As we near the end of this year, we wanted to check in with everyone on how they are travelling.
The less said about this year the better, really, though we know that many of us have kind of lost the impetus to sew at various points in 2020, while others have found comfort in sewing, as we so often do. It is most important that we are gentle with ourselves, whatever our current sewing vibe — absolutely NO beating ourselves up for not sewing enough or sewing too much (is that a thing?). Didn’t meet your sewing goals or Make Nine aspirations this year? No worries. 2021 is right there waiting for you. Struggling to come up with a #SewingTop5 list because even making lists is Just Too Much right now? It’s alright! 2021 is coming, whether we put a pretty bow on 2020 to mark its conclusion, or just hunker down and whimper until it goes away.
I found I had serious bursts of productivity this year, mixed with weeks of doing very little (or just cutting things out and then letting them languish). And that is OK. I made some of my Make Nine, and not others. And that is OK too. I pledged to use one specific treasure to #SewThePrecious and then sewed a bunch of other precious fabric, but not actually the one I pledged to sew. And that is OK!
So I ask you, our Sewcialists community, without any judgement or agenda — how is your sewing going? Let us know in the comments!
Chloe is a Sewcialists Editor who lives and sews in Australia, on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. She blogs at chlo-thing.com and can be found on Instagram here.
Its going fine thanks for asking. I have made around the same number of items for myself this year as I normally do, but have made more for other people. One present which I would normally have handed over in person seems to have got lost in the post which is a bummer. I don’t ever set myself targets to make a certain number of items because I sew for enjoyment and don’t want to turn it into a task which hasn’t been done yet. I’ve learned some new techniques and found some new voices to listen to, some mistakes but no major fails, so sewing wise its not been a bad year.
Argh lost in the post!!! You never know, it might still turn up (fingers firmly crossed!)
Fits and starts. I must admit that since I found this blog I have been more motivated to try new things. Discovered I have a fitting issue I didn’t know I had (high round back or dowager’s hump). Through all of my sewing browsing I have learned a lot this year. The advantage of quarantine is that I had time to look at a lot of these things I didn’t have time to before. Ready for 2020 to go, but there have been good things happening despite all the negative. Grateful for the time I’ve been able to take to learn more…
That’s a great take on it. Very interesting to find a new fitting challenge – hopefully that was an ah-ha moment that gave you much improved fit!
Like other Aussies, I kinda feel we’ve got off pretty lightly. I have made many more wins this year by remaking my TNTs and learned a huge amount by subscribing to Charlotta’s School of pattern cuting (YouTube). There have been leaps, and there have been moments of methodical but slow progress and then there have been moments where I couldn’t bare to set foot in the sewing room. Good bye 2020, we’re done with you – 1 ⭐️
Sounds very familiar…I haven’t heard of Charlotta – off to check that channel out!
Due to a home renovation that keeps on giving…… sloooowlllly….. not much sewing going on in my neck of the woods. There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel and having gone from 100 items sewn last year to maybe 5 this year, I cannot wait to get back to it and have lots of plans!!!!!
Takes forever doesn’t it! We did one room this year and it seemed like it lasted eons! I can only imagine the list you will have when you can sew again!
I’ve been able to work through a lot of items that have been in my queue for quite some time and that has been quite satisfying. They were all part of my efforts at a more cohesive casual wardrobe. Then it hit. I just had enough of these garments and now what? I missed the opportunity for my favorite type of sewing, sewing for events, milestones, travel. These would have been the outfits worn to weddings, family reunions, anniversaries which included our own. Sigh,,,,,,,,,,,but be not forlorn! I’ve now gone on a more utilitarian binge. I’ve been investigating Visible Mending and have also made pant slips, undies, aprons, done some complicated mending on tech garments and so on. We are isolated and our work has us not working but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the arrival of vaccines. I get my days of weariness and sadness over the loss of human closeness. I miss hugging my friends and sharing a glass of wine and a night at the theatre but right now just take it one day at a time and look at getting to the other side. It will come.
It will come. Meanwhile visible mending is very cool and your queue will be shorter! Thanks for commenting 👍
Still sewing, but I found that my focus shifted this year. I finished a few UFOs, reorganized my sewing area (and stash), and did A LOT of hand sewing (and masks, of course). I revisited embroidery, and hand-sewed some things I normally would have sewn by machine; also started some historical sewing. My area had several periods of lockdown, and I was laid off for four months as well, so lots of time spent at home. Sewing gave me something creative to do, and helped me briefly escape from the 24/7 stress that has been 2020. I loved participating in a few zoom sew-ins, but look forward to the time I can see my sewing friends in person again…
Zoom sew-ins sound like a great idea! Hoping for free flowing work, time with friends and continued sewing for you in 2021, safely!
I don’t feel like I did much sewing this year, but that’s not actually true! Only a handful of projects got completed, but I sewed, and sewed, and sewed,. It’s just that I spent huge amounts of my sewing time working on large and very involved projects. I managed to hand quilt and finish a baby quilt; complete the king-sized, all hand embroidered crazy quilt my grandmother asked me for years ago; sew up a bunch of tanks based on a self-drafted pattern; finish a skirt I cut out last December; and almost finish 1) another, single-bed sized quilt I started about 15 years ago and 2) a floaty sundress based on the Decades of Style 1948 Siren Sundress, despite redrafting the back bodice, adding boning and pockets and a lining, and hand pick-stitching narrow bias bindings to finish many of the edges. Of course, there was some (rather unsuccessful) mask making as well as a lot of mending, so all in all, I’ve actually done a lot of sewing this year!
Yes you have! King sized and hand embroidered is several years work!
I found I kinda lost my sewjo for clothes because I was never leaving the house but I did switch to doing some quilting projects and literally just learned a couple of weeks ago how to do free machine embroidery. It is so different. Loved it, and it also helped me get my sewjo back for clothes ‘cause I wanted to do something more straightforward and wearable.
Free machine embroidery sounds cool!
2020 was the year I really started sewing. Previously I had made a few items here and there but I put off sewing bigger projects as I was nervous or didn’t feel like sewing after work.
This year I suddenly had so much time, that I was able to actually do some sewing (and printing, and cutting, and ironing!). I really got to make lots of garments that I enjoyed making and wearing.
Thanks to IG I was able to connect other sewists who inspired me, other queer and nonbinary people making sewing work for them. Shy as I am, I also spoke to some of them. It’s a wonderful feeling to belong to a bigger community.
I already commented on this on the Instagram, but thinking about it more after reading everyone’s comments…I may not have sewn the way I have in the past, but I did apply to & get accepted to fashion design school this year. I started in September & finished my first term with an average grade of 98%. & I learned a ton in the process. One of the biggest things I learned is that I’m a lot more creative than I realized. For one of my assignments, I designed a three-look athleisure collection inspired by Adidas & Ann Lowe (the couturier who designed Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress). My classmates were floored. They said they’d never seen anything like it before & I realized that I hadn’t either. I’ve been sewing for years, but always from patterns (even though I like to put my own twist on things sometimes). I focused a lot on getting an excellent fit & a flawless finish, but I have a lot of creative ideas too that have been going untapped. I’d pretty much written off the idea of going into independent design (whether that means my own boutique or a pattern label or both), but if I have ideas that people want to wear & no one else is producing anything similar…maybe I should reassess.
So 2020 was actually a pretty huge year for my sewing, even if I didn’t churn out a ton of new garments.