Ah, it’s the 31st December, when I look back over of my year of making and wearing and do a little analysis… to kick off, some of my favourite pictures/outfits, one for each month. Several of these pictures are not even “blog pictures”; by that I mean have never appeared on my blog, but may just be an outfit or picture that I particularly liked, or may be because of a particularly lovely memory of that day or something…
January
just a particularly gorgeous day and in my happy place…
February
… because I love this outfit so much
March
…the prototype of my first sewing pattern!
April
… the day of Tim and Kelly’s engagement party which is pretty special I think; so I made a special skirt just for the occasion
May
… in Bali for our friends L + L’s wedding; so much fun!
June
… just because of this gorgeous cockatoo fabric! unfortunately also the day my trusty old camera nosedived into the sand and died, and the beginning of several months of annoying “photo improv”
July
… made a raincoat to commemorate the wettest year we’ve had for like 50 years, or thereabouts…
August
… just had a really nice hike, that’s all….
September
… love first “bare leg” day of the season…
October
… luscious lace, and cheers to a lush, rain-engorged garden…
November
… our daily constitutional…
December
… my most recent creation! Thoroughly enjoyed this, and the whole fun experience has sewn some fertile seeds for a new project I’m dreaming of for next year 
What did I make?
So, it’s funny; this year I didn’t feel so productive and could have sworn I didn’t make as much as previous years, and yet when I added it up I made 77 things, including 22 items for others, 2 prs of shoes, and our 2 sewing patterns. Surprised! and even a little embarrassed? This is on a par with last years’ production levels, though to be sure some items this year were definitely on the quick and easy side. Breaking it down: 13 tops/shirts/blouses, 6 skirts, 4 prs jeans/trousers, 9 prs sockettes, 2 prs tights, 2 prs shoes, 6 hats, 1 baby romper, 12 dresses + 2 wedding dress muslins, 3 coats, 1 jumpsuit, 3 sets of lingerie, 2 knitted cardigans/jumpers, 5 bags, and 4 dolls complete with wardrobes. I know, right?! In fact, now I think about it, I actually made 3 further items over and above than this, but those things have not yet been blogged since they are all patterns still in the testing phase and I’ve been sworn to secrecy until their release. One of them is a Pretty BIG Thing, though.
This year I also started making our soap, and think I’ve made enough for several years’ supply already, lol. Luckily, we really like using it, and I also gave several bars away during the year, as little gifts for friends and family too.
What did I wear?
I still keep my OOTD blog up to date and tally up the things I wore and frequency thereof. Documenting one’s outfits is a pretty obsessive thing to do, I realise that, but I still really like doing it. The clothes I wore the most frequently this year can be summed up in the following:
This collage comprises more outfits than I’ve posted in previous years for this category, but I have an explanation: keeping an outfit tally has opened my eyes to the fact that I tend to favour certain wardrobe items and ignore others… and I’ve been making an effort to “spread the love” around my wardrobe more. This might seem like an artificial thing to do, like why force yourself to wear something you don’t love as much as another thing? Why not just wear the things you love the most? But I’ve found that wearing something breeds a love for it, so pulling out not-quite-so-loved things, experimenting with them and finding outfits in which they can shine; is a means to the end of loving them more, thus loving ALL your self-made clothes, MORE; and so getting more wear out of everything. I loathe waste, and particularly waste in clothing, so I don’t want for things I’ve spent care and energy making to be unworn and tossed out before their time. So, I wear them. Make sense? Well, I know what I mean, anyway.
Apart from various shoes/boots and my self-made black tights, all of which are always worn the absolute MOST in my wardrobe; the most frequently worn item this year was my new mustard raincoat with a total of 31 wears, closely followed by my grey Sasha trousers at 30 wears, my trusty little paprika cardigan at 22 wears, and my pink Kelly raincoat and scarlet Miette cardigan both at 19 wears each…
Favourite creations?
Oooh, this one is always so tough… I mean, how does one choose one’s favourite child?? of course it is impossible. Having said that though, I think my favourite creation(s) for the year are something a little bit different; our sewing patterns! Because, yes; of course, during the year Cassie and I released two sewing patterns; our Perth dress/blouse, and our Kimberley rag doll. The response has been fantastic, for which I am so SO grateful. We’re fully immersed in plans for TWO more patterns too! It’s a LOT of work producing a pattern, and I’m eternally thankful to everyone who did support us in this new endeavour this year. MWAH! to all of you. Thank you xxx
As far as favourite made clothes; well, if I really did have to pick… it’s nothing special, far from it! but I really enjoyed making, and I really love wearing my “piñata” outfit! A little bit weird, all very spontaneous, the fabric was such an impulse buy, and I ran it up on my dinky, clunky, plastic-ky little holiday sewing machine, in our holiday house with the bare minimum of sewing supplies. Maybe all that “wrongness” is what combined to give it a paradoxical rightness … and I have a soft spot for those orange pompoms too!
I also really really love my cockatoo outfit and also my floral trench coat… I must be having a colourful moment?!
What are my plans for 2019?
So, BIG THING…. the first part of this year I will be making Kelly’s wedding dress! yes that’s pretty huge. I’ve made two muslins so far… the second one is nearly perfect so with only one tiny adjustment and one further fitting, I hope to actually cut into the real fabric early in the New Year. Scary!!
muslin number 1
muslin number 2
I am also beholden to make two bridesmaids’ dresses; one for Cassie, and one for her’s and Kelly’s mutual friend G. I’m going to tackle those after I’ve got the bare bones of the wedding dress all done and dusted though.
For myself, well of course I want to make a mother of the groom outfit for myself! Yup, pretty excited for that too!! I know exactly what I want, I have my pattern all ready and lined up, and I just need to find the perfect fabric.
In other, more ordinary, sewing plans; the smalls drawer! I did not make much this year and now find myself in need, so there will be more lingerie this year. I am also in a very sad sock situation at the moment, my old socks are all darned and darned and even then darned some more. So my plan is to knit 1 new pair of socks per month. A dozen pairs of socks!
And, yes, I have plans for two new patterns this year. The groundwork has been laid, and I just need to get in and on it; and tidy a few things up. Well, there’s a LOT to be done, to be honest, I only hope I can get enough time together to do all this… obviously the wedding dress is my number one priority.
Anything else?
Well, finally and of course most importantly of all, I just want to say THANK YOU! to everyone who reads my blog and who takes the time to leave a comment, I am so grateful for each and every kind thought. Thank you all so very much, and I’d like to wish all the best to everyone for a safe, happy, peaceful and wildly creative 2019! Mwah! xxx
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