Twenty Twelve ~ A Review

Normally I do this post in two parts - the dress part and everything else.  Well by now we all know that I primarily sew dresses, so this year I'm gonna change things up and do just one post.  This post will highlight the number of garments I made, what type, and which ones were the real superstars of my wardrobe!  

Dresses Recap:
I made 25 dresses this year...on average 2 a month.  You can see the pics of the dresses in my 2012 Dresses Flickr Album or you can read about each individual project in the 2012 Projects Tab. 

• I made seven designer knock-off dresses, two from Erdem's collections, who is quickly becoming my favorite designer.
• 13 of my dresses were made from my TNT dress pattern.
• There were five dresses made from new and previously unused patterns.
• I made three more Vogue 1250 dresses - I love that pattern!
• Three were from Butterick 5147 another pattern quickly becoming a fav because of it's versatility.

Finally, my top five favorite dresses of the year were...

The Whitney Dress

The Chanel Dress

The Trendy Lace Dress

The Peyton Dresses

The Valentino Panel TNT Dress

Honorable Mention goes to the three Vogue 1250 dresses (especially this one).


Wardrobe Sewing:
This was big for me this year.  I love coordinates.  I love when the things I sew all work together, so sewing wardrobes comes pretty naturally to me.  I finished two and am still working on a third. 

Lavender and Gray Skies ~
This was the first collection which I started at the beginning of twenty twelve  and it consisted of seven pieces ~ a jacket, dress, straight skirt, a pair of lined pants, a sleeveless white shirt, a sleeveless cowlneck sweater and a cardigan. I can tell you that the jacket (which was the anchoring piece) didn't make it.  It ended up being purged with the last closet clean out. The jacket just wasn't me but the other pieces from the collection have been worn several times and will definitely make an appearance in 2013.

The Ten Yard Adventure Collection~
The second wardrobe challenge started with 10 yards of an ivory polyester crepe purchased from one of my favorite online fabric resources.  This collection yielded six pieces that I wore all summer long...took several pieces with me on the cruise...and even inspired a fall/winter piece.  It also spawned one of my favorite dresses of Twenty Twelve.

The Entire Collection

...and a few favorites from the collection...

The City in Winter Collection~
The third and final collection is still under construction.  So far seven pieces have been sewn with quite a few more due to come out of my sewing machine, some as early as next week, during my Winter Sewcation.  

Some of my favorites so far...

Final Project Overview...
For myself I made 25 dresses, 4 pairs of lined pants, 5 skirts, 3 tops, 6 cardigans and 3 jackets for a total of 46 finished garments.  There were a few projects that I started and abandoned and one dress (McCalls 6506) that I'm carrying over for next spring.  I also made a skirt for my niece to use for historical day at her school and the Christmas PJs shared earlier.


Sewing Highlights of Twenty Twelve...

• Being named a Mood Sewing Network Blogger is hands down one of the most encouraging and inspiring things to happen to me this year.  I am thrilled to be a part of this amazing collection of women sewists and can't wait to share my 2013 projects with you made from beautiful Mood Fabric.  You can see my 2012 completed projects here.
• Getting my sewing cave revamped in the spring was a real highlight of 2012.  I haven't had a sewing room this organized and detailed since my children were very young and I treasure having the ability to go into the sewing cave to create with everything accessible!
• 
• Attending the Le Tour De France Fashion Show sponsored by The Haute Couture Club of Chicago in May was pretty awesome too!  I met up with some sewing friends that I hadn't seen in awhile and met some that I'd always wanted to meet, Cennetta, Nancy, Liana and MaryBeth.  I also got the chance to go to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston and purchase some fabric from there since it's one of the fabric stores from my Sewing/Fabric Bucket List.
• Finally spending time with some of my fellow MSN bloggers and getting to know them has just been awesome...Oonaballoona, Marina and Sarah thanks for spending time with me!  And to all the others who've journeyed to NYC and I've been fortunate enough to meet, thanks for meeting up with me!

Looking forward to 2013...
I have no sewing goals other than to just keep sewing!  I do have a sewing related trip planned in the spring, something I've wanted to do for quite some time and two sewcations - one this winter (happening now!) and one in the early fall.

There are now over 1,171 followers of my blog and who knows how many follow me through various blog reading programs, but I would like to thank each and every one of you for reading along.  It has been a privilege to share my sewing with you this year and I hope that you'll be along for the ride in 2013...and Elizabeth I really do miss you!


...as always more later!