mechanonymouse | 2020 Make Nine

Make Nine is a way of planing your sewing for the year. It can be as prescriptive as you want or it can be a very general I need these garments. The point is to plan your sewing so you have a useable wardrobe. I did this last year and found it really helpful, some of the items on here are repeats because I either didn’t attempt them last year or didn’t succeed. While I have photos of specific patterns these often refer to the garment type rather than that pattern.

I have tried to arrange them in order of importance or need.

1. Shirts - a returning feature. I spent most of last year fiddling with shirt patterns to make something work but I have finally got a working set of interchangeable shirt pattern pieces for long and shortsleeved shirts, with and without a yoke. My plan for January is to whizz through the shirting I have in my stash and possibly buy some more shirting so I can live in long sleeved shirts as much as I do in short sleeved shirts.

The above photo is my shirting stash, featuring a large man’s linen shirt taken to pieces for the fabric, two Liberty shirt lengths that are older than I am, and a lace top with faux silk which terrifies me but will be a very pretty party shirt when I get a round to it.

2. Two of my bras have just given up on functionality. Which is sweet, two free fitting underwires. Not knowing what underwire size I am is what has been halting my continued bra making attempts. Last year I made a wearable toile of the Orange-lingerie Marlborough bra which I’m going to continue working on.

3.As I’m going to playing with lingerie, knickers seem like a good idea. I enjoy having matching bra and knicker sets but my crotch depth is odd because of how petite I am and the result is awkward when I but RTW sets. Plus knickers are a great way to use jersey scraps and I am trying to be a sustainable sewist.

4. Jackets - this is again a returning feature of my Make Nine. Last year I wimped at trying to draft my own pattern and getting anywhere with shirts took so long this mostly fell off the list. I tried out a boys pattern in size 152 but the block used for boys patterns is so different from my own shape that it proved unworkable - my mum on the other hand is swanning around in it because that’s the shape of her rib cage. This year I’m going to start with a girls jacket pattern.

Pictured are a wool blend that I have enough of to make a jacket and skirt and a cotton canvas from a fabric swap that will only make a jacket but looks brilliant with the double gauze below.

5. Skirt - Again a returning feature. I didn’t cut in to my jacket fabric so I didn’t make the planned matching skirt. The pattern shown is an Ottobre girls pattern my mum made earlier this year. I want to make it up in red cord to match the jacket below, possibly hacked into a pinafore, and then out of the gorgeous wool suiting I have. To match the existing brown Act iii jacket I have I also want a short straight skirt out of the pictured brown jumbo cord.

6. I need to replace one pair of my summer pyjamas. This should be a quick make as I’ve already toiled the pattern but I won’t need to think about it until May at the earliest so it’s further down the list. I am however still debating what pattern to use for the top. The fabric was a birthday present from a few years ago and really fun but not something I want to wear outside the house.

7. As I said last year I need to replace my smart winter coat. It’s a ready to wear kids coat so while the lengths are right it’s never been the best fit across the bust and I have worn it harder than was kind seriously damaging the fabric around some of the buttons. The problem was I lost enough weight that the everyday winter coat I made in 2018 stopped fitting and I didn’t realise until the cold was properly on us. As a result rather than trace and test the pattern pictured I ended up buying an everyday winter coat. I do still want to do this but unless I trip over some amazing wool this is going to be on hold until next winter.

8. This is a retro Butterick pattern I bought for a friend. I want to make the shortsleeved version in a cotton to test the fit and then the sleeveless version with slip in replaceable chiffon or lace and satin to practice with the fabrics for her before I work with the irreplaceable double gauze (shown with dress pattern), faux silk and lace (bottom of shirting fabric pile) in my stash.

9. My mum bought me this amazing double gauze for Christmas and there is just enough to make the pictured dress pattern in the knee length version. We’ve had the pattern for years, bought for my prom dress and never made. While it says Girls Plus sizes, which wouldn’t fit me, it’s actually in the straight Girls sizes. I’m going to want to toile this before I make it as I can’t replace the double gauze and practice with shifty fabrics first.