Wow! What a year of sewing and blogging this has been! This will be my 73rd post of 2013 - SEVENTY THIRD! I am still amazed by that, looking back at 2012 when I had 8 posts total. eight. Some thoughts on why in a little bit. I love this idea of Gillian's to post your Top Five of the year - first, I want to show my best and worst of this year of sewing - it was kind of difficult choosing these. In the past year I have made 12 dresses, 17 tops, a blazer, 2 pairs of shorts, leggings, 5 skirts, 6 baby outfits, boxers, a hoodie, an owl tote, and a lunch bag for a grand total of 48 SEWN THINGAMABOBBERS! I am smugly giving myself a pat on the back right now. Okay, on to the Top 5.

Top 5 Hits: Favourite Creations, most worn or most loved


Watercolor Anna Dress - Without a doubt my favorite make of all time!

Sewaholic Thurlow Shorts - I loved these shorts and was so proud of the quality of construction, the fit, and all the little details! Sadly they were irreparably damaged and had to go in the trash :( I will miss you, thurlows! 

Colorblocked Scout Tee - Proof that some of my best sewing ideas come from mistakes! And one of my best fitting woven tops!

Style Arc Elizabeth Top in Stripes - By far my most worn top of the year - all-season, comfortable, and just a little trendy!

Summery IKAT Dress - I lived in this dress all summer, and have even styled it to wear through fall and winter - the fit, flowiness, and print are great, but the pockets are it's best feature :)

Honorable Mention: Lazy Girl Lunch Tote - I have used this every single day and it hasn't failed me yet!


Top 5 Misses: Sewing Fails, UFOs, worn once, or complete disasters


Faux Button Down Skirt - cute idea, terrible horrible awful fabric choice. Not only is the color blah, but the texture is this shiny upholstery gabardine that I will never ever use again. Only worn once.

UFO - Shiny Sewaholic Pendrell Blouse - the sleeves were the first red flag, but the shiny fabric really kicked this one to the curb - I knew it would never be worn, even if I did finish it.

1940's Sew for Victory Dress - I love the bound buttonholes and buttons. The rest of the dress... meh. I have never worn it except to take photos for the blog and have to say that I really don't think I am a vintage pattern person (gasp!) 

Leather / Sweater Knit Vest - very proud of sewing leather for the first time, but this is not even close to my style and I have never worn it outside of photos for the blog

UFO - Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges Dress - before I wised up and started tracing patterns, I cut out this dress only to realize that it is too small at the bust - not sure how to fix it, but even worse, I now have a $20 pattern cut out to the wrong (and smallest) size :(


Top 5 Reflections: What did you learn about yourself or sewing this year?


Fabric choices are important! I feel like this year I really started to get a grip on picking better fabrics, both in quality and appropriateness for the pattern I wanted to use. I attempted to participate in the Stashbusting Sewalong, but had so few fabrics that I liked and wanted to use in my stash that it just didn't happen.

My color palette! This genius post from Gillian really made me think about what colors I tend to gravitate to and wear most often. Once I made up a color palette for myself, it was so much easier to choose fabrics and get motivated to sew garments that I knew I would love and wear!
Improvising is good! Many of my favorite little details on garments I made this year happened on a whim - whether it was hiding a mistake or making the garment more "me" than the finished pattern, I found myself cutting, ripping, replacing and embellishing without hesitation - and you know, every time it worked out! This has encouraged me to take more risks with my sewing - you never know what you will come up with!

I love sewing as a hobby! I hate it as a job. Making garments for myself and gifts and things for the home, etc, is awesome, until I have to do it. As soon as I feel like I have to sew, either for a sewalong, making a blog post, some kind of deadline (ie - making costumes for school) or mending something for someone, it becomes an awful boring chore that I am completely unmotivated to do. Let's keep sewing fun! :)

I can sew and blog for a whole year! Looking back at my blog history, there was a trend of sewing and blogging lots from January to March and then kind of falling off the bandwagon - this past year I was determined to not let that happen, and by gosh and golly it didn't! A big thank you to the sewing community for the continual encouragement and motivation - that really made a difference! You guys rock!


Top 5 Goals for the New Year


 Sew a Coat! Specifically a Minoru, most likely for the spring as that is the only season I don't currently have a good coat to wear. Also, this is my newest sewing dare!

Pay more attention to the inside! Usually I am in such a rush to finish a garment due to lack of sewing time, that they don't always get made with quality. Many of my me-made garments have ended up in the mending pile for some reason or another and I'd like to change that - also they just look and feel so much nicer with a clean finish on the inside :)

Sew from the stash! As I mentioned before, I feel like I've become a lot better at choosing fabrics over the past year and now I have a pretty awesome stash - and I need to start sewing from it! Stashbusting attempt #2!

Do More Tutorials! Sometimes I think everything about sewing is already on the internet - lol - which it probably is! But still I would like to add some more tutorials and tips on sewing and blogging to my site, specifically one for my Lazy Girl Lunch Tote, which was promised months ago and never actually finished :(

Make a Difference! I have really enjoyed this last month of working with International Justice Mission through Dressember to raise awareness and funds to fight human trafficking and the sex slave trade all around the world. I would like to incorporate IJM as a permanent feature somewhere on the blog so readers can learn about it and support the cause. Huzzah!