2015 was a CRAZY year for me, what with getting married and starting a new life and all. But I was glad to restart blogging and I really made effort to photograph many of my makes, which is so much easier now my fall-back photographer son has gotten taller and less likely to cut off my head or feet. Yes, I know that I really need to get a new camera, a tripod and a remote but those will probably remain on the wishlist again this year.

So this is a round-up of all the stuff I made this year, many unblogged unfortunately as I’m still working out how to get stuff made and take pics and blog about them, all while juggling my adult/ spouse/ parent responsibilities.

My Wedding Dress was made using Jocole Crossover Tunic & Dress pattern for the bodice (with couple modifications), while I drafted a half circle skirt and added a three inch waistband. There’s even my first time ever exposed zipper in the back! The fabric is a rust ponte knit from Fabric Mart (sadly, no longer available), with an orange scribbles glitter mesh overlay from Joann (same fabric here) that both my husband and I decided we had to have for the wedding way back in 2013 when we visited my sister in Orlando and were newly engaged. I loved how wonderful I felt wearing something that was entirely made by me in style on one of the biggest days of my life. A little word of caution – this glitter mesh has that teeny tiny almost powder like glitter that gets EVERYWHERE! We were still pulling glittered clothing out of the washing machine after 6 washes, which even included towels, sheets and floor mats. You can get a snapshot of the beauty that was my wedding day here.

The Jocole Crossover Tunic & Dress came out again for my honeymoon cruise on Carnival Ecstasy. My husband picked up this amazing fabric from local store Abed’s, the week before our wedding. So, of course, I had to do a last minute sewing jaunt the day before we were to travel to Miami. Three and a half yards of knit is pretty heavy to travel with, but the dress came out beautifully, so it had to get packed. The original pattern doesn’t include sleeves and the ships are freezing cold at night, so I had to add long sleeves from my own self-drafted block. Later, I found that the pattern designer, Jodi, also has a sleeves add-on in her mix and match collection, which I obviously bought for future use. Of course, I meant to blog about both versions of this amazing pattern… only means I have to make another one to talk about how easily adaptible this design really is.

I was most fortunate to be selected to test three patterns last year, which I actually had to blog, so you can find those posts here – Itch to Stitch Davina Dress, Winter Wear Designs Hepburn Henley and KB Stitch Designs On Point Penley. Of the three, I must say that Davina is my favourite make and the other two are equally an extremely close second. And it’s shocking for me, because I never thought I’d wear full floral print, much less a rose print as I really don’t like roses. But I think it’s the combination of the black base colour and the correct mix of purple shades on the roses that won me over, so much so that I still have almost 3 yards left, even after making the half circle skirt for my Davina and a mother-daughter dress combo for one of my friends. This dress, like all skater style dresses actually, makes me feel beautiful when I wear it. It’s because of what I like to call the “circle skirt effect” – you just feel elegant and glamorous and simply beautiful in a circle skirt. Every woman should own a few in knee, cocktail and maxi length. #wearallthecircleskirts

The last sewing I did for myself in 2015 was the Pattern Anthology 8 Days A Week Collection, which I blogged about here. Each design in the collection has so many options and that’s what makes it such a great set of patterns to own. My coral Neptune Tee is my favourite of this set and I made that up for my Christmas lunch outfit. I’m starting to think that coral is really going to feature more in my wardrobe from now on. I really would like to make the other options for all of the patterns, especially the other two options for the GTP Knit Pants and a Marigold Blouse.

A lot of my makes for others were definitely unblogged. Basically, this is because I just don’t get any pics of them being worn by the intended recipient, which totally sucks for blogging purposes, and I don’t own any dressforms to doll up for a quick session either. I may really need to look into that…

First, I made all of my bridesmaids’ dresses for my wedding. Three months of designing and sewing and fitting and even redesigning for five entirely different bodies, but it was totally worth it! Look at these amazingly beautiful women that joined my sister in supporting me on my wedding day! My sister’s gold dress was bought from Venus.com, but the ivory and gold gorgeousness were all my creations. To get into the labour of love that these dresses were, does indeed require a blog post, so I’ll save that one for an April post. However, know that I drafted three of the five and mashed up indie patterns for the other two.

After its release, I tried to complete the Pattern Anthology Unbiased Collection as a mini work capsule for my sister. This way, I could get a feel for the new collection before I tackled it for myself. And I’m adoring all the patterns even more now that I made them up, well three out of four is still good right? Although, subconsciously, I may only really like them because of the colour palette that my sister chose, and yes, it was her who chose purple, totally uncoerced.  And best of all, the fabric was all bought here in Barbados at either Abeds or Didiers.

Sewing for the kids was generally awesome this year for me. It was the first time I actually focused on getting some of the kids patterns out of the stash and actually on some kids. If you have kids, and you sew, and you haven’t bought the Domi Sweatpants from Sofilantjes, you are missing out on a really great pattern and simply easy sew. I made 3 during summer alone. But it was when I made the Cyan Lily Dress by Mandy K Designs, that I really understood how cool it is to sew for kids. This pattern is DIVINE!

My biggest sewing miss was for my son. My failure at school pants are right now dumped in a bag at the bottom of my wardrobe.  Thank goodness my aunt sent me four pairs from Cookies or I would have been in that last minute back to school shopping madness. I was completely wowwed with Petit a Petit’s Morocco Tuxedo Pants after I saw the amazing tester photos and felt they would be perfect for school pants as they had all the awesome tailoring details. I mean, my son is pretty skinny and we have always bought slim fit RTW, but his measurements in this slim fit style is almost like boxer shorts on him. Cue soul crushing soundtrack music. I don’t think I have ever been as deflated after sewing up two tests in different sizes with different tweaks in a week and still not getting a good fit. I definitely will be tacking these again this year though! This pattern is too cool to give up on. Anyone knows a well fitting chino style pants pattern for boys that go up to 16 or 18?

Lastly, my Husband’s Jedediah Shorts by Thread Theory Designs were an ALMOST EPIC FAIL but I’m so glad they turned out amazingly. Understand that this is really the muslin as I’ve never made this before, but Morgan Meredith has such a spectacular pattern here that the small adjustments I had to make due to my poor interpretation of the instructions and the minor fitting issues still resulted in a good garment. AMEN to that sewalong Morgan!  I will be doing a pattern review sometime soon for sure, since huzzy has requested more of these shorts.

Overall, it was a busy year at the sewing machine – 16 items for friends and family (plus 3 that haven’t been photographed) and 10 for me. I’ve learned A LOT last year alone about sewing for myself and even other people. My sewing confidence definitely increased with every new garment I made and I can’t wait to see what I can get through in 2016.

Thanks for reading and supporting me through last year. Hope you continue to join me on my sewing adventures!