2021; a retrospective

I’m so behind but running as fast as I can… !  soon I think I will make it back to where I’m supposed to be.  I know I’m a day late for a 2021 retrospective, woops but better late than not at all, I think?

brace yourselves for some random stats and facts!

IG: Above is my “best nine” for Instagram for the year, since instagram is the social media place where I tend to hang out the most.  These are the nine pics that got the most likes from people who follow me over there.  It does makes me really happy that some of the important people in my life are the most liked! I still don’t really “get” what makes people like one picture, and don’t even look at another.  Still a complete mystery to me, to be honest.  Anyway!

what did I make this year?

I made 66 items this year…  as follows: (for me) 5 coats/jackets, 6 dresses, 10 tops/tees, 6 skirts, 2 jeans/trousers, 1pr pyjamas, 1 pr handwarmers, 1 set of lingerie (bra + 2 undies) and 3 prs shoes.  One skirt and one top were for the FrockOn collaboration, so have not been added to my own personal wardrobe.  I’ve also been making things for Cassie as she struggles to cope with new motherhood and, just lately, a new back-to-work wardrobe: 2 dresses, 6 tops, 2 skirts, 1 pr hand warmers. For Arthur I’ve made: 1 tee, 1pr trousers, bunny soft toy + clothes, backpack: for baby Theo: 8 onesies/rompers, 2 tees, 1 sleep suit, 1 cushion, 1 swing.  For Kelly; 1 top and 1pr handwarmers, and for Lainey, 1 top also.   Oh, on top of that I made 10 masks, and 10 baby bibs, but I didn’t even count these, woops!

Cassie and I were very proud to release three new sewing patterns this year too! Our Mundaring raincoat pattern, our Yallingup dress/blouse pattern, that one that has both regular and breast-feeding friendly versions, and our free Fridgetown hand warmer pattern.  Yay!  We are so excited for what the next year will bring for our fledgling company too!

“Stash” vs “new” fabrics:

I’m really really trying hard to sew as much from my stash as possible, and I did in fact managed to use quite a lot of it this year!   however I did have to either buy or incorporate some new fabrics this year… I wanted to make Theo’s baby swing from Cassie’s own fabric from her Spoonflower store, and had to buy that, for example… and some other pieces were given to me, like when Mum and my friend N both cleaned out their stashes, and also when I received fabric for the FrockOn collaboration, as well as 5 pieces from Minerva.   By this criteria, 18 items were from “new” fabric.  Ultimately I’m pretty happy with how much stash I managed to go through though.  Feel very very good about this.  I’m already formulating plans for next year too…!  😉  🙂

favourite make?

oh dear! I found this so hard to judge this year!  I can only cope with the decision making trauma buy choosing several things, for several reasons! For purely selfish, pride-in-the-sewing-process, reasons; my favourite thing for myself was my black Stewart tartan coat, made at the beginning of the year.  I’ve worn this several times and always feel so smart and pulled together.  It makes every outfit look good!  but the above was my favourite  🙂

I was also very happy with some of the things I’ve made for others; particularly this striped dress I made for Cassie, Theo’s little panda romper, and Arthur’s bunny …

most worn?

My most worn clothing items for the year can be summed up in the above… top spot goes to my yellow raincoat (51 wears this year), other very heavily worn items were my white sandals (50), lilac sandals (28), yellow mini skirt (26), turquoise denim skirt (23), sherbie tee, red floral myosotis dress, red turtleneck, rust wool skirt, blue hand knit cardigan, new navy jeans, pink hoodie was originally white and I overdyed it during this year, and my cheerful orange/yellow/purple dress; all made by me and all took honours as very frequently worn clothing items in my wardrobe this year.  My black tights also get very heavily worn but I’m not counting those because they’re boring.

any fails? or *horrified gasp* things NOT worn

I have to admit the very first time I wore my yellow polka-dot maxi skirt, above, I realised beautiful long ripple-y skirts were  just never going to work for my dog-walking lifestyle.  I gave it to my niece T and she seemed quite excited to wear it, so I’m just glad it’s gone to a good home!  I did love it in theory though!

general life things

So; a big part of my life nowadays is spending time with my two darling grandsons… I’m very happy to be responsible for babysitting them (separately) each week… very occasionally I sneak in my ootd photo while I’m hanging out with them, and of course these are some of my favourites!

with Arthur

with Theo

Also, my Japanese lessons are still going really well… although travel still feels like a far off very distant thing, I’m enjoying it so much I will probably take up Celtic again if I have more time this year, fingers crossed!

Did I mention this before?  We moved house at the beginning of the year, we’re now very close to the beach and I now walk along it every single day.  I feel so lucky and do not take it for granted, I’m literally living my dream life now.  I’ve always loved the beach, and to live here is like sheer heaven for us.  I’m also still maintaining my 7 year, unbroken streak of at least 10,000 steps every day.  I’ve kept this up ever since I got my first Fitbit, which is a relentless tyrant for keeping you accountable!

So, I guess that’s 2021 … I wish all who read this a wonderful year ahead, with health and happiness, clean air, refreshing rain and warm sunshine for all, and of course precious time spent with the most important people in our lives. Here’s to 2022 being a good one!