Another Recap – and another super late post! I’m excited to look back over my September / October makes today, halfway through December. I think next year, I’ll be switching to quarterly instead of bi-monthly recaps, because I just can’t seem to keep up!! Over the two months I’m recapping today, I made 12 new garments – my three favorites were the matching outfits I made for our family for our tiny girl’s first birthday! I did more “selfless” sewing over this period than usual, and also did a little scrap busting by sewing up a headband out of some leftover leggings fabric. I didn’t include any photos here, but that has probably been my most worn item from this period! Here’s the others –
The Phoenix Blouse
I’d had this pattern for a year or so, but hadn’t prioritized sewing it up for some reason. I’m so glad I finally had a push in the right direction – I LOVE this top. I had the opportunity to work with Fibers to Fabric for the first time, and chose these two super cool fabrics that paired together so beautifully. This was also a perfectly timed make with Sew My Style. I got some great wear out of this while the summer heat held on through September and early October, but I’m looking forward to pulling this back out as soon as it warms up again in the Spring! It has also inspired me to get some white Persephone Pants made sooner than later!!
The Jellyfish Dress
I absolutely love novelty prints, especially when they feature one of my top 3 favorite animals. This jellyfish dress epitomizes the greatest part of sewing your own clothing. The Meg Dress pattern offers a chic silhouette, which I completely took the opposite direction with this fun, whimsical fabric. Such a fun dichotomy!
The Secret Skirt
I am SO very sad that I haven’t had the chance to share this one yet! This skirt was sewn up for a pattern test, but the release date got put on hold. Despite not being able to share it with y’all yet, I’ve been wearing it and I love how great it has been for autumn and winter in this great stretch cord fabric. It also has pockets that are the perfect size for anything you might need – ditch the purse at home!
The Sequin Roksi
Certainly one of the most exciting things I’ve made this year is this sequined dress! I held on to this fabric for longer than I should have because once it arrived, it intimidated me a little bit! However, once I picked the perfect pattern, it came together far more easily than I expected (so much so that I felt inspired to choose ANOTHER sequin fabric to sew up soon!!). This is the earliest I’ve ever been prepared for New Year’s Eve – I can’t wait to dance the night away in this dress!
The Tres Belle Dress
I’d been eyeing this pattern for quite a while, especially after sewing up the South Shore Romper which has a similar bodice. I’d originally planned to make a Moneta Dress for the holidays out of this fabric, but when I had the chance to sew up this dress for a Wacky Wednesday promotion, I decided to pair this pattern and fabric instead. I am so happy with the result. I will definitely be making this pattern again in the future, the fit is so flattering and it is So comfortable.
The Mandy Boat Tee Dress Hack
One of my favorite makes this year is the Mandy Boat Tee I sewed in the Spring out of that great faces fabric. I wear it constantly, and I love the way the pattern looks in neat, unexpected fabric prints. This fun leopard print fabric seemed like a great opportunity to try out a dress hack of the pattern. I love it with boots and a hat – so comfy, but still so cute!
Another Pencil Skirt!
I actually fell in love with this fabric about a year ago, and have actually dreamed of a pencil skirt made out of this. When I had the opportunity to work with this fabric from Minerva, I jumped on it and made the skirt of my dreams. I absolutely love the colors in this skirt, the mixture of bold and subdued colors works together to create a beautiful and unexpected color scheme. This shirt I wore with this skirt is one that I love that rarely ever gets pulled out of my closet because I just feel like the shape doesn’t pair well with anything – this skirt saved it from the donate pile!!
The Birthday Dress
My tiniest love turned one in October, so we celebrated with matching family outfits! In truth, I got a JoAnn giftcard for my birthday and this butterfly wing fabric grabbed me immediately. I bought some intending to make myself a dress, and that idea quickly grew into matching family birthday outfits! The colors of the wings paired beautifully with this mustard gingham I had in my “baby sewing” stash, and she looked so beautiful in her dress! .
The Berlin Jacket
This Crimson boiled wool from Mood Fabrics was one of the only things I wished for last Christmas. I was still figuring out being a new mama, and though I cut the pieces back in January after making my “test run” Berlin, I never got around to sewing it while the weather still made sense. This year, the OU / Texas football game (which is a BIG deal for our group of friends!) was unexpectedly VERY cold, and I didn’t have anything appropriate to wear for our tailgate. Luckily, since I’d already cut the pattern, I sewed this together the night before the game and had the perfect thing to wear. Thanks, Mama for my fabric!
The Myosotis / Orchid Dress
This was my original intention for this beautiful fabric! I love my first Myosotis dress, and new I wanted to recreate that same silhouette out of this fabric. I wanted to change it up a little and play with the sleeves, so I ended up mashing the Chalk & Notch Orchid Midi sleeves up with the Myosotis sleeves, and it was a dream come true. Plus, family matching. It’s the best.
The Men’s Basic Tee
My husband wanted in on the birthday matching, but I didn’t think he was quite ready to commit to an all-over butterfly printed shirt of some sort. I had the opportunity to try out the Men’s Basic Tee from Ellie & Mac Patterns, so I jumped on the opportunity to have a little fun. I wanted to make a tee he would enjoy wearing, so I chose a really lovely cupro modal jersey from StyleMaker Fabrics (and yes… I may have splurged on a yard for myself, too!!). This was a great decision, because he LOVES this shift. I self-drafted a pocket based on some of his ready-to-wear tees, and added the matching pocket so he could join our cool matching club. He loves this shirt, and it was actually a fairly simple but super rewarding make!
The Halloween Leggings
I wanted to sew up some fun, festive Halloween leggings for my nugget, but I didn’t want them to be so novelty that she could only wear them one single day! I found this fun remnant at JoAnn on sale for something like $2.50, so I whipped up some leggings just in time to forget to put them on her on Halloween. Typical. We’ve enjoyed them many times since then, though! 🙂
The Not Pictured Stuff
In addition to the fun garments above, I made a headband out of some scrap jersey which has been worn many times. I don’t know why I haven’t done this before – I was finally inspired by Kelsey of Seamlined Living (who I actually had the pleasure of meeting in September!!) to bite the bullet and make this one. I plan to make many more – I love that this lets me bring some of my handmade wardrobe into my work wardrobe (scrubs). I also made 14 bean bags for our 1-year Birthday Party festivities!
Here are the numbers!
Garments Sewn: 12
Planned Garments: 3?
Unplanned Garments: 9
Sewn from Stash Fabrics: 2
Sewn from Collaboration Fabrics: 6
Sewn from New Fabrics: 4
My biggest challenge over these two months was sewing sequins, which ended up being not as scary as it seemed. I loved making matching outfits and sewing for my family – I’m normally a very selfish sewist, but I so enjoy seeing them in things I’ve made them. I started in on my fur coat at the end of October, but it was a new challenge for me and took some time to finish. I’m looking forward to sharing that with you soon. Through November and December, I’ll be focusing primarily on sweaters and holiday sewing – including matching family jammies!
I’d love to hear from you guys – what are you sewing for the holidays? Are you more about the glitz and glam of holiday wear, or the coziness of a good sweater or pajama set? Looking forward to finishing up 2019 with some more great me-mades with you all. For today, I’m signing off to go spend the day with my parents for their birthdays… Yep, they share one! Certainly makes it easy to remember 🙂
- XX Elizabeth
