:

My sister has started going to the gym regularly, so I was excited when I found the gym bag pattern in the Cath Kidston Sew book.  I used a lightweight denim with a circle design and hot pink for the webbing and zips:

Then I made some matching Star Wars pjs for Daddy and Thomas (brilliant Star Wars fabric from Frumble; t-shirts printed myself):

Thomas started reception in September, so it was his first 'proper' nativity play at school.  He was given the part of 'King 2'.  I was ridiculously excited about the challenge of making his costume (my Mum always made ours), so rushed out to buy some regal fabric from Abakhan.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house (although some may have been tears of laughter at his 'comedy' King act!!):

Each year, I normally buy myself a new dress to wear to my work Christmas party and also on Christmas day.  I decided that this was the year that I would make my dress, and I have been dying to make the Ruby Dress from Love Sewing for ages.  I haven't made it before as I was pregnant when it came out, and have been losing weight since I had Polly seven months ago so have only sewn everyday type stuff for myself recently.  As I'm almost at my target weight, I decided to finally go for it.  I bought some polka-dot cotton sateen from Sew Over It (from Lisa herself) at the Handmade Fair in Manchester in November specifically for this dress, and it turned out brilliantly:

Finally, I needed to make something for Polly.  As we love to match in our family (see pyjama photo above!), I had to make her a dress to match mine using the leftover fabric.  I used a pattern from a book called Cute Clothes for Kids that I bought AGES ago and had never used.  She looks gorgeous as you can see:

Handmade Christmas was a success yet again.  I'm already starting to put aside patterns and fabric for this year, although I've got a few clothes for myself that I want to get under my belt first.  The first project for 2016 is already well underway - watch this space....

A xxx