After a busy holiday period, I’m having trouble getting back into my usual sewing and knitting rythm. Maybe reviewing what I’ve done last year might help me get motivated for this new one, and get me back in front of the sewing machine? This year, I thought I’d join in the #SewingTop5 series hosted by Gillian from Crafting a Rainbow. So here are my top 5 for 2018, in 5 categories: hits, misses, highlights, reflections, and goals. Get ready for a super lenghty blog post!

First things first, let’s talk numbers. In 2018, I’ve sewn:

– 9 projects for myself (4 of which had been started in 2017)
– 5 projects for others: a Nenuphar jacket, a Luzerne trench coat and a toiletries pouch for my sister, two Plantain tees for my mom
– 19 projects for Deer&Doe: final versions of new patterns, samples for the shop, tutorials for the blog… not including dozens of muslins!

On the 9 projects I made for myself, 6 were sewn from Deer&Doe patterns, which gives us a grand total of 29 Deer&Doe garments out of the 32 garments I’ve sewn this year! 😮

On the knitting side, I finished only one sweater (for myself) and one hat (for my sister-in-law). Most of the year was spend knitting a Boxy sweater to learn to knit with the continental method, but it is far from being done!

TOP 5 HITS

These projects are those that make me the most happy: the ones I’ve worn the most and that fit seamlessly into my wardrobe, or that I’m particularly proud of!

1 – Chambray Myosotis Dress

The garment I’ve worn the most this year is by far my Myosotis dress in chambray cotton sateen. It’s the one dress that I put on when I don’t feel like getting dressed in the morning: it’s super comfortable when it’s hot outside, and works just as well with leggings and a cardigan when it’s colder. In addition to the silhouette, I think a lot of its success is due to its color: this chambray blue makes my eyes pop and does wonders to my skin tone.

2 – Floral Jersey Givre Dress

In second place of the most worn garments is my floral Givre dress. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to wear it that much, as my weight has been fluctuating a lot this year and I’m not always comfortable with skin-tight clothing such as this dress, but the fabric makes it completely irresistible! The double-brushed poly knit is just as soft after months of intensive wear that it was at the beginning, and it didn’t stretch or pile at all! I really need more clothes in this fabric.

3 – Velveteen Rosari Skirt

Technically speaking I haven’t worn this skirt that much yet, since I finished it at the end of the year… but I love it so much! Sometimes with a project you have a clear idea in mind, and the result is exactly like you imagined it, maybe even better. That’s the case here: I love the shape of the Rosari skirt, the deep color of this velvet – a forest green that brings joy to my winter wardrobe, the copper buttons… I’m also very happy with the adjustments I made for my full butt and swayback, that I intend to put to good use with other Rosari skirts!

4 – Alpaca Bubbly Sweater

My only big knitting project of the year was a tremendous success! I loved knitting this sweater, which was my very first with stranded colorwork, and I’m wearing it all the time. Drops Alpaca is extremely soft, and Isabell Kraemer’s patterns are as fun to follow that they are pleasant to wear.

5 – Burnout Velvet Magnolia Dress

This top 5 wouldn’t be complete without mentioning my Magnolia dress in burnout velvet! I’m really proud of this dress, which required tons of handsewing on slippery velvet, and fits me like a glove. I think evening dresses such as this one are my favorite type of projects to sew, with their couture details and luxurious fabrics.

 

TOP 5 MISSES

You learn from your mistakes, and let’s just say I always have plenty of opportunities to learn! Bad fabric choice, dodgy patterns, questionable style and miscellaneous blunders led to projects that didn’t really meet my expectations…

1 – Velvet Nettie Bodysuit

Bodysuits require 4-way stretch, and clearly my velvet didn’t have enough vertical stretch. I tried saving it by chopping off the bottom to turn it into a tee, but the result is still too tight and not exactly comfortable, especially in this non-breathable polyester. I’ll need to try again in a better fabric, because I do like the idea!

2 – Chiara Dress

This dress was a complete disaster: the fabric was too thin and gathered with every seam, the construction methods and instructions were kinda bad, and a failed attempt at a full lining did me in. I left it unfinished for more than a year before forcing myself to put in the zipper, all of this to get such a terrible fit in the end that I didn’t even bother hemming it.

3 – Gingham Myosotis Dress

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with this dress: I like the combination of gingham and gathers, and I think it’s very cute and springy. So how come I’ve worn it only once since I’ve finished it? I think it might be because I made it right before summer started, and the fabric is polyester which means it’s not the most pleasant to wear in very hot weather. Hopefully it can redeem itself in the spring.


4 – Myrna Cardigan

The Myrna cardigan will forever mark the moment when I fell out of love with Andi Satterlund’s patterns. A few years ago I swore by her cropped sweaters and cardigans, to be worn over high-waisted skirts, but after trying out other designers’ models I realized I really don’t like the construction and fit of her patterns, the sleeves in particular. With Myrna’s sleeves, I felt like Snow White, and I hated the look so much that I didn’t even bother blocking it. I frogged the whole thing to start a Daelynn sweater instead, which corresponds much better to what I want to wear at the moment.


5 – Bruyère Dress

I was already telling you in the blog post about this dress that I was feeling “meh” about it, and that’s still the case. It’s not bad, but not great. Let’s just say it doesn’t really “spark joy” to my inner Marie Kondo.

TOP 5 HIGHLIGHTS

What happend in my life in 2018 outside of sewing and knitting? With my constant back and forth between France and the US I tend to lose track of time and forget all about the special moments of the year, even though so much happened…

1 – Turning 30

January 2018 was my 30th birthday, and that was a very powerful milestone for me. The main reason being (and that’s a bit dark, sorry) that I’ve been struggling with daily suicidal ideation since I was a teenager, and I was convinced for a really long time that I would never make it to 30. WELL LOOK AT ME NOW! Take that, depression! The other reason is that I see my thirties as a much more positive and strong decade than my twenties: I know who I am, what I want, and I don’t have to answer to anybody but myself.

2 – Moving back to the South

2018 was also the year we moved back to North Carolina after two years in Boston! Moving to Boston wasn’t so much of a choice as something that happened to us, and though I had some good moments there, I really hated the weather. The cold, the rain, snow and ice half of the year, the dry air which gave me eye blisters… I was sick all the time and barely got out of the house. Now that we’re back in the warmth and humidity of the South I feel right at home, with my favorite lake nearby and the smell of honeysuckle in the air ❤️

3 – Working around people again

In the same vein, one of the harder things to deal with for me in 2017 was working from home: being all by myself for days and days is not something I handle very well. And with Eléonore’s baby, there was no way we could keep working from her apartment when I was in France! So we moved to a dedicated studio, in a collaborative space filled with artists and creative people from all backgrounds, and I also found a co-working space where I can work part-time when I’m in the US. This makes a huge difference on my mental health!

4 – Travelling

Ever since I joined Deer&Doe as a partner, I haven’t taken a real vacation, except for a few days at Christmas, and I have to say I miss travelling. But in 2018 I got more than my share of weekend getaways! I visited castles in Germany and wandered in the streets of Montpellier, I went to NYC and Las Vegas, partied in Bordeaux and hiked in the Appalachians and the French Alps… Quite a few magical moments that broke down the routine nicely.

5 – Embracing the curly girl method

This one might seem a little frivolous, but it’s a game-changer for my hair! After researching extensively the curly girl method, I completely stopped using sulfates and silicones and stopped dry blowing my hair to let it curl naturally. I’m still experimenting and I still have a lot to learn, but it’s already crazy how much my hair has changed: it’s shinier, less brittle, and just in better health overall!

 

TOP 5 REFLECTIONS

Time to analyze! Thinking back about last year, the projects I’ve finished and the ones I didn’t, several things come to mind…

1 – I need to learn how to prioritize my personal sewing time

In general I have a hard time finding, or actually taking the time to sew something else than Deer&Doe patterns, and an even harder time not feeling guilty about it. After all, if I’m going to sew, I might as well make it count, right? So last year, from May to October, I only sewed for work, and I didn’t even touch my knitting needles. I was overwhelmed and there was always something that I “needed” to do that would bypass something I “wanted” to do. I only realized how much I had missed my hobby at the end of the year, when I finally took some time over a weekend to make my Rosari skirt, and I suddenly felt like myself again. If I want to avoid a burn-out, I really need to force myself to take some time for my hobbies that doesn’t do double duty.

2 – I learned so many skills thanks to online classes

2018 was definitely the year of new skills! Thanks to Lise Tailor’s videos (FR), I finally learned to master the continental method of knitting, and my knitting speed greatly improved. I followed a class on Artesane (FR) to learn how to dye yarn, and subscribed to Bluprint, the unlimited service from Craftsy that is a true goldmine. I highly recommend the subscription: classes are super high quality, and go in depth into a wide breath of topics. Thanks to them I learned all about tailoring coats (and made my first ones in the process!), and also learned how to make some delicious cheddar bread 😉

3 – I’d like to set aside more time for blogging

To be fair, I’ve never been a very productive blogger. This past year, I wrote a grand total of 14 posts, exactly as many as in 2017. And even though every year I feel like I posted way less than the previous one (and I feel super guilty because of it), the truth is I’m always around the same output:
But I’d like to post more! First, because I like to have an archive of my projects that I can refer to when I want to sew a pattern again. Second, because I’d like to share more with the sewing and knitting communities, and that the blog post format allows me to get more in depth with my remarks and criticism that I would do on Instagram. Finally, because blogging is a creative endeavor by itself: picking an outfit, a location, taking the pictures, editing colors and light, writing the text and seeing the final result take shape, each part of this process is interesting and gratifying. At this time, I still have 10 projects in my closet waiting to make it to the blog, including 7 that haven’t been photographed yet (and that I am afraid of wearing until they are), but these are summer clothes and I can’t really take pictures of them at the moment with these temperatures… That’s really the most blocking point for me, the pictures I mean: I have trouble taking pictures on my own with a tripod, it takes me hours, and I have even more trouble synchronizing with Phil so that he can help me take pictures on the weekends, and when the weather is finally cooperating then suddenly my hair isn’t… This and translating each and every one of my posts from French to English or vice versa, which doubles the writing time per post.

I think I’d need to lower my expectations quality-wise, or I won’t get anywhere. Without giving myself a concrete goal of a certain number of posts for 2019, what I’d like is to reestablish my old Sunday morning ritual: every weekend, Phil and I would drive to our favorite coffee shop for our “coworking” session, and I would write my weekly blog post while sipping hot chocolate while he works on his own things. I think it’d help me frame the act of blogging as a hobby in itself rather than a chore.

4 – I love Instagram, even though sometimes it can be taxing

Though I was never very active on the blog, there were times in 2018 were I was very active on Instagram, particularly for #memademay and #bpsewvember. It can seem a bit shallow, but these daily mini-challenges help me a lot with handling my depression when I have trouble finding motivation to do anything. There were also times when I disappeared from social media for months at a time, because it was too much to deal with, which also made me feel a little guilty. I think I’ll try to continue participating without overthinking it this year: interact with the community when I feel like it, and retreat into my shell to recover when I need it. What’s for sure is that I’m going to be there for Me Made May!

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5 – I did make a sizeable dent in my fabric stash

This was one of my main goals last year: shop my stash instead of buying new fabric. The aim was not so much decluttering as it was to use these pieces of fabric that I love and that I’m afraid to cut into. In the end I didn’t use as much of these specific fabrics as I had planned to, mostly because I didn’t sew for myself that much. However my stash definitely went down, because I pushed myself to use both leftovers and fabrics I fell out of love with to make wearable muslins for patterns. I hope to keep going in that direction in 2019, so that I can save both space and money!

 

TOP 5 GOALS FOR 2019

This last part will be more about what I’d like to do rather that what I commit to doing, because I’d like to avoid putting extra pressure on myself, and make sure that I keep looking at sewing and knitting as hobbies. Here’s what I have in mind:

1 – Sew for fun

This year, I want to sew for myself, with no planning or deadlines, simply sew projects that make me happy. I want to find the joy of these first years of sewing, when I would just start a project when I found a random pattern I liked, and I want to be able to take a whole afternoon to sew a garment without thinking about bulk-cutting three others to optimize my sewing time.

2 – Discover new techniques

In the same vein, I want to create for the process itself, without it always being about the end result. To me, this means experimenting with new sewing techniques, and knitting techniques as well. For sewing, I want to try a button fly, activewear, even sequins. For knitting, I am really into the idea of an intarsia sweater. And maybe I’ll even get into quilting, who knows?

3 – Try other pattern brands

Still with this idea of discovery, I’d like to get out of my comfort zone and sew something else than Deer&Doe patterns. Yes, of course, instructions won’t be exactly how I like them, and I won’t be able to apply my usual adjustments with my eyes closed, but it will give me the opportunity to discover new styles and construction methods. Among brands I’ve never tried and I’m drawn to: Style Arc with the Ariana and Giselle dresses, Orageuse with the Rome shirt, République du Chiffon with the Nadine shirt, or even Anna Allen and her famous Persephone pants.

4 – Enjoy my fabric stash

Some of my favorite fabrics have been in my stash for over six years, and I’m still crazy about them. However I have a lot of trouble letting go of the projects I had in mind when I bought each one, which I’m not that crazy about anymore. I’d like to allow myself to change my mind, and imagine new uses for these fabrics without staying fixated on the patterns I bought them for.

5 – Interact with the sewing/knitting community

Without setting any quantitative goals, I’d like to make efforts to participate more to the sewing/knitting online community, whether that is via this blog or via social media. During my depressive episodes I have a really hard time answering messages and comments, and interacting with people in general, and that’s a real shame. I want to do better. I’m also going to try documenting my projects as I go rather than waiting a year or more to take pictures of them, just so I can remember what went right and what went wrong, and so my notes can be helpful to others.

 

And this concludes my Top 5 for 2018! Pfew that was long, I guess I had a lot to say 😅
Have you posted your own Top 5, or a 2018 review? If so don’t hesitate to leave me the link in the comments, I love these posts!