Sew where are they now? 2018 edition

Posted on January 18, 2023

In 2018 I was still a relatively new sewist happily sewing and refashioning away without a care in the world. I made quite a lot, what happened to it all? Since 11th Oct 2019 I have been keeping records of what I wear so I do have more information to include in this post. I should point out that I wear all of my makes in a kind of rotation. The way it works is that I have 4 outfits on the go at any one time and once I have worn something 10 times, it gets put away until it’s the garments next turn. My aim is that everything should get worn at least 10 times per year. My system is flexible to accommodate holidays and seasons but one important thing I have noticed is that familiarity does not breed contempt. What I mean by this is that often clothes that I’ve worn 10 times become ones which I am reluctant to put away, even if I wasn’t particularly looking forward to their time in rotation.

This post doesn’t include everything I made in 2018, but it’s a large sample.

Two t-shirt refashions

I bought 2 large, lightly worn plain t-shirts at a car boot sale for £1 each, with the intention of adding some extra trims and treatments copied from things I’d seen on pinterest.

The green one was given a simple treatment of bias binding around the cuffs and neckline. It had 10 recorded wears and probably another 20 or so before I started my records, and was discarded in May 2020. Reasons for it getting thrown out were wear and fraying of the fabric I had added, and armpit stains.

The purple one was given a more elaborate neckline of a fabric bib trimmed with rick rack. This one is still in my wardrobe and has had 30 recorded wears and probably another 20 before that. I’ll be throwing it out after the next 10 wears as I’ve had enough of it.

Skirt and trousers made from the same tablecloth

I bought a tablecloth in Oxfam for what I considered at the time to be a pricey £15. It’s a fairly common piece, a large circular print in the centre in some kind of loose woven batik type print.

I immediately thought ‘circle skirt’ as the cutting out would be easy but in fact, but this resulted in a skirt with an uneven hemline as bias cut skirts need to be left to hang before hemming. Nevertheless this got 20 recorded wears before it was discarded in June 21. Reasons for discarding it were fading of the print and it also had a rip in it.

I had sufficient fabric to make trousers from the edges of the tablecloth and they got 30 recorded wears, being discarded from my rotation in April 2021, for the same reasons as I discarded the skirt, however, the trousers lived on as gardening wear, probably getting an extra 20 wears before I replaced them with some pants with pockets.

Table runner and denim trousers

Another tablecloth make, technically a table runner which caught my eye at a jumble sale for next to nothing, paired with some old denim to make a pair of trousers. I had the table runner for about 2 years, auditioning and rejecting it for several projects before settling on the trousers. The table runner, having a loose weave, was unsuitable for trousers really but, despite being at the whacky end of my creations, I like these trousers so much they are still in my rotation, and in fact I have even been wearing them on the day of writing. They’ve had 40 recorded wears and I am currently deciding whether it should be 50 or not – some of the denim is getting thin and has already been repaired with an added pocket patch.

Simple Sew Anneka tunic

This was made from some actual fabric found in a charity shop – one of the first times this ever happened. The fabric is an old fashioned print and somewhat scratchy, synthetic and sweaty, however I do still own this dress. It’s had 30 recorded wears and will make 40 but maybe not more after that. I think it is a bit short and unflattering as well as the other problems to do with the fabric, but it’s still with me because it’s very loose and comfortable.

Purple flowers top

I made this from some purple wrap trousers which contained a lot of fabric I used the rest of the fabric to cover a piece of furniture. The top is still in my wardrobe but I’ve only worn it 10 times. It is a summer only wear and a bit tight on the bust. It will get to at least 20 wears although does count as a bit of a fail. I have 28 tops, which is too many for them each to get 10 wears per year and I do want to reduce this number.

In conclusion, 2018 wasn’t a bad year, I made a few more things than listed here but I don’t want the post to go on too long. I got a good amount of wear out of my makes and some of them are still with me now, but coming to the end of their life.