Bye 2019 and a quick review before starting 2020 sewing

Is it too late to do a review of 2019? I actually started the blog in Feb of 2010 so the ten year mark is coming up soon, and I plan to take a retrospective look then. But for now let's take a look at my sewing in 2019. Which is the year I officially became a Burda magazine fanatic.

Here's my Instagram Top Nine for 2019.




My Burda fandom is certainly evidenced by that pink jacket and my smile. Here's the blog post on that project which is Burdastyle Oct. 2018, pattern 108.

Although I did start off the year with a pair of Ash jeans and since then I've made a few more pairs. I think the most challenging part about sewing jeans is finding the exact right fabric. But once you get a style and fit you like they go together rather quickly.

What did I sew in 2019?  I went thought my blog posts and counted up the garments and they break down like this:
3     Blazer - Jackets    
9     Dresses
4     Shirts   (I consider these as button front shirts with sleeves)
5     Tops     (woven or knit)
1     Jumpsuit
2     Skirts
1     Pants
2     Jeans

When I added up those numbers I thought what??? It seemed like I sewed so many more items and in actuality I did. Throughout the year I made a lot of things that were samples connected to teaching my classes at Hello Stitch. If we used a new pattern then I made a sample to familiarize myself with it, plus to have as an example in the studio.

I sewed a few things for other people, including a blazer jacket for my friend Heather using a beautiful wool from Britex. I actually made two jackets, this navy blue one was the first and it was kind of a wearable test version which turned out to be supremely wearable. I also discussed this pattern McCalls 6172 and other blazer patterns on a recent blog post.




Since I rarely sew with any plan and am not missing anything in my wardrobe, I just sew what grabs my interest. Lately I have been given a LOT of different fabrics, and as I have mentioned previously the fun of turning something that was free into something very wearable is a fun challenge. Currently I have been given a very unusual hot pink wool sweater knit which I'm thinking could be a 60's style dress. But as I said, I'll just sew where my mood takes me.

This year also brought me the sewing meet-up of dreams as I got to meet my far away friends Carolyn and Yoshimi.  Carolyn lives in Perth, Australia, writes the blog Handmade by Carolyn and is a sewing and knitting wizard plus appreciates a sewing and/or fabric challenge. Yoshimi is from Tokyo and sews meticulous garments plus knits beautifully as well. Time for my frequent lament of I wish I could knit but I'm not going to start now!  It seemed like magic to be together in person after so many years of online connection and we had a fun shopping excursion plus dinner together. Plus further bonded over our shared love for Vogue designer patterns, particularly the Donna Karan and DKNYpatterns.

Yoshimi, me, Carolyn and Shams. Everyone wearing handmade garments and now I just noticed Shams' bracelets and want one.




It was a great year of teaching classes at Hello Stitch Studio. They opened their doors for business in 2017 and gradually the classes are getting more and more busy - to the point that they fill up quite soon after being listed which is very rewarding. Plus I see so many people come back for different classes, I know they want to learn to make garments but I think they have also enjoyed their sewing day with me 😊. We're always trying to think of new classes to offer, particularly in that intermediate skill level so if you have a suggestion please let me know.
Of course one of my favorites is the Jacket Making weekend workshop which last year was held on a ridiculously hot September weekend but they all powered through with the steaming and pressing to make beautiful blazers.




My next session of this class at the end of this month is full, if you are interested let the studio know as they will schedule another session based on requests.  For sure we will do it again in the fall.

A quick mention about patterns. For the most part I've sewn with Vogue patterns plus a few from New Look, McCalls, Simplicity. Once I started reading a lot of blogs I was so intrigued by Burda, as they seemed to have a lot of styles I liked, so I bought a few issues and also someone gave me a a few older ones. I purchased a few PDF patterns off their US website (which has gone through a weird transition and isn't very useful right now) but they were all good. Particularly the Burda Plus patterns, they seem to have a good variety of styles, with real fashion details and interesting design lines. Of course not everything in the plus section is super interesting, they have their fair share of shapeless silhouettes but they have the same thing in the 34-42 sizes as well so I don't think it's inherently a problem due to the size range. In any event, once I started subscribing I just used the magazines more and more, as it is so convenient to just flick through the magazine or the Russian website which collates all the Tech drawings onto one page, and find what I'm in the mood to make, be it a dress, or a shirt or skirt. Whatever. In fact when each issue comes I usually see more things I want to make then time allows. Granted you have to trace the patterns and believe me - it gets a lot easier after you have done it for a while. Now I can trace a complex pattern in about 15 minutes.
The second feature that actually makes them easy (at least for me) to fit is that you trace the size, no seam allowances, then do you adjustments for fit, and lastly add the seam allowances. It does turn out to be easier to check a pattern with no seam allowances for flat pattern measurement and not alway have to deduct the seam allowance on each seam.  So the work of tracing etc. is a happy trade-off for never every printing and taping PDF's together.

So that's my little editorial about Burda - yeah - I'm a convert so perhaps a bit over-enthusiastic.
Here's the link to my blog post on this dress which is Burda April 2019 # 117.



That's a wrap for 2019. We had all kinds of sunshine yesterday so I took pictures of several finished items and hope to post those soon.

Happy 2020 Sewing 🎉
Beth

For today's photo, the current state of my garden is fallen leaves and sprouting weeds, so here's something from a few months ago. Puts me in a color block sewing mood.