New Year sewing plans

Ok, every time I write one of these posts, I only end up making a couple of things on my list and about a billion other things that I hadn't planned to make. But I'm going to try harder this year!

Firstly, my goals: 

-As I did last year, give handmade gifts wherever possible. This is easy for my daughter's female friends...a skirt, or simple dress, or even a cushion cover. Much harder for my son's friends.

-Substantially slim down my stash. Last year I promised not to buy fabric for a whole year. This lasted six months, and then I went crazy. Consequently, my stash is bigger now than it was at the start of last year! So, I need to give some to charity, sell some, and use lots in my sewing projects.

-This is going to be the tricky part...limit my use of patterns that I've already made. I have a crazy amount of patterns, and probably 75% have never been sewn. This is because once I find a pattern that I like and make all the necessary adjustments, I'm too lazy to do it all over again with another pattern.

I have tidied up my storage area somewhat. I put all my scraps and fabrics that I haven't used for years into big storage boxes which are now living in the shed. I also took my PDF patterns out of the plastic drawers and put them in magazine files.

My printed patterns are all in the plastic drawers, along with various other crap including my mending/repurposing pile, plastic snaps, random sheet music, and my flute cases.

So, there you go. I think those are very realistic goals! Now onto what I plan to sew. 

Lots for Lizzie:

From top:

-Bow Peep Dress by Ainslee Fox Boutique for her birthday, and also the matching dolly version underneath

-Hannah Dress by Bobkin

-Carnival Jacket for winter. In reality I don't think I'll make this as she has so many jackets already.

-Cross Bow Dress by Boo! Designs

-Timeless Treasures Skirt by Little Lizard King. How freakin' cute is this??!

-Boo! Designs swimmers. Scary but exciting!

-Bunny toy from Melly and Me book

-Little bolero to match the Bow Peep Dress

-Boo! Designs Tweenie Bikini rash vest for myself

And now, for me!

 

-A fitted work dress. This will be much easier to fit my body than New Look 6000 as it's in two pieces.

-A nice handbag

-Shirt dress. This one is already half sewn- I'm just waiting on some trim in the post.

-Ruby Dress by Simple Sew

-Colette Macaron. I'm finally going to bite the bullet and tackle this beast.

Obviously I'm going to make more than this for myself, but five items is a good place to start.

I definitely won't be as prolific with my sewing this year as I have in previous years. I've been working on my fitness a lot, and that impacts on my sewing time. I've also been practising my sax 2-3 nights per week. Anyway, my wardrobe is bursting at the seams so I can't really fit a lot more in without doing a big cull.

I have three weeks of holidays left and then it's back into the madness of the school year. I'm excited to see what 2016 will bring!