Stitching Reflections of 2015

Another year has flown by and here we are, it's 2016 - Happy New Year everyone!

It's that time for looking back at the past year and looking forward to the next so here are my Stitching Reflections using Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow's "Top 5 of 2015" categories.

Hits
My garments for the Vintage Pattern Pledge. I made 3 this year (which was 2 up from last year) and they were all a pleasure to make. The two 60's Cat dresses were so much fun to create and I'm really pleased with how my Strawberry Girl dress turned out too. This was the only sewalong I participated in this year, compared with 6 in 2014 but I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to more vintage sewing ahead.

Strawberry Girl, Kitty-A-Go-Go, Feline Groovy

Misses
Luckily I didn't really have any major stitching disasters, I usually encounter one or two hiccups along the way in most of my projects but I'm happy with everything I've made this year - even the ones with mistakes such as my Chuck sweater with the missed cable.

Highlights

My biggest highlight this year was our trip to the US which I blogged about here. Besides being one of the best holidays ever, I shopped the New York Garment District, went crazy with Hawaiian prints in Waikiki and I also got to meet up with Sonja from Ginger Makes which was pretty great. I also included a lot of me-made items in my holiday wardrobe which was really satisfying and fun.

Reflections

I'm pleased to say I've been steadily working through my fabric stash this year. Pretty much the only time I bought new fabric was when I was overseas and I love that because I'm reminded of my travels whenever I wear something I've made from it.

Stash Fabric from Japan and Hawaii

Goals

One of my 2014 goals was to get comfortable with using my overlocker/serger and in particular, threading it. I've got to admit I will do my utmost to avoid having to thread my serger from scratch! For anyone out there who was lucky enough to get one for Christmas (and I know that some of you did), this blog post from Sew For Life saved my sanity. The "tie-off" method is really the only way to go, but despite following many a tutorial on how to do this, I couldn't figure out why my thread kept breaking and why I couldn't easily pull the threads through. That was until, I found this post which included the crucial step about lifting the lower looper thread off the upper looper. Easy when you know how!

Looking ahead to 2016:
My biggest sewing goal this year is to take my time and enjoy the process (no matter how frustrating it can be sometimes!) It's so easy to get carried away with millions of sewing plans and that's part of the fun too but it's important to realise that you just can't do it all.

The other thing I'm going to do this year is master the art of centred zips - I still can't sew a neat centred zip! One thing I did do in 2014 was get an invisible zipper foot and for me, they are the easiest zips to sew neatly. But not all garments or fabric work with an invisible zip so it's about time I got to grips with this, instead of breaking into a panic every time I have to sew one!

So there you have it. Thanks everyone for reading my blog this year, it's been heaps of fun sharing my sewing journey with you and I wish you all a happy, creative and successful 2016! XX