My very favourite thing about 2015 was that I learnt to do sleeves. Yep thats right sleeves. A dear friend bought me the Mathilde pattern by Tilly and the buttons.

And I have since made 22 variations of it, having adapted it to suit me and even turned it into a dress.

Here’s a few examples in case you’ve forgotten.

This was the first one.

Made it a little longer.

Turned it into a dress.

made it with short sleeves.

And a short sleeved dress.

I’ve most certainly had good milage from that pattern.

After making the first two long sleeved tops, I can’t quite believe what I did next. I made a bloody coat! Where the hell did I get the idea that I could make a coat? Oh yeah, I can do sleeves now… Luckily for me I spoke to the lovely Michelle in Merchant and Mills about the Strand coat and she gave me the idea to make it in boiled wool. You don’t need to do facings, hems or finish the seams as it doesn’t fray. This made it a whole lot easier. Don’t be fooled though it still had its challenges. I learnt how to do tailors tacks and pockets, I love the pockets on this coat and am particularly proud of them.

The lovely Strand coat pattern.

Tailor tacks

Pocket.

A beautiful wearable coat, made by ME!

I think for me the coat has been a major highlight and achievement. I sort of peaked early on in the year.

The next thing I made of which I’m very proud was an apron, I love this apron so much. Makes me happy every time I wear it. Which is a lot.

Particularly happy with the curves on it.

There we are…

I shortened jeans for the first time, which also made me very happy.

From this…

To this.

I discovered I don’t like working with jersey when its more complicated than a simple rectangle top, but do love the finished product.

A top made with a jersey viscose concoction. Nearly killed my love of sewing!

I met some very lovely sewing peeps at La La Rookh.

Of course it looks a little different now after the name change.

Anna on the right and Lexie on the left.

I also met up with the lovely Ruth from poppyinstitches.

I went on holiday to Barcelona for ten days and wore something I made every day.

Holiday wardrobe, full of my handmade goodies.

I bought some new patterns, of which I’ve only tried the Merchant and Mills Top 64 so far. And hated it. Think I made it well just hate the top.

New patterns.

Ugly thing!

I then decided I was finally ready to have another go at the M&M Trapeze dress pattern. And promptly made three…

In cotton canvas, bit different but I love it.

Then in denim. Again love this, have worn it quite a lot already.

In party dress form. Sorry for the bad lighting.

And then came the Trapeze top…

Loving it, yes I am. And there will be more…

And that was actually my last make of 2015.

But I don’t want to forget that I did appliqué for the first time too.

And thats about it. I’ve been quite lucky in that most of my sewing projects have been a success this year. I just hope it will continue into the New Year. I got lots of lovely sewing goodies for Christmas so have many new projects to try. Fingers crossed all goes according to plan!

My blogging might slow down a bit in the new year as I tackle new things that might take me a little longer to complete. I wish I had the nerve to stop and take pics as I sew, so I could blog about the different processes of a make, but I’m either in the zone and forget to stop or I don’t want to jinx it by blogging about it too soon. But we’ll see.

And to anybody that reads my little blog, thanks for reading &

A HAPPY NEW YEAR and love and best wishes for 2016 XXX