Make Nine – looking back at my plans for 2018

Happy 2019 everyone!

One of the earlier posts from when I started this blog last year was about my Make Nine plans.

It was relatively early in my sewing adventures (I started sewing in June 2017) so today, the 1st of January 2019, I was interested to go back and read my post from around this time last year. And to remind myself what I had actually put in my Make Nine grid! Turns out I didn’t really look at it again after sometime early summer and hadn’t a clue what was on it. Hmmm.

But it turns out – more by luck than good management – I more or less made almost all of my Make Nine from 2018, or at least if you use a relatively flexible definition of ‘substitution’ anyway…

Here is my original grid from last year:

From this I made:

Closest Case Sasha trousers in place of the Sew Over it Ultimate trousers, as I realized the Sasha pattern would suit me better. Blog post about my Sasha trousers

Ogden Cami – I’ve made two of these. I haven’t got what I consider the perfect version yet, so I have some drapey georgette ready to make a further version in the summer, in the hope that this works better. Ogden blog post

Thurlow trousers – these are the only ones I can’t really claim to have made. I got as far as making a toile of the shorts but never finished the main event. One for this year perhaps? However, I now have the Liesl & Co Hollywood trousers lined up, so the Thurlow may get left for another time.

Papercut Coppelia Cardy – I have made three and a half of these. Half, you query? Take a look here: A bit of a fail

Papercut Bellatrix Blazer – I made two of these and love them. The navy one in particular has had a lot of wear, especially as it goes so well with the Tilly and the Buttons Joni dress I made in navy stretch velvet. Bellatrix blog post

New Look 6344 – another one that I substituted. I wasn’t sure if the shape and fit of this New Look pattern would really work on me, but I found a pattern from How to Do Fashion (a free pattern too, details in this blog post: Free patterns I want to try ) which looked much better for my shape, so I went with that one instead. I’ve made two so far and will definitely be making more when summer comes.

New Look 6390 – a partial tick here. I made the cropped jacket and was very pleased with it as the first jacket I ever made, and a lined one to boot. First blog post about the jacket and Second blog about the jacket I didn’t make the dress from this pattern though as I found the Nina Lee Kew dress instead, which is awesome. Three of those made so far! Here is a post about three dresses, one of which is the Kew dress: Kew dress and others

By Hand London Rumana coat – as predicted I left this till late in the year, so my sewing skills had improved a bit by the time I tackled this. And I am beyond thrilled with the result. I even added in a few more construction techniques, including interlining with cotton flannel, adding shoulder pads, and using more interfacing and stay stitching than the pattern called for. This has been my go to winter coat since I completed it and I love the fact that I made it! I haven’t blogged about it yet, nor taken proper photos, but here are some I took straight after finishing. Still wearing my gym gear. Not quite the look the coat calls for.

Closet Case Ginger jeans – I made these following the online accompanying course that I bought from Closet Case during a 30% off sale. It was a fantastic course and helped me to make a pair of jeans that I love and fit pretty damn well for my first foray into the world of jeans.

Ginger jeans blog post

I have plans to make a pair of corduroy jeans, using the flare extension pack. I just need to find the perfect material, preferably a smoky blue / grey colour.

So all in all, for my first Make Nine I’m pretty happy with what I managed to make.

Looking back over the year I’m also really amazed and pleased at the other makes and developments in my sewing, such as tackling Style Arc and Burda patterns, making a men’s shirt with all the bells and whistles (including collar stays) trying new (to me) independent pattern companies and getting more confident with the instructions for the Big Four, getting to know the sort of pattern adjustments I generally need to make to patterns, taking part in a few of the sewing community challenges such as Me Made May and the Cosy Cardy Challenge, and doing some pattern testing for Nina Lee and Megan Nielsen, which I enjoyed hugely.

Now, onto the fun of planning my Make Nine 2019!