A Very Late Review

Ok, I told myself I wasn't going to bother doing end-of-year graphs this year.  But Joy's post changed my mind.  I love a pie chart.  Can't help myself.  So I make no apologies for this post.  I was curious how my year stacked up against previous years being that this was such a crazy one.  And I want to be able compare this year visually to the previous two years that I've done year end graphs.  That was a mouthful.

 Thirty-nine projects!  Holy cow.  I honestly can't believe I made so many things.  Most projects were super easy ones, but still.  I must have found more time to sew than I thought.  Of course summer is more productive since I get to be home all day.  Nap time equals sewing time around these parts.  I probably should have used nap time for cleaning time, but you know.  Most were blogged.  I think.

Here are some pie charts for your viewing pleasure.  First up, by garment type.

Lots of tops.  Lots of quick and easy tops.  No closure, pull over tops.  That was half (!) of what I sewed.  I guess that's why I ended up having such a large grand total.  I do love my Jacqueline tops so the fact that they were quick and easy is only an added bonus.  I only sewed four measly items for Jane.  Yikes.  I really thought I sewed more for her.  The things I did sew for her were a little more time consuming, though.  She has some projects already planned for this year.

Jacqueline Tops

Next chart, by pattern company.

Self drafted sounds fancy but most of that is all those half-circle skirts I made.  And I love all of them.  They probably win for most worn garment of this year, especially the leopard print one.  I used a few Indie patterns but most of that category goes to Tina Givens patterns.  I really like her wild, art teacher designs.  I love a big linen top.  My white Luella is such funky one.  And I wear my Jacqueline tops all the time.  All the time.  In fact, they may have surpassed my circle skirts at this point...

By fabric type. No surprise about the linen.  I love linen.  But yes, you so have to embrace the rumple.  I also discovered Fabrics-Store.com this year.

This last graph is a new one I added.  It's all my projects categorized as either a success, fail, or meh.  I added in ufo and baby for a few projects I couldn't categorize.  

I had a rough time this year with making things I was unhappy with.  It all came to head this summer.  It looks like I made a ton of projects in July but most of those were a bunch of fails I made at one time.   Looking back, my unrest in sewing things coincided with my unrest with life at the time.  I wrote a post about J's leukemia diagnosis well over a year ago and then never mentioned it again in this space.  He has chronic myeloid leukemia for those who are new here.  It's been a rough year, although things have ended up really well these last three months of so.  J "failed" two of his medications earlier in the year.  One lowered his platelet count too much and he couldn't take the full dose.  And one caused liver toxicity, which is scary in it's own right.  Anyway, he had to stop taking medication during the summer for a while to recover before we tried a third option.  And you don't want to be off of medication for too long when you have cml.  So in hindsight, I get why I've been so wishy washy and anxiety ridden this year.  2014 has been somewhat of a roller coaster.  I've had to put on my big girl panties a few times.  J is on a third medication now and is doing fantastic.  Very minimal side effects and all of his counts are in the normal range.  I think we can exhale now because I hope we've found the meds that he can be on long term.  Which, you know, we need him around long term.

Of course this little one has been a huge bright spot this year.  She mostly overshadows all the hard stuff.  And makes it all worth it.  Those teeth...

Anyway, this turned in to a rambling and deep post.  I so enjoy writing this blog even when posts are few and far between.  I've thought lots about whether I want to keep this space up this year.  And yes, I do.  I love the sharing, the connection with others and sense of community we have around here.  I love reading sewing blogs whenever I have a free moment.  It's like being a part of great big, bright and boisterous sewing club.  So thank you for reading, thank you for having conversations with me and thank you for sharing, too!  Here's to never ending bobbins in 2015.

Rawr... And A Late Review, Too.

Well, hello and Happy New Year!  Hope it's been a good one for everyone so far.  I've had a decent start to the year.  I really enjoyed the recent long weekend as I actually got to spend some time in the sewing room.  I made a skirt.  In a weekend.  Can you believe it?  I can't remember the last time I saw a project through start to finish over a weekend.  Not since before baby.

I bought this leopard print double knit fabric some time ago with a different plan in mind.  This was a case of not checking the ruler on the screen shot when ordering fabric online.  I thought the print was going to be much smaller.  Much, much smaller.  When the fabric arrived, I looked at the enormous spots and wondered what the hell I was going to do with it.  I caught a glimpse of it draped around my legs while I was folding it to put away and I though maxi skirt.  Big, swishy maxi skirt.  Sometimes you just have to let the fabric tell you what it wants to be.  And since it's Jungle January, I figured I better go ahead and do what the fabric told me to.

 

Jungle January

I decided on a half circle skirt for ultimate twirly-ness.  I've wanted to make a half circle maxi skirt for a while now but the math has always scared me off.  I read lots of blog tutorials and online magazine articles on drafting a circle skirt.  But this one by By Hand London clicked.  I intended on only drawing out the waistline circumference on paper and then using that to draw my half pattern piece directly on the fabric.  When I realized I would have to sew the skirt in panels, I couldn't wrap my head around how to divide it up.  So I ended up drawing out a gigantic half of a half circle maxi skirt pattern piece on paper.   I mean, the pattern piece is seriously huge.  At least I have it now and can use it to make any length half circle skirt.

Here's a shot of the skirt panels cut out.  Just for reference as to how much fabric makes up this skirt.  I had three yards of this leopard print double knit, 60 inches wide.  I used almost every bit of it.  Luckily the print isn't directional. The front of the skirt is made up of two panels and the back is four.  The skirt is satisfyingly swishy when I walk and turn around.  Which I tried to capture in the top photo, hence the silly face.  I know double knit seems like a strange fabric to make a half circle skirt from.  This double knit is quite a bit lighter and has more drape than any double knit I've ever used before.  In fact, I would just call it a heavy jersey.  It's pretty stretchy, too.  That being said, the skirt is really heavy with all that fabric.  I planned on putting in a straight self fabric waistband and maybe an invisible zip if I needed it.  But the weight of the skirt was too much.  I used some wide knit elastic as the waistband and left it exposed, which was a very easy finish.  I did a quick and dirty baby hem at the bottom.  I serged the edge first with the differential feed cranked up.  Then I just flipped up the serged edge and straight stitched.

Anyway, I'm glad Jungle January peer pressured inspired me to make this skirt!  Especially since the fabric is not my typical style.  I'm still a little scarred from my last cat print garment.  I ended up with a skirt that I love and will wear often.  I even put on a bit of lipstick for these photos.  What is it about leopard print that makes you want to wear red lipstick?

*******

Ok, so I'm tacking on a very late year end review to the end of this post because I don't think it's worth a post of it's own.  I wasn't going to do this again, but Joy's review convinced me otherwise.  I do love a good pie chart (neeeerrrrd!).

I had some major life events this year.   I made my most important masterpiece to date :).   And all of those life changes, of course, affected my sewing time.  But not as much as I thought.  It was nice to see this little bit of info in graphic form.  I made 30 items altogether.  Didn't make anything in April for good reason.  And then my output majorly slowed since going back to work in August, except for a weird burst of productivity in October.

Like last year, I can see that I like to sew a variety of items.  I'll use that cliche that I'm a jack of all trades, but master of none.  The home decor and craft sewing were all projects for baby.  As were all the baby clothes.  If you include the bag I made to cart around all the baby stuff, that's about fifty percent of my sewing done for baby Jane.  I consider that a pretty good split- 50/50!

I used a lot of knits this year.  A direct result of being pregnant and then being a new mom.  Knits are easy to wear.  I kind of miss wearing some of my woven shirts and things but life just isn't conducive to ironing right now.  Eh.

 

 And by pattern type.  Not much to say about this one.  I didn't use as many big 4 patterns as I did previously.  Anyway, not too shabby.  Life is good and I am getting in to a groove, with tiny bits of sewing time here and there.  Here's to a happy and healthy 2014!

Nerd Alert!

Ok, ok.  I am ousting myself.  I get excited about graphs.  Something about seeing information visually is really cool.  It's totally on the opposite end of the spectrum of what I actually do for a living.  But there was a part of me that loved Statistics in college (especially Educational Statistics).  Weird for an artist, I know.  I have enjoyed reading everyone's end of year posts (Gillian, your Top 5 idea was awesome!).   Though I'm really not a sentimental person.  I don't look back very often.  I am a firm believer in always looking to the future.   But Molly's graphic approach to her 2012 sewing data pumped me up.  I fired up my work computer (which I brought home over break because I swore I was going to get some work done....) and tried to refresh my Excel skills.  I haven't had to use it in years.  On a side note, Excel sure does look different in Microsoft 2010, doesn't it?  Took me a bit to figure it out.  I'm dating myself, I'm sure.

Here is my end of year data in all it's nerdy, graphic glory!  I made a grand total of 47 projects. Not too shabby.  I did quite a few home decor and crafty projects that I counted as well.  If I sewed it, it was included in the data.  I love looking at everything from this point of view because I get so much information about my productivity.  That's good knowledge to have.  Especially when my future sewing time involves also taking care of a babe.

 

My first chart is number of sewing projects by month.  I was more productive in the summer.  No surprise there since I get eight weeks off then.  And what went on in July?  I have no idea how I churned out so many projects that month.  That was also the month this little baby was created.  Hehehe.  Twas a productive month in many respects.  My productivity dwindled in the fall due to being newly pregnant.  But I managed to make something every month.  I also noticed a shift in my use of knits then, as well.  I seem to have been a little more productive lately.  It's true what they say about getting some energy back in the second trimester.

  Not sure why this chart has a title and none of the others do.  I did quite a few home decor projects early in the year.  I consider the sofa to be my biggest accomplishment of 2012.  It was completed in February, though I spent almost the entire month of January working on it.  I like sewing for the home.  Truly, I like variety.  I also noticed that I sewed a lot of baby clothes.  And no baby of my own yet!  All of the baby items I sewed were for friends or coworkers babies.  I love me some baby gift sewing.   Something about sewing miniature cutesy things is so satisfying.

Next chart is the type of fabric I used for my sewing projects.  I used a lot of cotton wovens.  I labeled that category to describe all sorts of wovens I used that were mostly cotton; seersucker, batiks, shirtings, etc.  That's pretty self-explanatory.  They are easy to sew with.  The polyester category was surprising, although one project was a craft project and the other two were fails.  What does that say about poly?  I love linen, so I'm actually surprised I didn't use more than I did.  I'd love to push myself to sew with some different types of fabric in 2013.  Um, silk would be nice.  But I'm also on a strict fabric diet, so that may be difficult.  I will be sewing from my stash whenever possible in the next year.  I predict that there will be a lot of pink frilly cotton things sewn in the future.

And the last chart is sewing project by pattern.  I didn't include my home decor projects in this chart since they didn't really require patterns.  Just measuring.  I guess I like Simplicity patterns!  I probably own more Simplicity than anything else.  They seem to go on 99 cent sales more often than Vogues or Burdas.  I was pleased to see I actually had a category for self drafted.  Though all of those projects are either a baby robe or an a-line skirt.  The Oliver and S category is misleading because all four of those projects were popover dresses for baby gifts.  I counted each project individually.  I would love to sew some other Oliver and S patterns in the future.  All in all, I'm happy about my year.  I see from my graphs that again,  I like variety.  That's generally how I am with art as well.  I consider myself to be a jack of all trades, master of none ;)  My only sewing goal for 2013 is to manage to carve out some sewing time while taking care of this new baby.  I don't want to let sewing go to the wayside since making is so important me.  I don't foresee that happening, but you know... I'm determined to make it a point to keep sewing.

Lastly, I just want to say thanks so much to all you lovely folks out there who read my dorky ramblings.  I can't tell you how much fulfillment I get from sewing and being a part of this online community.  I truly enjoy starting my day (and usually ending it, too) reading your sewing blogs also.  Like others have noted, sewing blogs are organic, rich and exciting reads.  It's real life.  So much better than any magazine or newspaper I could pick up. I love that I've made online friendships and connections with kindred souls all over the world.  It's a great feeling.

 Wishing everyone an awesome 2013 full of nothing but sewing successes.

I Feel Special

 

I'm so pumped!!  Burdastyle featured my stripey dress as the member project of the week. 

I was having kind of a crappy day, too.  This totally turned it around!

If you are visiting from Burdastyle- welcome!  I'm so glad you stopped by!

Is that enough exclamation points?...!!!!!

:)

Shameless Self Promotion...

 

I just found out that my spring kimono top is up for the first round of voting and I'm actually wearing it right now.  Serendipity, eh?

And, you know, if you want to vote...;) Click below.

My top is in the day two group (Tuesday). 

 

Thus ends the shameless self promotion.

Tee hee!