Sunday, December 24, 2017

2017 in Review



What a mess of a year this has been. You know how everyone lamented how horrible 2016 was? Well, 2017 has been my own personal dumpster fire. Between trying to pay off a mountain of debts, find a new job, getting slowly pushed out of my current living situation, and trying to find a new house, it's been all I can do to make a stitch in something new here or there. This entire year has been one long, horrible, exhausting battle, and I am not sorry to see it go.

So what did I actually get done? Well, I did manage two full dresses at the beginning of the year, a couple of new undies, and a couple of accessories. I finished the embroidered stomacher I began working on ages ago, and I dipped my toe (haha) into remaking shoes. I began and abandoned many projects this year, many of them just one or two small details away from finishing. Hopefully, I can actually pull myself together next year and clear out the UFO pile a bit.

Here's a look at the very few things I managed to actually finish in 2017.

Dresses
http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-chocolate-truffle-bustle-dress.html   http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-19-teens-purple-taffeta-dress.html
 
Undies
 http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-modest-gold-pannier.html

Accessories
 http://mistress-of-disguise.blogspot.com/2017/04/blue-gold-18th-century-shoes.html

Originally, I planned to go through all my sewing goals and tell you just how I had done with them, but I didn't even touch 90% of them this year, so there's really no point. I didn't make any new outerwear, or any new full sets of undies. I didn't make anything new for M at all.

Will 2018 be any different? Who knows! I know that I'll be moving into a new house, so that will be eating up at least a little bit of time while we close, move, and settle into the new place, wherever and whenever it happens to be. There are good things planned for next year, like traveling to Paris for the Fetes Galantes and visiting Germany on the same trip. The Victorian Soiree is going to be exciting and fun, with almost two dozen costumers already signed up to go. I'm planning on heading back to the Francaise Dinner in Virginia, and I'm taking M with me. The Guild is revamping how they do events, so instead of one event every month, it's now one BIG event, like the Soiree, every quarter. I'm eager to see how this plays out, and hopefully it means an excuse to make more evening wear, since I love it so.

Goals for 2018:

New Regency Ballgown. I love the green ballgown, and it always gets compliments, but I'm a little tired of wearing it to every Regency evening event. I picked up a new length of sky blue embroidered taffeta, and I'll be whipping something up for a 12th Night dance in January.

Finish the ivory and blue sacque for the Francaise dinner. It's nearly there, I just ran out of steam when it didn't get done in time for the event it was intended for.

Finish the two embroidered 18thC waistcoats for M. Both of them are very close. The cream and black waistcoat just needs buttonholes and final assembly. The silk waistcoat is slightly further from completion, but I learned a lot by doing the second one, so I feel confident that I can finally finish it properly.

Make the embroidered coat and breeches for M for Fetes Galantes. Because of the Soiree, I may have to end up machine embroidering the coat panels, but at this point, I don't mind, as long as it gets done. By the time the Soiree is over, I'll only have three months to make his suit, so anything that cuts down on production time would be helpful. Although, I do like to have a project to take with me to work, since I so often have down time that I can work on hand-sewing. We'll see where things are in life and the universe once the Soiree is over.

Something new for M for the Francaise Dinner? Maybe? I'm shooting to have the cream and black waistcoat finished, at least, but am also contemplating a new coat for him. I did pick up a black brocade that he'd been eyeballing, and it would make a great compliment to the black embroidery on the waistcoat, so we'll see.

Costumes for CoCo. The only dress I'm 100% sure I'm making is the dinner gown from Titanic, for a group thing. Otherwise....I have no idea. Hopefully ideas will come together as the event gets closer.

TrekCon in Vegas. It's the 25th anniversary of Deep Space Nine! I MUST GO. FOR CARDASSIA!

Finish at least three big UFOs. I need to whittle down my UFO pile by...a lot. I want to tackle all those poor abandoned projects that I actually loved but didn't finish in time for their intended event. The ivory and blue sacque, the 1890s red and white dress, and The Great Pumpkin levite all come to mind.

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year, and I'm looking forward to see how well I can stick to my goals and how many projects I can actually finish in 2018!

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