Stashbusting Sewalong 2017: January theme - Sewing Organisation

I know I'm a bit behind in blogging my 2016 makes. OK, make that a LOT behind, but 2017 is a new year, and to kick off January, I am hosting the Stashbusting Sewalong, with the theme of "Sewing Organisation." I'm determined to get myself organised for this year, and I hope that some of the links I have later in this post can help you to get organised too. If you want to find out more about the Stashbusting Sewalong, be sure to join our Facebook Group where all the action happens.

With the end of year craziness that inevitably happens each and every year, it's great to take some time out at the start of a new year, and think about your sewing plans. I like to give my sewing studio a bit of a clean up, and take stock of what I would like to sew in the coming year. Having gotten myself a non sewing related job near the end of last year, my sewing time evaporated overnight. This has made it even more important to get organised to make time to fit any sewing in at all, but more about that later in the post.

Seasonal Sew Wardrobe: Destination

The Sew Alongs and Sewing Contests Facebook group hosts regular Seasonal Sew Wardrobe challenges, and a new challenge started mid August, on the theme of  "Destinations."

I have been looking ahead recently, and realised that there is a gap in my wardrobe for dressy sort of clothes that could also be worn in an office environment.

Mother Daughter tops

When my daughter found out that I was making matching mother and son shirts, her first question was, where was hers? I could have predicted this response, and thankfully, I had an answer to her question.

A Purple Dress: Stashbusting Sewalong July 2016

I promise that I finished making this dress in July, as part of the Stashbusting Sewalong July theme of, you guessed it - Dresses! Although I scraped in finishing this dress on the last day of July, it took me a while to get some photos that didn't look washed out, and even longer to write this post.

Lingerie: Sky blue and white lace bra and undies

In closing this year's Stashbusting Sewalong lingerie month, here is my last lingerie make of the month, a new bra and undies set. After finishing my last lot of underwear, I was really keen to have a matching bra out of the same fabric, and starting plotting straight away how I would achieve that.

Lingerie: white silk half slips and lace top

One of the things on my to-sew list, is a wrap drape top that I'm planning on making in a semi-sheer fabric that my husband bought in Vietnam a few years ago. I haven't used much of the fabric that he bought for me, it feels too special to use for just anything. Another issue, is the see through factor. It's not the sort of thing that I really want to line. That would make it bulkier, and hotter to wear in summer, which would probably mean that anything I made from these wouldn't get much wear.

Lingerie: The Maya Bra

The second new bra that I'm showing you this month is the Maya bra by Ana Filimon.

This bra pattern literally stormed the internet last year (well, if you're part of any lingerie sewing groups on Facebook, or read lots of sewing blogs it certainly felt like it did!) I love the beautiful curved upper cup on the pattern, and thought it would be interesting to see how a pattern not drafted to my measurements would fit.

Scrapbusting in style: Stashbusting Sewalong February 2016

The theme for February at the Stashbusting Sewalong is sewing with scraps. I figured I should at least manage to sew something out of scraps this month. Along came this blog post from Sue. She made some gorgeous therapeutic neck pillows. The free pattern is available here. What a great way to use up scraps!

Stashbusting Pledge 2016

With February well underway already, it seems rather late in the year to be talking about my stashbusting goals for the year. 2015 is done and dusted, and I just scraped by to meet my goal of not adding extra metres of fabric into my fabric stash. But my stash is not getting any smaller. So that means I am in again for the Stashbusting Sewalong 2016.

Stashbusting 2015: A Year in Review

So, another year has come to an end for the Stashbusting Sewalong.  To recap, my pledge for this year's Sewalong was

"I, Andrea, of Obsessive Creativeness, pledge to end the year with no more fabric in my personal stash than I started with"

So, I was aiming for a breakeven position with my stash. I made myself a little spreadsheet to track incoming and outgoing, and printed out some pages so I could just grab my folder and write everything down as it happened, without needing to wait until I had the computer on.

This year for stashbusting, we had guest hosts for each month, and I hosted May with the theme of lingerie. I tried my hardest to sew at least one item each month that was on theme, but for most months that had school holidays I wasn't always able to do this.

My totals for the year were

Fabric intake ........ 56.2 m
Outgoings ............ 58.49 m

Quick Knit Dress

Here's my last last-minute stash bust for the year - a fairly simple knit dress, with wrap top and half circle skirt. It is made from a knit fabric that a friend and fellow seamstress gave to me last year (I think that's when it was anyway) It used up 1.5m of stash.

Reverse applique flower and leaf top

It's been a while since my last foray into an Alabama Chanin style project, a dress that I finished back in April. It was about time that I made something else in this style. I actually started planning this top shortly after finishing up my dress, and have had the pattern lying around my studio for a number of months now, just waiting for me to have the time (and attention span) to make it up.

Stashbusting Sewalong: December theme "Christmas Mayhem"

To end the year off, the theme for December in the Stashbusting Sewalong, is Christmas mayhem! Whether it be sewing presents for gifts, or making those finishing touches to your own Christmas, it's all covered this month!

Broderie Anglaise button up top

This is a top that I've been planning on making for a few years. You may remember the fabric from one of my earlier bras - my second one, in fact. I did hesitate to cut into it at the time, just in case I didn't have enough left to make my shirt from it. Thankfully though, I did have just enough. All that's left now is scraps!

I decided rather than just make a few changes to my block pattern to come up with a pattern for this shirt, that I would spend a bit of time fitting my block to my shape, to save time later when make more tops, or dresses!

Stashbusting Sewalong: June Theme "Stretch fabrics" - Moto Jacket

Sometimes I don't have a fully fledged plan in mind before I start on a project. Over the past couple of months I've seen a few Moto Jackets popping up around the blogosphere, and the gears in my brain started turning, plotting how I could make my own. With this germ of an idea, I paired an old pair of jeans that I identified during Me-Made-May as ripe for refashioning, and grabbed some rib knit fabric that I thought would do really well for the sleeves. All that was left was to buy myself a zipper, and start on a pattern.

Quilt Cover for my daughter

My husband's grandmother had a matching pair of quilts that we acquired after she passed away. When my son was younger, my husband redecorated his room and even made a quilt cover for him. (I wasn't allowed to help - I guess it was a boy thing!)

We decided to leave doing the cover for our daughter until she was old enough to have a say in what she would like. However, I came up with the idea for this quilt (without really consulting her) last year after I made her a party dress and matching bunting for her fifth birthday party. The party theme was Lego Friends, and I chose a few of their most used colours to make a dress, bunting and lego play mats. For this quilt, I started with the idea of the bunting strip at the sides and went from there. The bunting itself has been hanging in her bedroom for about a year, and she has been patiently waiting for her quilt cover to be made.

Lingerie: White Silk Bra - Take II

As soon as I realised that my last white silk bra didn't turn out how I would have liked, I got to work on one that would.

Stashbusting Sewalong: April Theme "Vibrant Colour"!

When I started making this dress, I was looking out the window at the constant rain that Sydney had for three straight days, and kissed summer goodbye, while wondering why on earth I was making a sun dress, out of vibrant orange and yellow flowers no less. Easy. Because I bought this fabric on holidays a couple of weeks ago, specifically to make something on theme for the Stashbusting Sewalong for April. That might sound like an oxymoron, but it's souvenir sewing, so that doesn't make it stash adding, right? I will add my fabric to the "purchased" column on my spreadsheet, but I'm not really fussed if I miss out on my target for the year because of this purchase.

Fabric Shopping, Island Style

I've just come back from a relaxing holiday in Rarotonga in the beautiful Cook Islands.

I didn't set out to buy fabric while on holidays, so hadn't done any research before I went. But seeing so many beautiful tropical floral print clothes everywhere you go really makes you want to buy some fabric to make your own creation. I did do some research when I got home to see if I missed anything.

Fabric Needlecraft and More... AKA The Fabric Cave

Don't ask me how I never knew about this place, but I quite literally stumbled across a reference to the Fabric Cave in a post by Perth blogger Fadanista's review of her latest make in December. Intrigued, I did some googling, and discovered this treasure trove of fabric, sewing and craft supplies, located in Meadowbank, less than half an hours drive from my place. (In Sydney terms, that's quite close!)