As we’ve done for several years, we thought we’d give a state of the blog summary for 2016. This year had some highs and a few lows. By a rough count, we sewed at least 44 skirts this year! And we sewed 14 Oliver + S patterns. Craftsy has changed the way they report information, but we know that many, many, many of our free skirt patterns were downloaded. This includes both the Dollhouse Skirt and The Pegasus Skirt.
One thing we got burnt out on this year was all the series we had going on! At 1 point we were trying to keep up with at least 9 different series mostly relating to skirts. So we’ve reassessed and some are going away completely, some will be semi-occasional instead of monthly, and we’ve also got a few new ideas up our sleeves.
Instagram is our social media outlet of choice, and you can see our top 9 Instagram posts of the year here. Follow us on Instagram here.
Each of us have evaluated our goals and sewing endeavors from 2016 and have a little summary for you.
Audrey:
It turned out that 2016 was all about trying new things! To start the year, I stated 2 goals which were both new and terrifying to me! The first was to meet at least 3 sewing bloggers in person, and I made that goal by meeting 4 terrific ladies through the year! My 2nd goal was to sew something for Mr. Skirt Fixation, and although not one of them has been blogged, I sewed 12 garments for him!
Another new thing for me was attempting (and succeeding at 50%!) sewing jeans for my boys.
In 2016 I dabbled in fabric design which was fun, but didn’t hold my interest for long, unfortunately. I may revisit it sometime.
The kind of design that really lit me up I found out is pattern design! And I’m really excited to have launched my 1st pattern (a skirt, of course) and set up the Savvy Patterns shop to go with it.
A highlight of the year was participating in Project Sew It and sewing up something for each of my 8 nieces and nephews for their birthdays.
I really love my work as a Virtual Assistant for Project Run & Play. It is so inspiring to be part of a very active sewing community.
Allegra:
Looking back over my goals from last year, I realized that my interests changed a lot over the course of a year! Last year I set the goals of sewing a softie, and making more handmade gifts for my family. I accomplished the handmade gift goal – at least a little, by putting more effort into homemade gifts for my family.
I didn’t complete the softie goal, which disappoints me, but I did do a lot of other crafting-related things. For instance, I learned wreath-making from a wonderful little lady, and made mom a new wreath. I think that the number of buttons I sewed on for mom this year make up for any discrepancies in the rest of my performance ;). Also, as part of my last year of 4-H, I won Grand Champion on my embroidery of this butterfly.
Aria:
Last year, I wanted to continue working on my quilt and make a softie. I did work on my quilt a little, but with a busy summer and then school, I haven’t had much time to do either.
However, I did make myself an entire outfit, and start on a softie! I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m sure I will eventually! I have sort of scrapped the quilt idea for now, owing to my busyness and the difficulty of making a hexagon quilt a first quilt, but I do have an idea for a different one!
Annie:
I was really excited to sew a dress for myself this year. My favorite thing Mom made for me is my Uptown Downtown pink maxi dress. I wear it all the time!
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