2012’s Greatest Hits

Because I’ve been enjoying reading all of these top 5’s, and I wanna play too!

Courtesy of Gillian at Crafting a Rainbow

I honestly don’t feel like I had a lot of misses this year, mainly since I didn’t have a lot of finished projects, and I already talked about my goals for this year and next, so I think I’m going to focus more on wearability of the things I made this year. This is certainly not to say that I don’t like or wear the other things that I’ve made this year, but these have gotten the most wear so far. So without further ado…

5) The “Junior Mints” Jacket
Out of the several jackets I made this year, this one has turned out to be the most versatile, probably due to its more neutral color and fairly basic shape. It’s been great for throwing over t-shirts when I want to dress them up a little (or just be warmer), and has worked well with some of my handmade tops and dresses too. Like my “Christmas in July” dress, or the “Moving Target” shirt. This may be a good candidate for a 6-way styling post, come to think of it. 

4) The “Mighty Jungle” dress
I finally successfully sewed a maxi-dress! And although I’d probably change the skirt a bit if I were to sew it again, like add a slit or a godet or something for ease of movement, I can walk in it pretty well. I was very proud of myself for finding a way to use some cool but difficult fabric that I’d had for years, the cotton means that it’s still comfortable in mid-Atlantic summer humidity, and since it’s a tougher, batik cotton, I don’t have to iron it as much as I would if it were just regular old quilting cotton! I’d say it’s a win.

3) The Convertible Dress
There’s just so many reasons I like this, even though I don’t really see myself sewing it again for awhile–a girl really only needs one dress like this in her wardrobe, right? It was super-easy to sew, once I managed to actually find a piece of fabric that was big enough. The rayon bamboo is super-comfortable in that aforementioned mid-Atlantic humidity. There’s multiple ways to style it all by itself, and I can even mix it with some other stuff that I have. The color is fun. And this dress has some pretty serious sentimental value now, since it was what I was wearing the day that Doug proposed!

2) The Vaguely Celtic Renfrew Top

I’ve seen a lot of Renfrews pop up on these top 5 hits, and with good reason. This top fits me so well, and the only tweaking I needed to do was to grade the waist right out of the envelope. It’s fitted enough that it makes a good layering piece, which means I’m still wearing it even though it’s 3/4-sleeved and I have a ridiculous inability to stay warm this time of year, but not super-tight so I can wear it alone, too. The print is neutral enough that it goes with lots of different bottoms, but it still has some fun punches of color. The tube cowl is brilliant for not showing the underside, like some of my other cowl-necked knits have done. I really mean it when I say I want to make a whole bunch more of these–this is going to be the TNT pattern that I compare all of my other knit tops to from here on out!

1) The jeans, of course.

Because as fun as it is to dress up, I’m really a jeans girl at heart. And I’ve been wearing these at least once a week since I finished them, they haven’t fallen apart or gotten holes in them yet, and now that I’ve gotten them a bit more broken in, they’re super-comfortable. And they still don’t gap in the back! So you can bet I’ll be making more of these in the future, too, once I tweak the pocket linings and figure out what to do about that front waistband stabilization issue.

My top 5 wardrobing  lessons learned:
1) Jeans will always and forever be my ultimate “cake” project.
2) I like to wear knits, and I should make more things that use them.
3) Notice 2 of my top 5 are prints, and 2 of my top 5 are things that go really well with prints. Those aren’t going away for me. Probably ever. So I’ll be much happier if I embrace that and figure out what will tie all of those together.
4) Solids are ok to sew as long as they either have an interesting style, like the Convertible dress, or are lined with a funky print, like the Junior Mints jacket.
5) I have warm-weather clothes down pat. What I need to focus on more are the things that can span multiple seasons and/or keep me warmer when it’s cold. Because I’m still bored with my fall and winter wardrobe. (This may be a bit of a challenge as I work through the stash, because I’m not sure what I have that qualifies for this.)