2020: The year of Coats and knickers

I don't know about 'Fur coat and no knickers' - more like 5 coats and lots of knickers (well underwear anyway).

Just the other day I looked back at my plans for this year You can read this here, I actually did quite well with the sewing plans, but then had lots of unplanned makes too. 

I planned to make:

• Burnside bibs

• Sew Over it Pussy bow blouse
• My friends wedding dress
  
• Burdastyle trousers

• The Assembly Line Hoodie Parka

• A Hobbs style dress

• A wool coat

• Upcycle some scraps
• Mend my pink Seamed dress.
  

To some degree I did all of these. My upcycling was a bit lacklustre and I ended up getting rid of a bin bag full of scraps as I couldn't store them. I started making the SOI pussy bow blouse, but didn't feel the love and ended up using a different shirt pattern instead. I also mended the dress, but the fabric has faded quite a lot and it needs to be retired - the fabric may well find itself part of a quilt sometime soon.

The wedding dress was finished, but the wedding has been postponed until 2021 - so I won't be sharing any photos any time soon.

The big headlines for this year are coats and underwear. I began the year by making the Hoodie Parka. I opted to line this and adapted the construction to accomodate this. I didn't wear this much during the spring and summer, but it is a perfect transition coat. I've worn it most days since September for work, but it's starting to get a bit cold for it. It's a great beginners pattern for coat making.

Next up was the Goldstream peacoat for my Hubby. This was a massive learning curve as there was quite a bit of tailoring in this. I'm not sure how well it will stand up to extensive wear, but it's certainly been work quite a bit over the last few months.

In April I made a coat for my friend Judy. She asked me to copy the style of a coat she already owned and I traced it and created a new coat for her.

Once my eldest came back from Uni, he decided he wanted a 'Coach' jacket, but not really a coach jacket. So I ended up drafting a block from scratch to fit him. It's fairly basic and I've made the block available free - It's just one size and doesn't have any of the details included, just the basic shape. He loves it and wears it plenty.

Finally, over the last couple of months I made a wool coat, which included a lot more hand tailoring and was seriously worth it!

On the underwear front I became disheartened with the RTW bras that I had. The fit wasn't too good and I'd struggled to get the right size. I came accross the Boob or Bust Facebook page and after remeasuring myself, went for a wholly different size. I haven't yet tried this size in RTW as I can't try on instore yet. But I have made some bras. I'm still new to this and learning lots about fitting and making as I go along. 

The Watson Bra by Cloth habit has become my go to pattern, I have tried a Madalynne Simplicity 8436 underwired pattern with less than perfect results, and I'm still learning a lot about wire size and shape. I have some self drafted boy short style knickers and have adapted the Watson briefs to suite me and I love the fit of the Noelle High waisted panties.

So 2020 Makes  - This year I made 37 items. Most of them have been successful and lots have used up scraps and small pieces from my stash. Next year I hope to use more from the stash and plan to make/do at least some of the following:

• Activewear - leggings that actually fit at the waist
• Swimsuit
• underwire bra
• more knickers
• sew up some of my stash
• make a quilt from leftover fabrics
• learn how to weave
• A dress for my daughter
• make more art and try some new techniques
• do some crocheting