Sewing Hits, Sewing Misses, Sewing Goals, and Best Sewing Tutorials

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is to look past at all my sewing projects from the past year. I love the reflection and learning I get from retrospectively studying my handmades. I put together lists of my most worn handmade items, the items I could’ve done better on, my sewing goals, and the best sewing tutorials that were your favorite of 2017. What was your favorite sewn item of 2017?

Besides all the clothing I made this year, I changed my blog name from Feathers Flights to Heather Handmade. I felt like it was a better fit for what I was doing: sewing a bunch of handmade clothing and making beautiful handmade things for my home and life.

My Favorite 2017 Sewn Projects

I separated my most worn handmade clothing made in 2017 into three categories: jackets, summer, and winter.

These are the three jackets I made this year, and I love all of them. I made a faux suede ikat jacket, a tencel Kelly Anorak Vest, and a lightweight waterproof Kelly Anorak. I am a jacket person and these fit perfectly into my wardrobe. I do find the Ikat jacket a little hard to wear since it’s a print, but it works with all my solids.

At the first of the summer I struggled with finding direction for my summer handmade wardrobe. I love wearing skinny jeans, but when it’s hot I basically hate fabric touching me. I finally found some summer patterns I like to wear: the striped flint pants, the chambray tania culottes, and the striped bamboo tee.  I wore these constantly this summer, and I can’t wait until next summer to start with a great summer wardrobe base. If you are sewing stripes this is how to match stripes.

When I’m cold I just want to be comfortable and cute. And wear loads of layers. Maybe I just need all really comfortable clothing. I’m basically wearing sweatshirts and cardigans this winter. And I love it. This winter I’m wearing a quilted sweatshirt, three blackwood cardigans, a lace front sweatshirt, a sweater fleece sweatshirt, and a terry knit sweatshirt. 

My Mistake 2017 Sewn Projects – That I learned From

I actually had a hard time finding items I didn’t wear from everything that I made myself this year. I didn’t make anything that was the wrong style or the wrong color. After reading through these four “sewing mistakes”, I realized that I need to stop working with cheap, low quality fabric. I would have kept all of these if I would’ve used better fabric! BUT now that I know my style and my colors I can spend money on high quality fabric and know that it’s a worthy investment!

1. Tencel Woven Tee – I love this fabric, I love the color, and I like this style. I just didn’t make the upper back wide enough so it’s a little uncomfortable to wear. I would wear it all the time if I had fitted it correctly!
2. Floral Harbar Knot Tee – I love this pattern, and I loved the floral. Unfortunately this rayon spandex was really low quality and started to wear out and pill quickly. I need to make some more next summer with higher quality fabrics!
3. Diagonal Ruffle Tee – I love the look of this tee. I love the white color and the subtle stripes. Unfortunately, the fabric didn’t have any spandex and would get easily stretched out. It makes me sad because I loved it, but if I don’t wear it I get rid of it. Even if it’s a handmade. I don’t like the “emotional baggage” in my closet.
4. Long Cardigan with Pockets – I loved this cardigan, and it was pretty perfect and lightweight for summer. It was a great color, and I loved the sweater fabric look. I used cheap fabric, and it wore out really fast because I wore it a lot.

Best Sewing Tutorials and Projects of 2017

1. No-Slip Hand Towel Tutorial
2. How to Sew a Split with Mitered Corners
3. Why You Need Pennies in your Sewing Room
4. Free Draped Cardigan Pattern and Tutorial
5. 26 Ways to Save Money while Sewing
6. Three Different Ways to Hem Knits
7. 8 Things I Wish I Could Tell Myself Before I Started Sewing
8. Striped Flint Pants
9. My 8 Favorite Fabrics to Sew Clothing With

Sewing Goals for 2018

1. Make at least one coat – I have two planned for January
2. Make a pair of jeans – I have the pattern and fabric purchased; I just need the notions! When you are sewing jeans, learn how to hem jeans with the original hem.
3. Share more sewing tips and sewing tutorials – update old popular posts
4. Work on adding videos to my posts
5. Improve my photography
6. Perfect my capsules – I’m better at sewing my colors and sewing my style, but I feel like sometimes I make too many items which makes it harder to dress in the morning.

Learn How to Sew Your Own Clothes

1. If you want to learn how to sew your own clothing you need to start somewhere. These are the Things I Wish I Could Tell Myself Before I Started Sewing. They will help any beginner who wants to learn how to sew.
2. Then you can read some Tips to Start Sewing Clothing.
3. Once you start you’ll get better at using a sewing machine, but you’ll make clothing that you might not wear or love. I made every mistake and this is How to Sew Clothing You’ll Love. (Avoid my mistakes!)
4. As you get better and better you’ll need to learn How to Choose Fabric for Sewing Clothes and the Best Fabrics for Sewing Clothing. I recommend fabrics that I love, but you’ll find the fabric you love the best.
5. You can use paper patterns which are great to buy on sale or you can use PDF patterns which are great for instant gratification. There are lots of Different Ways to Assemble PDF Patterns so you need to find what works for you.
6. Lastly, when you are sewing your own clothing and you are drawn to lots of different printed fabric, you need to learn How to Make a Versatile Handmade Wardrobe + Free Printable so that all the items in your wardrobe can coordinate with another item of clothing and be worn!