Hello! Hope everybody reading this is enjoying the end of year festivities as well as they are able this year! After almost 6 months I am back again to tell you about how the rest of my year of sewing, and to recap 2020 from a sewing perspective.
Truthfully, it's not been a great year for sewing for me. In addition to the limitation of just really not needing very much variety in my clothes this year, I also really didn't feel like making anything for long, long stretches of time. I had basically zero creative spark for most of the year, and when it did strike I either (a) sewed things I knew would work out and that I could wear immediately, which, because I was at home and not doing anything, meant I wasn't sewing anything very interesting; or (b) did something completely different with that energy (mostly drawing and baking). The only good thing was that, unlike in other years where the sewing enthusiasm failed me, I didn't keep buying fabric. Although my stash is still larger than I'd like, it hasn't doubled in size or anything, which is a genuine risk at times. I don't feel bad that I wasn't particularly creative in my sewing in 2020: I think we can all agree that it was a tough year to live through, even if you've not been directly affected by the very worst things it has throw at us.
Sewing Output 2020
I sewed 20 garments in 2020, 2 of which were gifts for my mum.
Of the 18 things I made for myself, 3 were wadders -- one Burda magazine pattern sweatshirt (I had MAJOR fabric problems and am inclined to think nobody would have been successful using it) and 2 simple knit tank tops (I really messed up the bindings at the armholes on BOTH of them).
Of the remaining 15 items, 10 fall into the category of "easy and/or TNTs": t-shirts, simple casual trousers, a caftan, pyjamas, and -- the most complex but in this category because at this point I am so familiar with the pattern -- a couple of pairs of my favourite stretch woven trouser pattern, Jalie Eleonore.
I think it's worth saying that I actually love all 10 of the easy/TNT garments I made. I know a lot of people don't bother to make their own basics because they find it dull, but I find it exceptionally rewarding that so many of my staples are handmade. A highlight for me in this category is a pair of ultra-lightweight stretch denim Jalie Eleonore trousers that I made late summer that I ADORE and wore constantly in the late summer and autumn. I never took a photo of them though because truly, nobody cares about a pair of plain blue stretch woven trousers made with a pattern you've used several times before!
The last five items consisted of 1 fancy peplum jacket (for a wedding that has been postponed into 2021 and that I probably won't be able to attend) and 4 woven tops, which were varying degrees of successful. Sometimes I think I enjoy the sewing challenge of making woven tops more than I like actually wearing them. I wouldn't call any of the tops an outright failure, but definitely I wore them less frequently and overall enjoyed them far less than I expected.
My highlights of the year are the un-photographed Jalie trousers I've already mentioned, and these two garments, at wildly different ends of the complexity spectrum:
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| 2020 Highlights |
On the left, the McCall's 7513 blazer I made from a turquoise brocade fabric that mimics sequins, intended to be part of a Wedding Guest outfit at Easter that was, of course, cancelled. I've never worn it, but it's still a highlight to me because it turned out exactly the way I imagined it would and I love it.
On the right, the back view of a pair of StyleArc Anna trousers in a grey pin-striped linen-mix trousers. This is an incredibly simple 2-piece pattern -- I've made more complicated pyjama patterns! However, this is the first pair of trousers I've made where I am genuinely proud of the fit that I achieved, after YEARS of struggling with the pattern pieces for the back of the body in particular.
Spending & Stash
This was probably the lowest spending year I've had for sewing since I started back in 2011 -- about 60% of a typical year -- and that decrease is down to the fact that spending in my biggest category, fabric, was very restrained this year. Most of the money I spend this year on fabric was in Feb/early March, mainly buying in anticipation of sewing a work wardrobe. After it became clear that 2020 was not going to go according to anyone's plan, I basically stopped buying, making only a handful of purchases thereafter and mostly for immediate use. After fabric, my biggest purchase was my magazine subscriptions, although I also went on a weird cross-stitch kit spending spree mid-year.
In total, I spent 43% of my total sewing budget this year on fabric, adding 50.40m of fabric to my stash. Of this, 44m was purchased in February and early March before the coronavirus implications really hit home. I've only used 26% of the fabric I bought in 2020, which is much lower percentage than usual, but like I said: I bought fabrics for workwear, not for spending the vast majority of my time in the house.
Over the year I used 38.8m of fabric, meaning my stash increased by 15.6m to 214m, which is... not a number I like! After years of goal-setting around stash reduction, however, I have given up. I won't make a dent in the size of my stash until I start making my extremely-long-planned work wardrobe and I'm not spending all day every day in the house. Some huge percentage of my stash is intended for smart casual/business casual/business formal wear, including a lot of fabric I bought for that very purposes even before I initially became ill in late 2013. I'll use it one of these days, but for sure 2020 wasn't the year for it!
Planning ahead
Looking ahead, well, I think like most people I'm very hesitant to say what 2021 is going to look at from any perspective, sewing included, and any plans I have are at best tentative! I have just a couple of gaps/replacements in my "depths of winter" wardrobe I'd like to fill in the next few weeks, and looking further ahead I have a few gaps in my spring and summer wardrobes too, mostly because I discarded some things at the end of last season that I'll need to replace. Making those replacements, keeping my wardrobe at my preferred level, and maybe making one or two more interesting extras is my "nothing changes", minimal 10-15 garment sewing plan for 2021. On my "interesting" list is something to commemorate to myself that this will be my 10th year of sewing, and I am going to try to make something quite complicated to mark that mini-anniversary.
Let's also try to be optimistic for a moment! Maybe things will get a lot better, and plans I had at the start of 2020 can be resurrected. I have a whole plan (and associated fabric/pattern stash) just waiting in the wings for the day when it seems like I need to pull together a whole new work wardrobe. Also, if things go back to anything like normal, I think like many people I'm planning to make the most of it and go out and about doing things as much as I am able, and that will require some subtle wardrobe changes and therefore some fun sewing.
I'm not giving up on blogging about sewing, and though I'm unlikely to ever go back to my once-a-week posts from back in the day I would like to aim for a little more frequency than I managed this year. I barely even used Instagram this year, though I look at it everyday. I am good at liking things (which of course people never see, especially those of you who are super popular) and I comment only occasionally. Still, one of my goals next year is to try to reconnect a bit with the sewing community online, so if you follow me on Instagram you might see a bit more activity. I also have another Insta account (@calathea.draws) where I post drawing stuff, which is also very low volume at present. I am absolutely NOT good at drawing, but apparently I enjoy being mediocre in public. :D
I'm going to talk about my overall wardrobe in another post including what I wore, how my tracking project is going, my general thoughts on the subject of planning my wardrobe, so look for that tomorrow if you're interested.
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