New Projects For The New Year!

First, let me start by saying Happy New Year to all of you! I took some time to enjoy the holidays and relax a bit, and now I’m ready to get back to sewing, blogging, and vlogging. I have some new projects for the new year that I want to share. And I have thought about my goals for what I want to achieve this year.

Review

In 2021 I made 45 garments! That is a LOT for me. I have never had a year where I made more than about 20. The majority of these things were tops (19). The next largest group was pants (8). My goal is not to hit a specific number, but to sew more and improve my skills. That is always a goal of mine.

Goals

As far as new projects for the new year, one of the things I want to focus on is making the “guts” of the garments (the inside) look almost as good as the outside. It won’t happen every time, but I do want to be more aware.

Because I always want to challenge myself, I believe the best way to achieve that is to just keep sewing.

There may be some more artistic challenges as well. For example, fabric dyeing is on my list, but I don’t have the supplies to do that yet.

And because I’m sewing more, I will do more wardrobe building/planning. It’s important to wear what I make.

Quick Projects

I always like to start the year off with some quick projects. I have completed two “Minerva makes” projects. The first are these cargo pants using New Look 6055 made from a polyester twill fabric. You can read that post here.

Next is the soft and comfy striped knit turtleneck that I made using Wardrobe By Me Trudy Turtleneck pattern. That post is on the Minerva site as well. The black pants are from a Simplicity pattern I made a while ago.

Very Quick Project

This past weekend, I made these satin pillowcases. I have made these in a variety of colors and have even given them as gifts on occasion. Using a walking foot makes these come together very easily.

That’s it for now. Happy New Year and I’ll be back soon with more projects!

McCall’s 6963 Sequined Top

This project was made with fabric gifted to me by Minerva Fabrics in exchange for a post on their site. You can check that post out here. I say all that first because that is the reason behind choosing the pattern I chose. For this McCall’s 6963 sequined top, I wanted something without a lot of details. This green sequined fabric has enough sparkle on its own!

For my McCall’s 6963 sequined top, I made View B with 3/4 sleeves (View C). In all honesty, the older I get, the more I appreciate 3/4 sleeves. I used to hate them when I was younger. But now I find myself making them more often.

One Change

Anyway, this is a pattern I’ve had for quite a while and never made. The only alteration I made to the pattern was to make a full bust adjustment (FBA). I only increased the size by 1″. In the future, I would increase it more. But it’s also important to note that this material doesn’t have a tremendous amount of stretch, although it has enough. It’s a stretch velvet. Something like an ITY knit with a four-way stretch would yield a different result.

The pattern is an easy make. I did use my serger and had no problems going through the sequins which are more like shiny dots. Here’s what happened the last time I sewed sequins. If you don’t have a serger, you could easily make this with a regular machine and a zigzag stitch.

One Issue With Pattern

The only issue I had with the pattern is that the instructions call for gathering the sleeve cap. For me with a knit fabric, I see it as unnecessary. So of course, I didn’t do it. I inserted the sleeve flat (as I always do). You do end up with some gathers which I just spaced evenly.

The style is simple. The cowl neckline adds a nice detail. This is a top that can be made in a couple of hours. Sometimes we need those projects that are a quick, easy make and this is one of those.

Burgundy Button-Front Skirt

This is one of those patterns that I liked from the start. It’s Simplicity 9267 and it’s what I call a “soft” A-line skirt. That is the basis of this burgundy button-front skirt. It’s a simple basic design, but at the same time, an elevated look depending on the fabric choice. For mine, I used a polyester blend suiting fabric I had in my stash.

I made View B, which is the mid-length skirt. The pattern also has a longer and shorter version. There are front and back pleats and front pockets in the skirt. In these pictures I’m wearing the skirt with a BurdaStyle Magazine turtleneck I made years ago (here).

This is an easy pattern to make. Don’t be intimidated by the buttons and buttonholes! They really aren’t hard to make, especially since most machines will have automatic buttonhole feet. Believe me when I say the my burgundy button-front skirt was an easy make.

Buttonhole suggestion:

My only suggestion would be to make a couple of test buttonholes on scraps of the same fabric. Not only do you need to know how your thread and machine will act with the fabric, but you need to know in what direction the buttonholer goes first.

The only problem I had was finding the buttons for the skirt. When I have an idea in mind I like to go with that. But sometimes it can be hard to make that become reality. I actually ended up ordering buttons from buttons.com. In the end, I was very pleased with what I got and I like the way they look on the skirt.

I have also included this skirt in my November Wrap Up video on YouTube.

You do know I have a YouTube channel, right? You can head over there and subscribe.

I’m very appreciative of my viewers and readers!

As far as the sizing is concerned, using a 16 and grading to an 18 waist works well for me.

Thank you for reading. When you sew your own wardrobe, the possibilities are endless…