Last 2 dresses for 2017, Year in Review and Aspirations for 2018

I have 2 more dresses to share.  The first is the Anna dress from By Hand  London.

This was my Christmas Day dress this year.  I love the skirt. 

The second dress is Itch to Stitch's Anza dress.

 

The By Hand London dress is made of rayon from SmartDress fabrics.  I love the fabric, I don't think I've ever had an almost totally white dress before.  It feels lovely and light for summer.
The changes I made to the pattern were to lengthen the skirt by 3".  When I was trying it on for fit I pulled the tab off the zipper.  Even though the zip was pinned in I couldn't unpin it so ended up wriggling out of it.  This led me to realise I didn't need a zip to get in and out of it, so instead I made a button loop closure at the top.

Although I'm happy with it, I'm not sure I'll make it again.  I love the skirt, but not so much the bodice.  I may see if I can mash the skirt with a bodice from another pattern.

The other dress, Anza, is also from Rayon from Spotlight.  It is one of the Gertie range and is a lovely fabric.   Changes I made to the pattern were my usual bodice changes  added 1" to the length and lowered and shortened the bust dart by 1".  I lengthened the skirt by 3 1/2 inches.  The only thing I didn't like about making this was inserting the elastic and a drawstring into the casing.  It was such a tight fit that it took an hour to get the elastic in, then another hour for the drawstring.  Although I have a device for inserting elastic, it was too wide so I had to use my smallest safety pin on the end of the elastic/drawstring to pull it through.  When I was pulling the elastic through the safety pin opened up  when I was nearly all the way around and I couldn't move it backwards or forwards as the open end caught on the fabric, so I ended up having to open up some of the stitching on the casing.  Next time I'll try slightly widening the casing.

2017 review

36 garments completed

16 tops

9 dresses

4 pants

2 jeans

2 jackets

2 cardigans

1 skirt

Total spent on fabric	525.67
average per garment	14.5

Patterns by

15 BurdaStyle

7 Itch to Stitch

4 style Arc

3 Love Notions

2 Jalie

1 Colette

1 Vogue

1 Simplicity

1 Chalk and Notch

1 By Hand London

Did I achieve my targets?  Last year I posted that in 2017 I wanted to:

So what lies ahead for 2017?

As mentioned earlier,  I want to make a quilt this year.  This means there will be less time for dressmaking, but I'm still hoping to make around 3 items a month.  

I have again joined the Burda Challenge for 2017 run on Pattern Review.  You set your own challenge.  For me this it to make 12 garments from magazines that haven't previously had any items made.  To the end of 2016 magazines I own, but haven't made anything from are 2/2015 and April, August, September and October 2016.  Of course there will be all the 2017 issues to come.  I also need to keep in mind to keep my wardrobe casual, now I am not working there is very little need for a dressy wardrobe.  I also want to only buy fabric when I have something specific to make with it and use up some of my stash.  Of course sales and hospice bargains will derail this plan!

I want to continue my machine embroidery growth and try new things.  

Quilt - WIP.  I got sidetracked in the second half of the year.

Aimed to make 3 garments a month.  I made 36 this year, so right on target.

Burda Challenge.  Failed miserably.  Although I made 15 BurdaStyle garments, only 5 were from magazines I hadn't previously used.   I struggled to find things I wanted to make from this years magazines and decided not to renew my subscription when it expired in October.

I wanted to keep my wardrobe casual.  I think, for the most part, I achieved this.

Only buy fabric when something specific.  Well, sort of.  I do think I've become more discerning with what I buy and not just buying because it is on sale.

Continue machine embroidery growth.  I've definitely done that - and really enjoyed it.

2018 Aspirations

This year

Finish my daffodil quilt

I'd like another pair of jeans - in light denim

Another denim jacket - this time in light denim

Make leggings, and get more into tunic type tops that I can wear with leggings.

I really want to try bra making, reading lots of tutorials at the moment

Possibly an anorak - possible the Closet Case Kelly.  

Happy crafting 2018