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.

Swimming Bags: Stashbusting Sewalong June 2016

Every week when I walk my daughter to her swimming lessons, I vow to make new swimming bags for both my kids. They have been using the same bags for about 3 years, and they are quite literally falling apart. I finally drew up a design late last year, and in the previous school holidays in April I finally made the pattern for new bags, cut the first one out, and didn't get any further.

Leather Moto Jacket

The Stahsbusting Theme for this month is actually Unselfish Sewing, but for some reason I thought the start of winter was the perfect time to start the least unSELFISH sewing that I could think of. Last August when I was cleaning up my store room, I rediscovered my stash of leather offcuts, and mentally allocated it to make another moto jacket. After making lingerie for all of May, when the cold weather hit, it was time to start this jacket.

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: Review of free patterns and self drafted underwear

Since I'm hosting lingerie for the Stashbusting Sewalong this month, I've been on a mission to try out some free patterns to share with my fellow stashbusters. I made a decision last year that I would not buy any more underwear, so I'm in need of some more me-made undies. I have a self-drafted pattern that I based on my RTW undies, but have been looking to improve on it. I mentioned at the start of May that I had found a tutorial for drafting your own underwear pattern in a Facebook group, so took this as an opportunity to start from scratch.

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.

Dyeing Lingerie components

Are you sewing along with the theme this month for the Stashbusting Sewalong? It's all about lingerie this month. If you want to see what others are sewing, you can join our Facebook Group.

Cream and white Lace Bra, drafted from Foundations Revealed

I can't believe that it's been six months since I last made an underwired bra! Ever since I finished making my last wired bra I have been wanting to try out the pattern drafting instructions from Foundations Revealed. Their basic instructions for drafting a darted bra are free, spread over two articles. They have further tutorials for variations that you can make to this pattern and other styles, available if you sign up to their membership, which involves a monthly fee.

Stashbusting Sewalong - May is Lingerie Month

It's that time of the year again, I get to talk about sewing lingerie all month. I'm your host for the stashbusting sewalong this month, so let's get to it.

Little French Jacket (Two years in the making!)

Around two years ago, I got the idea to make a Little French Jacket. I had seen a lot of these gorgeous jackets across the blogosphere, and decided that I had to have one too! Although I made the pattern in May 2014, and had hoped to have it finished for Winter 2014, it didn't take that long until it went from a WIP, to a UFO. When that first winter came and went, I think I lost my sewjo on this one, and let it languish. To be honest, the main reason that I decided to get it done ready for this winter, was because I found some black leather in my store room that I'd forgotten about, and now I'm really keen to make a leather jacket. I'll use the pattern from this jacket as my starting point, but to do that, I really needed to have a finished jacket and be able to wear it for a while to assess what changes I need on to the fit before I even begin.

Embroidered Cotton Culottes

Inspiration for new projects comes from many places, and for me, that is often from other bloggers. I didn't know that I wanted to make myself culottes until I saw Sue's culottes that she made in January. Until I read about her culottes, I had not realised that a pattern for culottes was made from a skirt block. I dutifully researched in my patternmaking book, and started work on my own pattern shortly after. I even bought fabric specifically to make these culottes, and actually used it instead of stashing
it.

Sewing for men: underwear

What's more ridiculous? The fact that men's underwear costs $15 per pair, or spending an entire day working out the perfect pattern to make undies for your husband?

A few months ago I offered to make undies for my husband, and in return he would tolerate the fact that I was going to blog about them and show the whole world the undies that I was making for him (as long as he didn't have to model them). I briefly toyed with the idea of making my own pattern from his favourite undies, but then saw a special on the Thread Theory Comox trunks pattern, so decided to buy the pattern and go from there.

Knit tops: Stashbusting Sewalong March 2016

The March theme for the Stahsbusting Sewalong is sewing with knits. I've managed to get two knit tops made up this month, but ran out of time for blogging, so here's a quick write up on both of them together.

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!

Stripe Knit Dress

Following on from how much I loved my first wrap top, half circle skirt knit dress aka Quik Knit Dress (maybe I should come up with a catchy name for my pattern?), I made another one, with a few much needed improvements. I was thinking of making the next one with a plain blue knit that's been in the stash for a few years, but The Husband thought it would look a bit boring all in one colour, so when I took the kids  to the recent sale at the Fabric Store (mentioned in this post), I came home with this striped knit.

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.