New Year's Resolutions 2017

Happy new year everyone - and I hope your 2017 is off to a promising start!

I don't really believe in new year's resolutions so I don't have any general "life" resolutions for 2017. In the weeks before Christmas I was talking to a colleague, and she claimed using a theme for the year had worked well for her over the past few years - so if I can think of a useful and not too annoying theme I guess I might try this.  Her example was that in 2015 she'd used the theme of "yes" to force herself to get out and socialise more, and to take on new work challenges: she said "yes" to invitations and requests instead of saying "no" by default. I'm not sure that I would be able to stick to a theme for the year though...

On the sewing side it's a bit easier.  I do have sewing resolutions, but they're easy to remember because they're things I already think about ALL year:


Finish off more WIPs and UFOs

I'm pretty sure I always say this, don't I? In 2016 I did manage to get through a few UFOs (unfinished objects), but the list remains very long - and it's crazy long when I add in the WIPs (works in progress).

I'm going to embarrass myself by publishing the list here, and hopefully that will give me the impetus to either finish things off or get rid of them. Oh and if I come across any more (which is highly likely) I'll add them to the list later:

• Floral modern McCall's dress (Gail's fabric as seen in colleague's Zara dress)

• Blue and white striped shorts (Vogue / self drafted)
• Khaki shorts (Vogue / self drafted)
• Blue and white floral vintage dress (McCall) in 80s fabric - donated to charity with unfinished seams
• Cream lace and wool vintage dress (McCall)

• CR dark blue dress to skirt 
• Khaki wool tie jumper (Vogue)
• Donna Karan blue wool jacket in Tessuti boiled wool

• Child's music bag - donated
• Lined black crepe dress (Tessuti Gabby dress as base)
• Teal and white swimmers McCall's

• Wrap Vogue DKNY dress (muslined)
• Fitted Vogue button front dress (muslined)
• D&G vintage Vogue midi dress - blogged here

• Fitting alterations for DD's dress
• Jeans from Vogue designer pattern (muslined)

Blog more regularly 

My blog posts were very infrequent through 2016, and each of those infrequent posts took ages to write, but when I was writing daily posts at the end of December to try to catch up on some of my unblogged garments, the posts got written really quickly - in other words it shouldn't take me that long!  So my aim this year will be to blog more efficiently - take photos before starting to write, and don't overthink the words!

Here's the list of finished garments from 2016 or earlier that I still have to blog - I am still so behind:

• Butterick floral bomber jacket blogged here
• Big denim skirt (Vogue Nicola Finetti) blogged here

• Frocktails dress (Vogue Kay Unger)

• School uniform Tessuti Libby skirt  
• Merchant and Mills Bantam singlet 

• Vintage Vogue cropped stretch top with peplum
• Pale pink Vogue cocoon dress blogged here
• Old fashioned school girl costume (vintage pattern mash-up)

• Genoa tote (Blogless Anna) 
• Princess dress for niece's bat mitzvah (vintage pattern)

• Vogue button front linen shirt with short sleeves  blogged here

I was also intending to blog about the following, so we'll see if I can catch up on these posts too:

1. Liebster awards
2. Pants crotch curve comparisons
3. Inari dress adjustments (blogged here with a new stretch viscose Inari dress)

Be conscious of the treasures in my stash and buy less

My huge stash is currently stored in plastic tubs (the fabric) and filing cabinets and boxes (the patterns), and sometimes I forget exactly what I already have. I'd love to be able to track everything in a spreadsheet, but I'm not prepared to invest the time in listing all my fabric and patterns.  I've tried using Evernote and a few other apps on my phone, but I only managed to get a small proportion of my stash loaded, and my mobile phone has recently started complaining about too much of the storage space being used. For fabric tracking I like Christy's idea of snipping little pieces of all the fabrics and clipping them together so I can see them all, but pattern tracking with minimal effort escapes me.  Even without a means for tracking patterns, there is hope: we're planning to renovate the study / sewing room soon, so hopefully with clearly defined storage and work spaces I'll (1) cull my stashes and (2) be able to see what I have more easily.

This piece has finally been used for a vintage Vogue top - yet to be blogged

Reply to blog comments, and comment on other people's blogs 

This one is getting harder: I changed to a more demanding job in June, then went full-time in October, and my free time has become quite limited. My drive to create is still really strong, so when I do have free time I tend to want to get cracking on sewing things. I'm sorry!


Donate or alter clothes I don't wear

Hard.  I did manage to alter a Tessuti Gabby dress into a top this year (not blogged; it was my Picnic Dress Gabby), and I also managed to donate plenty of clothes to the second hand store, but I have to admit I hate alterations, and I'm a hoarder by nature.


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And finally, just to add to the lists, here's my current sewing wish list:

1. Cropped Vogue top to go with big denim skirt
2. Jumpsuit (shorts) 
3. Loose shorts  
4. Striped pants and top eg Tessuti Chloe pants + Ruby top
5. Wide legged pants
6. Atelier Louise sandals - in progress
7. Tessuti Ruby dress
8. Carrot leg pants eg Burda
9. Pattern Fantastique Falda jacket
10. StyleArc Gabby jacket
11. More swimmers for DD, me - swimmers for me completed
12. Rashie tops 
13. Ralph Lauren 80s pattern
14. Squirrel D&G dress
15. Linen shirt for DS
16. Vintage (80s?) kimono sleeve dress
17. StyleArc Mary dress
18. Frocktails Sydney outfit - completed, blogged here
19. Pencil or fitted wrap skirt for work - completed
20. Fun clothes for DD

Phew - lots to keep me busy!

See you soon



- Gabrielle xx

New York Liberty Top

Now when I said the other day that I had taken pictures of 4 tops I'd recently made, I lied.

I have recently made 4 tops, but I only photographed 3 of them - the 4th top I photographed was one made by my mum. I know this is a blog about the things I've made, but the top is just too lovely not to share!

This top is made using Simplicity 1366 combined with a delectable Liberty tana lawn mum bought on her trip to New York a few months back.  I love this particular print - it looks like an art nouveau design I think? - and the scale of the print and colours are right up my alley too.  I love the way the blue pops out against the orange, brown and white, and the careful symmetric placement of the print really pleases me.  I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this print locally (and I can't even find it on the Shaukat Fabrics site!) but if I do ever see it I'll definitely be tempted to get some more.

If you remember, this is also the pattern I used for this top - and based on a comparison of the fit and lengths of the two tops, I think it's safe to say this version was sewn in a size 12 (note the size 12 is supposed to fit a bust of 34" but has a finished measurement of 41.5" - so size down on this pattern!) and cropped significantly from the original pattern length (just like my striped version - see photo below).

This pattern is one that just about everyone seems to have success with, and I'm very pleased to say it worked out for mum as well. Oh except that it didn't really, did it - it worked out for me instead! The only reason I have the top is that is turned out too tight across mum's shoulders.

There's not too much to say about this pattern that hasn't been said before by the squillions of people who've sewn it up, but I do want to say a bit more about the fabric.

Liberty tana lawn is such pretty fabric, but to me the truly wonderful thing about it is that it's so lightweight without being fragile. We've been having quite a steamy summer, so this top and my old sleeveless Liberty top have been perfect for looking decent without feeling super sweaty.

Oh and on the subject of lightweight fabrics, there is one other thing... Now that I have an overlocker I tend to serge the seam allowances on everything without really thinking about it, but looking at the finish on this top reminded me that serging is not always best. Sometimes a serged seam allowance can be too weighty or too thick for your fabric - and in such cases a pinked edge or a lightly stitched finish can work better.  Mum doesn't have a serger; she finished the seam allowances on this top with a three-step zig zag stitch and the light touch feels absolutely right for this fabric, so that's something I'm going to try to remember next time I'm sewing a lightweight fabric myself.

And that is all for now :)


See you soon


- Gabrielle xx