Craft Goals for 2022

Hi, everyone! I’m back with some craft goals for 2022. I look forward to sharing the projects I was working on in December with you soon, but it seems appropriate to start off the year with a post about goals.

I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not for or against them, I just don’t usually make them. I did like the idea of setting some goals in my creative practice for this year, though. Maybe they won’t all happen, but I’m going to see what I can do.

While sewing my own clothing is my main hobby, I enjoy knitting, sewing non-clothing items once in awhile, and dipping my toe into other crafts as well. Because of that, I wanted to set craft goals, rather than just sewing goals for the year. So, here’s what I’ve got!

#1: Make shoes

Yes, shoes. No, I’m not kidding.

Over the last few years, I have seen more and more people in the sewing community try this out, and I really want to make some shoes of my own. I own a lot of sewing and knitting tools, and I’m not looking for a new hobby with a thousand new tools, but I want to at least dip my toe in. I would love to try leather sandals, tennis shoes from a kit, or clog sandals at some point, because they all sound doable without investing in too many new tools or materials. To help me on my quest, my in-laws got me the book The Sandalmaking Workshop by Rachel Corry.

I think I would like to try combining a few of the styles unless I see or imagine a style I like even more.

Alternatively, the Chicago School of Shoemaking and Leather Arts has tennis shoe/sneaker kits, and I have seen wooden clog bases on various websites like Etsy. Just think–if I could make my own shoes, I would have the power to create an entire outfit if I wanted to! I love the idea that I could make an entire outfit.

#2: Knit colorwork mittens

Since coming back to knitting, I have discovered that colorwork/stranded knitting is my (current) favorite kind of knitting. I LOVE color! And I love having multiple colors in a given piece of clothing. While I have some excellent lined mittens, I really want to make some colorwork mittens, at least once. When hunting around for patterns, I found the Northman Mittens by David Schulz, which are lined, and look super warm. Once it gets cold out, I either need two pairs of handknit mittens to wear one on top of the other, or a pair of lined mittens. These should fit the bill. However, my impatience being what it is, I thought it best to start with something faster. That’s why I would like to begin with the Speedy Selbu Mittens by Skeindeer Knits, which should work when it’s not bitterly cold.

Since these mittens are knit from a worsted weight yarn, which is thicker and quicker to knit than thinner yarns, these seemed like a good way to try this style of mitten out and see if I like it enough to go on to the Northman Mittens or something else that will take a bit longer. Once I finish the socks I’m working on, I hope to start…if I don’t get distracted by something else. Haha–the lure of the new and shiny is real!

#3: Make a Western style shirt

I have had this on my to-make list for so long! I just need to do it! Whenever I want to make a pattern that I think will be complicated, or that I will have to change a lot, I tend to procrastinate. The pattern I have chosen, McCall’s 6262 from 1992 looks great, but has normal cuffs.

I really wanted those decorative shotgun cuffs, but knew I would have to change the pattern up in order to get them. I found a great article called “Updating the Cowboy Shirt” by David Page Coffin in Threads magazine #67 (October/November 1996) that details how to do this, but the extra time and energy required to figure it all out put me off.

At this point, I think it’s more important to try the general style than it is to have every bell and whistle, so my current thought is that I should make the pattern as is, and if I like it, expand from there with future shirts.

#4: Make a leather bag of some sort

This is yet another project I have wanted to do for some time, but haven’t gotten around to. It’s not that I haven’t ever made anything with leather. I made my friends some clutches several years ago. It’s more that I would like to sew with leather a little bit more often, and it’s been long enough that I need to break the ice again. I made this goal vague enough that I can make something super basic like a little envelope clutch or zipper pouch, or slightly larger, like a cross-body bag. I have had the book containing these projects for a little while now, and just need to dive in.

I don’t know much about leather types and thicknesses, but doing a project will help me learn.

#5: Sew a humpback whale stuffed animal

Haha–this is oddly specific, right? I know. I got this cute Humbpack Whale pattern by Crafty Kooka from one of my kids for Christmas, and I put it on this list because I want to make sure I make it!

We got our first ever new couch this past year, and I think it needs a cute whale to live on it! OK, the truth is, I just want an excuse to make a whale. I don’t know if it will really live on the couch or not. I just want to make one. While I have made simple stuffed animals in the past, this pattern has some new-to-me techniques, and I’m excited to try using safety eyes for the first time.

Now we get to the “maybes” on my list of goals. I haven’t decided if I am committed to these last two, mainly because they don’t sound like quite as much fun to me as the previous ones, but here they are, nonetheless.

Possible goal #6: Make more undergarments

Because I don’t share these on the blog or really anywhere, and because some bras can require more precise fitting, I don’t find these quite as much fun to make. The undergarments I have made for myself have been, for the most part, superior to those I buy in the store, even when I don’t get the fit perfect, but I have a harder time motivating myself to sew them. That being said, it would make a big difference to my wardrobe if I could really get the fit down on a few patterns. I’m close, but like I said, motivation is a little lacking… Do I try to push through, or stick to the things that are more fun? I’m still trying to decide.

Possible goal #7: Learn one or more new serger techniques

I have had my Juki MO-654DE serger for over a year now, and I absolutely love it. Have I learned to do anything other than thread it and push the power pedal? Nope! This potential goal is much like the one above in that it’s not a “fun” goal in my mind. It means I need to slow down on a project and learn something that will take more time, and I’m sorry to admit that I don’t always like to do that. Once I have prepped and traced my pattern and cut out my project, I want to follow the directions and finish the project as quickly as possible so I can GET IT ON MY BODY! Despite this, I know that learning even a few more aspects of my machine would give me more options. Luckily, I also got Serger 101 by Katrina Walker as a Christmas gift. This book looks like it has a lot of great information laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow format. Now I just need to use it!

So that’s what I’m thinking! In order to actually remember and accomplish these goals, I’ll have to make sure I put them where I can see them and check them off when I finish each one. If I don’t, that lure of the new and shiny I mentioned will go into effect, and I’ll forget them as new seasons and project ideas roll in. If I focus on completing them, though, I’ll learn new things and push forward into areas I have been wanting to explore. Making something new that maybe five years ago you had no idea you even could make at home brings with it a feeling like no other. Being able to say, “I MADE this!” is amazing. And we can make a lot of things! It’s so cool!

What about you? Do you have craft goals for this year? Share below! I love to hear about what other people are planning.

Cropped Coppelia Cardi for Summer

It’s almost officially summer (the Summer Solstice is June 21st in the Northern Hemisphere this year), and it’s FINALLY starting to get warm here!  I am so ready to think about summer sewing!

I completely got sucked into that change-of-season-restlessness/spring fever feeling going around, which is bad for your wallet, sewing, and general contentedness and I wanted to SEW ALL THE THINGS!  The fact that this feeling coincided with the end of my Make 9 was rough, because it left me very unfocused and mentally breathless.  Luckily, however, I found this project which actually fills a gap in my wardrobe for a cropped light layer that works with dresses and other garments with a natural waistline.  It was also a great project after the surprising complexity of the shirt from my last post because I’ve made this before, so it fits and I know it goes quickly.  Unfortunately, my having made it before didn’t stop me from making a small blunder, as you’ll see.

Today’s project is the cropped Coppelia Cardi by Papercut Patterns.

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This is a wrap top with raglan sleeves.  It has a neckband, cuffs, and long ties that also function as a waistband.  It’s close-fitting, but comfortable in a fabric with the right amount of stretch.

Before sewing this, I relied on a few ready-to-wear options that I had when I needed this kind of garment, but they weren’t ideal (one is a wintry knit and the other is very casual).  So this year, when a midweight, four-way stretch rayon/Lycra knit went on sale at Cali Fabrics, I jumped on board and got some in order to make this a reality.

This is the second time I’ve made this cropped, wrap cardi (The first, as well as the long faux wrap version can be found here.).  This time around I did most things the same way.  I do a few recommendations, however.  I sewed around the hole that the tie goes through with a closely spaced zigzag, like you would with a buttonhole.  A straight stitch looks much better, but I wanted it to stretch.  Test your stitch on some scrap fabric first, though, because I had some distortion of the fabric the first time I tested it.  I also recommend trimming the bottom edges of your neckband after beginning to attach the waistband/tie so that you trim it at the correct angle (yes, I’ve now trimmed it wrong twice).  Finally, when the directions tell you to stretch your neckband as you stitch it, you really need to do that, maybe even slightly more than you think.  I didn’t and you can see that my neckband stands away from my body a bit in a way it shouldn’t.  I was afraid to stretch too much, so instead I went to the other extreme and stretched too little.  Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson.

Neckband issues aside, I’m really happy to have this in my closet.  It will be a good, yet inexpensive way to see if this is a style that I will feel good in with some of my natural-waisted garments.

Other sewn outfit details:

Skirt:  Megan Nielsen Brumby Skirt; blogged here

Camisole:  Shortened slip from McCall’s 6696; unblogged

Recommendations

• Have you seen the jeans Jenny of the SoleCrafts blog made?  Jeans are impressive enough on their own, but she made her own pattern!  People who make their own patterns continually amaze me.  I love reading Jenny’s blog because, even though we have different styles, she is completely fearless in her projects and figures out things I would use a pattern for or didn’t even know you could make at home (like shoes!).  Amazing.
• Speaking of making shoes, Carolyn of Handmade by Carolyn makes ALL her clothes, shoes included!  You can watch a video of her talking about the shoes she has made here.
• I definitely prefer paper sewing patterns over PDF patterns, and one more thing that has always been a strike against PDFs for me is that you either have to print a bunch of pages at home, or pay close to the price of the pattern to have the large sheets printed at a copy shop.  Jenny of Cashmerette talks on her blog about how to print those large pages cheaply, and she goes over resources to do this for numerous countries.  What a great idea.  Even with my love for paper patterns, I certainly have several PDFs.  The more money we save on printing, the more we have for fabric!  😉

 

A Quartet of Briar Tops

And here’s the last of my unselfish sewing…EVER.  Ok, just kidding.  At least for now.  I made myself another Briar top (by Megan Nielsen patterns) as well as two Mini Briars and one mash-up of an adult Briar and a kids’ Briar.

This is now my third Briar (number one in a double-layer knit is here and number two in Polartec is here), but it’s my first time making a Mini Briar.  I received all three of Megan’s children’s patterns as a thank you for being a pattern tester for the Mini Tania culottes (which are super-cute, by the way).  The children’s Briar is similar to the adult version, although not identical.  It came together very easily.  One thing I love about Megan Nielsen patterns is their visual clarity.  When I first started sewing garments, I was always intimidated by the busy and complicated look of the standard patterns you find in chain fabric stores.  Megan’s patterns are completely opposite to that.  They have a clean look to them that makes you feel confident you will be able to understand them.  Actually, I think that is the case with a lot of the independent pattern companies, which is a big plus.

It is a great advantage to have the same pattern in a kids’ version and an adult version when you are sewing for someone who doesn’t quite fit in either range, but is somewhere in the middle.  This was the case with the aqua and pink shirt.  It was great to be able to pull both patterns out, compare sizes and make a custom pattern from the two of them.  It was a bit of a head-scratcher at times, trying to figure it all out and make the best-fitting pattern possible, but all the problem-solving is one of the things I really like about sewing, so I enjoyed the challenge.

I ordered all of the deer fabric from Girl Charlee.  It’s a poly/cotton blend, so we’ll see how it wears over the long run.  The fabric for the short-sleeved Mini Briar is left over from a long ago project and is from Jo-Ann’s.

Sewing all these up reminded me that while I really love sewing knits because they are so forgiving, I still have a lot to learn.  I’m getting better at choosing stitches that work well, but I still get wavy collars that don’t sit right.  Part of the problem is that, in most cases, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing wrong.  In the aqua and pink shirt, I raised the neckline, but still used the original pattern piece for the neckband, which I should have shortened.  Lesson learned.  As for the other ones, they are pretty close, but not quite right.  Ironing helped, but I think I still need more practice.  Oh, well!

Overall, these are great shirts and they have been getting lots of wear.  It’s nice to see my t-shirt collection slowly getting more interesting and colorful, and it was fun to try out a kids’ pattern.  I think the recipients of the kids’ shirts were happy, too.  🙂

Recommendations

Here’s some fun stuff to check out over the weekend.

• You have to see this dirndl on the Draped in Cloudlets blog.  I’m so impressed by the fit, subtle details, and sheer amount of work that must have gone into this!  The results are so beautiful, and really inspiring.  I think I may need a reason to sew a dirndl…
• I’ve been listening to a lot of the folk/bluegrass music of Sarah Jarosz lately.  I don’t have a broad knowledge of music, but when I find someone I like, I tend to play their music to death.
• I always figured that the one everyday clothing item I couldn’t make was shoes.  Then I saw these ballet flats that Jodie of Scared Stitchless made.  I’m happy to be proven wrong.  These are amazing.
• Here’s another cool music video for you this week:  Wintergatan–Marble Machine.  The music is made by marbles being run through a machine by the artist.  Fascinating and lovely.