New Years Sewing Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We hope that you all had lovely breaks and that if you were back at work this week it wasn’t too painful! The start of the year usually signifies a load of new sewing plans, we’ve contacted some of your favourite sewing peeps and asked them to share their New Year’s Sewing resolutions. It’s time to dust off that sewing machine and start making for 2018..

Caroline & Helen – Love to sew Podcast

Lisa – Lisa Comfort

Karen – Did You Make That?

2017 was my first full year in my new role as publishing consultant, having taken the brave/inspiring/terrifying/awesome (delete as appropriate) decision to leave the day job. It’s been a rollercoaster, seeing me attend two international book fairs, become a Bookseller Rising Star, take on a Rights person and … BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SEWING, KAREN?! Well, I made this decision because I wanted to get back to my creative life, and that’s definitely had an impact on my making. I am proud that I’ve managed to keep blogging regularly during this intense period. As a result, I can see that my relationship with my sewing, my blog and my writing has strengthened. My New Year Resolution for 2018 is to see through a behind-the-scenes passion project, to keep sewing spontaneously and to grow my relationship with readers even more. After our 2017 blogger trip to Stoff & Stil in Denmark I’d love to explore another European city with fellow bloggers – ROAD TRIP! Finally, I’d love to to find meaningful ways to thank all the people who have supported me. Maybe I can start here: THANK YOU.

Emily – Self Assembly Required

My main sewing resolution for the new year is to draft more of my own patterns. I’ve always loved drafting and playing around with designs but I’ve fallen out of habit recently as there have been so many gorgeous patterns out of late! I’ll also start the year off with my usual fabric shopping ban. Last year I made it to March without buying anything and managed to make a small dent in my stash. I hope I’ll make it even longer in 2018!

Heather Lou – Closet Case Patterns

We just moved our business into a beautiful new studio space and I’m feeling incredibly energized and inspired to sew for myself again! 2017 was all about big change and transition (for me and the world, it seems), and I’m hoping 2018 settles into a calmer, more stable place. My biggest resolution is to dedicate one afternoon every week to personal projects. I often need to mentally take a break from everything business related when I’m at home, so I’m hoping to re-incorporate my sewing practice into my day to day work life. After cataloguing and organizing my stash, I’m also on a mission to use some of the beautiful fabrics I’ve collected over the years; those babies need to see the light of day!

Christine  – Christine Haynes

2017 was all about recovering and moving forward. I purged everything that didn’t make sense anymore, set enormous changes into action, and altered both my personal life and my business in major ways. Moving into 2018, I plan to release more PDF patterns, and without question the style will alter to reflect my new life in New York City. My personal wardrobe has shifted a lot, and my patterns will be shifting too. I’m presently revamping my website and blog, streamlining everything and merging them together, making it a lot less about me personally, and putting all the focus on the work. It’s time for my personal life to become even more private 🙂 For my own crafting, I plan to sew many more bras this year, and I absolutely plan to do a lot more knitting!

Tilly – Tilly and the Buttons

With a new baby in my life, my sewing buzzwords for 2018 are “intention”, “mindfulness” and “comfort”. With time to myself being non-existent at the moment, any time I get next year will have to be used wisely, so I’ll need to ensure the things I make are things that I’m actually going to love to wear. I’m looking forward to slowing down and enjoying the process of sewing itself, for the love of making things with my hands – not just for the end result. That end result will need to be comfortable to sustain me through marathon feeding sessions – I’m predicting lots of sweatshirting!

Elle – Randomly Happy

Fiona – Diary of a Chainstitcher

I’ve not had a huge amount of time for sewing this year so wanted to use it wisely to make things which would be useful in my wardrobe. I ended up falling back on old favourite patterns and fabrics which I knew I’d get good results with or fairly straightforward designs which I knew wouldn’t prove too problematic. In 2018 I’d really like to push myself again and try and ‘level up’ my skills by taking a few courses (I’ve had the Sew Over It trouser fitting online course lined up for months), trying more complex patterns and finally getting to making those kind of garments that I haven’t tried before. Sewing lingerie has been on my list forever!

Rosa & Dominique  – Suzy Magazine

Marie-Emilienne – I AM PATTERNS

Kelli – True Bias

Rachel  – House in Pinheiro

To get back at blogging. The blog has been a great source of joy and engagement over the years. I really missed not writing it and specially looking back at the compilation of my yearly makes at the end of the year.

Charlotte – English Girl at Home

In 2017, I allowed my job to excessively eat into my free time, to the extent that sewing – along with all of my other hobbies – fell by the wayside, and I wore myself out.

My resolution for 2018 is to reclaim my evenings and weekends, and to spend that time on things that bring me satisfaction, including sewing, blogging and meeting up with fellow sewists more regularly. I’ll be making a start on that by resolution by sewing myself a new coat during January.

On a more frivolous note, by this time next year I plan to have knit a Christmas-tree-worth of knitted baubles, something I’ve been scheming about for years. I’m thinking one bauble per month during 2018!

Hayley – Seamwork Magazine

In 2017, I fell into a bit of a sewing rut. I found that more often than not I was choosing projects based on practicality and less on what brought me joy. This year, I resolve to sew fewer basics and more fun and unique projects that make me smile.

I plan on sewing garments with silhouettes, colors, and prints that are outside my usual style to breathe some excitement into my wardrobe.

Alex – Sew Over it

After discovering the pure life-changing joy of copyshop patterns in 2017 (and having ALL the patterns printed!), this year I need to dedicate some time to serious sewing. I am most comfortable dressing for winter and my wardrobe definitely reflects that, so I want to focus on sewing some summer staples that I’ll really want to wear. The In The Folds Acton Dress is on my list, along with the Named Kielo and the Equinox Tee by Pattern Fantastique.

Jen – Workroom Social

2017 was a good year for me. I felt the love and support of friends, family, and the sewing community a ton this year, and I am so proud that Workroom Social helped more women sew their own clothes than ever before.

I have a big sewing goal for 2018…sew a working wardrobe! I am not clear on what this actually means just yet. Just like with any big goal, there are lots of little goals to meet first. I’m excited to spend some time figuring out my style, planning my makes, and of course, sewing those makes. I’m excited to try new colors and silhouettes. We’ll see what works!