Happy New Year 2025!

Happy New Year!

Well as I usually do I during the Christmas holiday period,  I have spent the last few days of 2024 looking through my old pattern magazines so I can decide on a plan of action for my 2025 sewing. 

My main aim is to make as many patterns from unused Burdas as possible because I have a huge number that have never been used. And Patrones and some very unusual magazines I seem to own and have never used. AND importantly since we will at some point in the next couple of years move house use as much stashed fabric as I can and add as little as possible. The adding as little as possible part should be easy since my income has plummeted the last year or so, so I no longer have spare cash for anything really. I do though have loads of stashed fabric.

I do have a few plans from last year that I never achieved and although one of these dresses was on my last three years lists!!!! I still definitely want to make this dress - well both these dresses actually 

and I have fabric to make them although the silver fabric I bought for the one dress got used to make my surfing dress last summer. I do not regret that. Its a lovely summer dress.

I also bought some very cheap orange tiger striped jersey that I really want to use but so far have no idea what to make with that. I thought loungwear but having treated myself to the November copy of Burda style ( as my Christmas present to myself) which arrived yesterday I now think I might make something from that magazine with this. Yes I am really not meant to be buying more mags but there is a dress in this one I really want to make. Its a strange dress in that its sort of sportswear with mitts but has chiffon sleeves and it just appeals to me. I bought the mag just to make this dress but in fact there are loads of designs I want to make. Its also a big thing because I have not bought a Burda since January 2019 but this particular mag just caught my eye so I gave it myself for Christmas.

So thats already 3 dresses on my list which in all honesty is probably enough for a whole year for me. 

And the possible loungewear in orange tiger stripes. 

But then I found this outfit online from H&M. The orange tiger fabric is too light weight so it wouldn't work for this but I have some velboa and I think that would work.

These are actually knitted in a mohair mix but faux fur would give a similar and very warm version I think.

 I had to screen shot from the web because they do not let you do it in their app, but since I am crediting them I do not expect there to be any copywrite issues! I hope!

If I wrote a book or a scientific article so long as I cited where the images came from I should be ok so I assume the same is true here. If not I will take these photos down. 

Anyway I have loads of velboa faux fur fabric in black and white fur tiger stripe and this outfit has inspired me to make a skirt and top. Not identical to these because I want either a peplum jacket or another like my red top which is a Burda top I had on last years to-do list and I did make this and I like it a lot so would like another. I already considered a second one in this fur fabric and now I saw the H&M outfit I am even keener to do that but a peplum jacket would also work so I have yet to make a decision. 

With regards to the skirt I want a certain steam punk skirt I made a few times because it would work really well in this faux fur velboa fabric. The green coated cotton skirt below is another version of the same skirt though looking at that photo that did not fit so well or it was hitched up at time of taking photos. I have worn that loads and its always been fine otherwise so could just be that photo. Anyway its a favourite TNT pattern so thats the one I intend to have a go at for this look. It has an elastic waist and fishtail hem (High low) and I have enjoyed wearing several previous versions of that pattern so I will go with a safe pattern for this fabric because its far too expensive a fabric to take a risk on. Hence also I will more than likely make the red top again rather than test a new pattern for a peplum jacket. I do want to make a peplum jacket but possibly I should do it in a cheaper fabric for my first attempt. Especially since I made such a mess of the last peplum jacket I attempted to make. That was a few years ago but it still sticks in my memory as a major disaster and a waste of nice fabric.

The red top was on last years list so I can tick that one off.

Then I have a half finished coat which I need to finish. This is the Burda Pattern for it. It was on last years list so thats an almost.............
I really need to get this one finished for my own well being!

The only other achievement from last years list was this sweatshirt and I would like another of these because its lovely to wear so I am intending to make a second one of these. 

And then I spent the last 10 days looking for some flared trousers to make. 

I bought this Butterick jeans pattern to make up an order so I got free postage. That was probably 8-10 years ago. I thought, well a jeans pattern can't really be a mistake but in all honesty I had zero desire to sew jeans. 

But over this Christmas holiday being unable to sew has meant I have been looking at my extensive hoard of pattern mags. 

There are certain fabrics in my stash I particularly want to use this year one of which is a rather nice khaki stretch needlecord.

I have 2m of this. I started off thinking of 70s Burdas because I have loads of 70s Burdas and I want to make some winter weight flares. 

I made a few pairs of flares over the last couple of years but always by bodging the same free pattern which is really for yoga pants. My flares have all worked and been wearable but I reckon I could do better, so I spent days looking through my magazines only to realise that 1970s women were apparently much bigger than me ( I am child sized!!!! - and honestly |I am not that small by modern standards! There are loads of women smaller than I am. I consider myself average) and most of the patterns come in one size only unlike the current modern Burda magazine patterns that are all multi-sized. On top of this it would seem they did not require pockets! 

I never knew women's 70's trousers have no pockets! I suppose its a sexist thing where women then had no money of their own?? Though its actually not so very long ago!

Well. I don't mind making clothes with no pockets but I do like pockets in my jeans and I cannot conceive of flared trousers in corduroy with no pockets of any kind. 

Then I remembered this pattern so I found it out from it's storage (most of my sewing stuff is in storage due to a very small house and we had intended to move to a different country. For now the move us on hold for family reasons but the stuff remains stored in the hopes we eventually get it sorted. )

So my aim today is sort out the right pattern pieces and work out the best way to get them out of this piece of fabric and to see if this is going to work. Thats what the cans of food are for. I use them as weights when cutting out. It means I can have weights and do not need space to store them!

My fabric measures 140cm wide. The pattern is for 160cm or 115cm. I only have 2m buy hopefully this will fit and I can make some flared trousers- with pockets. So I am hoping for the rest of today that I can get these trousers cut out and then I am off to begin my sewing for 2025.

Other than these projects I really want to get back to having time to not only write my own bog posts but also to have time to visits more blogs because in the last 3 months thats been a real problem because life just got so busy its been crazy so I am really keeping my makes to-do list pretty small because I want to aim for more than just sewing for this year. 

I expect there will be loads more random makes during the year as well but hopefully keeping this list small will give me the incentive to get sewing again which I always find difficult after Christmas. 

Ah and one last aim, The Winwick Mum sock along will start soon so I shall pop over there next and see what is going on because that is something I do want to take part in because it really is fun to do.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you have a wonderful, healthy, happy and productive 2025.

Take care,

Bracken