2021 Sewing Plans

This is the first time I am mapping out my sewing plans. I think it’s because I did such a good job with my sewing in January that sticking to a plan will be a good idea. I hope I don’t lose my sewing mojo. We’ll see how it goes.

I had a plan to use up my fabric stash before buying more fabric, but I didn’t stick to that plan. I already bought fabric twice this year! So this plan will also help me use up my current (and new) stash.

Here are my sewing plans. It is subject to change as far as fabric selection:

I will make a long sleeved blouse with a bow using Simplicity 0918. I made this blouse twice already. It was my all time favorite pattern in 2019. I bought a challis fabric specifically for this blouse. This will be part of my work wear capsule.

I will make a sleeveless dress with a straight skirt using New Look A6184. This is the first pattern I ever purchased and the first dress I ever made back in 2015 when I first started sewing. The dress actually ended up wearable and I wore it to work. I wish I saved that dress (for nostalgic purposes) but I ended cutting it up since I didn’t plan on ever wearing it again. I later used the fabric to make masks. I made the dress using quilting fabric and although it’s fine sewing dresses with quilting fabric, it’s not my preference. I didn’t know much about apparel fabric back then. For my February make, I will use a soft shirting fabric. What’s interesting is that this dress has darts and a zipper in the back. For a beginner, that’s a pretty good start. Now I avoid zippers only because I don’t like sewing them, so this will be good practice to start sewing up dresses with zippers again.

I will make a top using McCall’s 7969. This is a very popular pattern because of the sleeves. I already made a dress and a top using this pattern. I will use a fabric that I purchased in Downtown L.A. My daughter picked out this fabric. It’s really cute. So this top will be for her.

I bought a lot of shirting fabric and I have 3 yards in navy blue with little flowers on them. I plan to make a dress out of it using either McCall’s 7889 or Simplicity 8914. Both of these patterns have buttons, so it will be good practice since I have not yet made anything with buttons.

New Look R10092, AKA New Look 6621 is already cut out and ready to go. I bought 4 yards of shirting fabric and I was able to make 2 blouses from it so far. The fabric was intended for a dress but I’m glad I decided to make blouses. This will end up being the 3rd blouse made out of this fabric. I made this blouse before- New Look 6621- Mission Not Accomplished. Now I know where the mistake was made so it should go fine. I thought maybe I cut out the wrong size somewhere but after inspection, I discovered it was a misplaced notch on the pattern.

I have 2 yards of black crepe fabric that has been in my stash for a long time. I will either make McCall’s 8089 or a pair of high waisted pants using Simplicity 1069. Most likely it will be the high waisted pants since I don’t have enough fabric for the dress, but usually I’m able to make it work. We shall see what happens.

My current project

And right now, I have cut and already in the process of sewing Simplicity R10183 AKA Simplicity 8910. I used this pattern before back in 2019 when I got my mojo back to sew. I took a long break for over a year because I thought my sewing machine broke. It ended up that both my sewing machines just needed a break (and maybe a cleaning and a little bit of oil). That dress did not turn out well. I was making a toile with some left over fabric that I had. The top part turned out great, so I bought more of the same fabric to finish up the dress. But once I got to the pockets on the skirt, it was all crooked and did not turn out.

I had trouble with the neck band, fixed that, then had trouble with the front pleats. I fixed that but with less pleats than were intended for this pattern. Then I had trouble with the pockets and could not fix that. They were crooked and sticking out and making the bottom part of the skirt lift up. I tried everything. As I was cutting out the fabric for the pattern, I discovered why. I had cut one side of both parts of the pocket the wrong size! Luckily, I discovered it before I cut out the fabric ( I already had it pinned and ready to cut). I was able to fix the issue with a little bit of tracing paper and a ruler. Another thing is that when I cut out the fabric for this dress in 2019, I cut out a larger size. This dress will be cut for a smaller size which is my current size. I hope I cut everything out correctly this time. We will see how it turns out.

And now, back to sewing 🙂

Advertisement