{The 2020 Makes Round Up}

Happy New Year!

I think we can all agree that 2020 was a weird year. However, it was also a pretty productive year for me, in bits and pieces. I was able to have more sewing time, but with that I was able to procrastinate more. Even so, I had random surges of productivity both before and after quarantine started, and it’s time to round up the makes for the year!

All the pattern names have links to their sites, as well as the fabric sources. However, keep in mind that many of these fabrics were purchased a LOOONG time ago and may not be available anymore.

Disclaimer: I am basing the months on when the item appeared on the blog for the most part, as I realized as I was prepping some of the months that the garment may have been finished earlier (for example if the blog post went up on February 3, it’s highly likely I actually made the garment in January), but not photographed until later. Just easier to have some sort of organization to it and do it by when it was posted here!

January/February

January was a Frozen Jr. fueled chaotic dream at this point, so I didn’t manage any personal sewing productivity (at least not complete ones, I may have started a few of these), but I tried to make up for it in February by making myself four different new dresses. We have (from left to right and then below):

  • A By Hand London Anna/Kim combo (Anna bodice with Kim skirt) in fabric that was meant to look Elsa-inspired for our opening night of Frozen.
  • A Colette Wren Dress in stretch velvet.
  • A Tilly and the Button Lilou dress in a polka dot chambray I had in my stash for a while.
  • A Sew Over It Emma Dress with modified sleeves (I just shortened them and left off the cuff) in Rifle Paper Co. jersey.

March

In March, I was still coming off of the Frozen Jr. high and we had a lot going on at work, so I managed just two new makes for the month before quarantine began and then I had to get used to a whole new way of working. These are:

  • The Deer and Doe Magnolia dress in Atelier Brunette fabric I made for my birthday dinner (literally the last time I ate inside a restaurant I’m now realizing).
  • A Sew Over It Heather Dress in a super-cute crab print jersey that I also got from their site.

April/May

April and May really blended into each other, as they were the height of quarantining. I know I completed all of the above projects during those months, but the timeline is really iffy. I also know there is a make or two in there that I made but didn’t photograph until later on (quarantine cake affected how my clothes were fitting and I was reluctant to photograph myself in anything for a while… not so much because I thought I looked bad but because stuff was just a tad too tight to make for a good picture). We have (top, from left to right and then bottom from left to right):

July

In July I was able to polish off the finishing touches on a few projects, use a bunch of fabrics in my stash and basically I now have a dress wardrobe to rival Midge Maisel’s (not really, as mine still all fits in one closet, but maybe someday I’ll have a whole second bedroom of dresses… not sure if this is really something to aspire to or not). But I am digressing. My completed July projects:

August

August was a big month of going back and forth upstate for a bunch of family birthdays. Even with that going on, I managed to eke out two new dresses:

  • A Deer and Doe Sureau dress in Rifle Paper Co fabric
  • A Tessa Roosa Veera dress in the last of my fabric purchases from visiting the Sew Over It store in April 2019.

September

September was another month for finishing up a bunch of projects that had been started at varying times throughout the year:

October

October was a month of adjusting to my new classes and being back at work full time. Despite being fully remote, my work takes up most of my day and really the only difference in my time schedule is that when it’s clock out time, I’m already home and can get stuff done! I found out late that we were doing Halloween and completed my costume.

  • Modified McCalls in fabric I dyed myself (it was black and white before). Click here to see the original post.
  • Pin Cushion Costume – this was made with a 1980’s kids snowman pattern (I also used it for Olaf. Click here to read my original post about how I made it!

November


November was a pretty productive month, made easier by the fact that one project was something that just needed to be hemmed, and three were very simple and straightforward to sew. We have:

December

This month, I was able to get a few makes in in between work responsibilities and holiday cleaning.

  • A Deer and Doe Sirocco jumpsuit
  • A Simple Sew skater dress
  • A Sew Over It Ava skirt
  • Sew Over It Roxy Jumper

Sewing these all together I am honestly shocked by how much I made! I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have a full musical to costume (although more on that front later!). Excited for my 2021 projects: I’ve got some fun stash fabric projects coming up, some new fabric projects (yes I bought myself two fabrics from the new Atelier Brunette collection for Christmas) and some long overdue unfinished projects to get to.

Here’s to 2021 sewing!

P.S. To see the ones I’ve deemed my Top Nine for the year (not the ones determined by Instagram likes), visit @sewfancybrooklyn on Instagram!

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