1. Finish sewing my jeans - Ha! Haven't touched this one since 2012, but I don't really care. I bought Kenneth King's Craftsy course on copying your jeans, and I have a feeling I started out all wrong on these anyway. Maybe I'll work on this in the New Year, maybe not.
2. Make some Sewaholic Thurlows and a Minoru - I can happily say I finished my Minoru, and I've been wearing it all winter.
The construction may not be perfect, but this project taught me that it doesn't always matter. I get a lot of wear out of this baby, I get a lot of compliments, and no one notices the imperfections.
3. Participate in a sewing contest on Sewing.PatternReview - Guys! I'm so close to this one! After I got some selfless Christmas sewing done, I decided to try to squeeze in a project for myself before the New Year. SewingPatternReview is having a cocktail dress contest, and I've been working diligently for the past three days so that I will have something sparkly to submit. Wanna see?
It's McCalls 6433, a pattern which has been in my stash for quite some time.
I had actually set this pattern aside many months ago, thinking I didn't like the style anymore and I'd give it away. Then I saw a bunch of very cute versions...
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| Sew Busy Lizzy's little red number |
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| a lovely version in emerald green by the Seamstress from Venus |
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| awesome fall version by the Modern Mantua Maker |
...and they inspired me to give it a go. The fabric came from Joann's. It's an interesting blend which is mostly cotton and linen and trace amounts of polyester and something listed only as "other." I'm going to guess the "other" mystery fabric is the bits of silvery tinsel that give the fabric its sparkle. The sparkle doesn't show up too well in these photos, but trust me, it's there.
As much as I like to scoff at Joann's, it seems as though my local one is carrying more apparel fabric these days. This is one of the fabrics that grabbed my eye when I was shopping for Christmas gift fabric for others. I held off til after Christmas, but then I couldn't resist any longer. I guess it was meant to be, because as the lady was printing out my ticket she told me it was actually a clearance fabric (cha ching!) and it was half-off on top of that. Sooo $3.50/yard. Not bad, eh? Let's just hope I can get this together by tomorrow in time to submit it for the contest!
Okay, back to the resolutions...
4. Sew something for Josh - No comment. Okay, fine. I actually went and bought McCalls 6044 for him, a pattern that a commenter kindly recommended to me at the beginning of the year. So baby steps. Maybe I'll get there sometime in 2014.
5. Sew something in green - Specifically, emerald green, which is Pantone's Color of the Year for 2013. I sewed a sleeveless blouse that was shades of green...
Hmm. Well maybe I'll carry that resolution over for the new year. I'm not too keen on the new Pantone selection for 2014 anyway.
Radiant Orchid - maybe it'll grow on me. Who knows.
6. Do some giveaways - Pretty sure I did that at least once. Once is good. Okay, maybe I could do a few more in the future. Especially as I've been pretty lucky in the giveaway department myself lately.
7. Blog more - I posted 24 times in 2012, and 30 times (this makes 31!) in 2013. I'll count that a success. But I also have a lot of drafts of posts which I oughta finish up and publish. For instance - professional photos of the wedding dress, things I sewed for Christmas gifts, etc. But all that has to wait while I go finish up that cocktail dress. Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll be able to cross off one more resolution for 2013!
