Today I’m going to share with you the coolest things that I sewed in 2016 and some… not
so cool things.
So this year I decided that I wanted to get really serious with sewing, and learn lots
of new skills and techniques.
I wanted to learn how to sew more difficult things like lingerie and pants and to master
stretchy fabrics, and because of that I’ve ended up making some REALLY cool stuff things
year that I am really proud of, that I haven’t yet shown you guys on my channel.
But of course, trying out new techniques, I've also made a lot of mistakes, and I'll
show those to you as well.
But, let's start with the wins first!
So because I wanted to master using stretchy and knit fabrics, I've made some really cute
t-shirts this year, basically because I made a pattern that I really liked and then I discovered
that I could whip up a t-shirt in just a couple of hours.
Like this floral one, and this robot one, and this kinda... emo one - "you're planet
sucks, man".
And this pink one with candy hearts all over it - you've probably seen me wearing this
a couple of times in my videos but I never actually said how I made it - basically I
made the t-shirt in the exact same way as in my alien ringer T-shirt, and THEN I used
my t-shirt transfer tutorial to do the hearts!
Something I made just 2 days ago was this really cute pink bodysuit.
The bodysuit is based on a pattern that I made myself, using a singlet top and a pair
of boyshort underwear.
I've been practising for a future tutorial for you guys.
But I love how it turned out and it was also my first time using fold-over elastic around
the neckline and it turned out so well and I'm going to be using fold-over elastic all
the time in the future now.
So the bodysuit looks really good when I'm wearing it ON my body, but when it’s just
hanging there… – uhhm I accidentally made the legholes on the fabric a little bit too
small, so I wasn't able to then stretch the elastic as I was sewing around the leg holes
which made them look all like - weirdly ruffled - that look perfectly fine and lay flat when
they're actually stretched over my legs, but if you saw something like this hanging up
like on a rack in a shop you'd probably think twice about buying it.
And while I thought that the boyshorts would add this cute 40s, retro detail, in the end
they actually actually kinda made it look like this weird... wrestler’s outfit.
It still looks really cute and is totally wearable as long as I am wearing it underneath
something like shorts or a skirt or pants.
So, I still count this as a sewing win.
So my number one favourite thing that I have made this year is this halter-neck holographic
swimsuit.
I had a bit of leftover fabric from when I did my holographic sleeves tutorial, and because
the material is a waterproof stretchy lycra I thought, "hmm this could be made into a
really cool swimsuit!"
It is the COOLEST thing, like I light up like a rainbow when I go into the sun!
For this I actually used a free pattern which I'll link in the description, it's by Madalynne.
The pattern doesn't cover a large range of sizes but you probably could hack the pattern
to upsize it if you needed to.
But, it's free and taught me how to make this cute halter neck top, and it also came with
high-waisted bottoms as well.
The pattern was a little bit difficult to understand because I wasn't sure how to attach
the swimsuit fabric to the lining so what I ended up doing was just basting the pieces
together and then sewing it like in the instructions.
Oh, and recognise the ring on the back?
It's that weird ring that I took out of the dress on episode number 1 of the Style Pile!
Something I've really wanted to learn this year was how to make pants and leggings, so
I started first with leggings because they seemed easier, and this was the first pair
of leggings that I made.
And then I hacked the pattern to add bellbottoms, much in the same way as I did with my bell-sleeve
top except I added the bells to the bottom of the legs instead of the sleeves, and they
turned out SO cool and I love them so much.
I definitely have to be feeling very confident to wear them because they're a pretty out-there
thing to wear, but when I am they're just the coolest, most eye-catching thing.
And then I made an actual pair of pants!
Like, how frickken professional do these look!
Look at the pockets!
So these pants were actually made with a commercial pattern from Colette and they're the "Moji"
pants.
And can I just say that Colette patterns are amazing, they actually make SENSE which was
a revelation to me as I've only used really confusing patterns in the past where you just
had to kind of figure everything out for yourself - *Burdastyle* - they have a couple of free
patterns as well that you can check out, so - yeah!
Go Colette!
Hashtag-not-spon - I just really like Colette.
I've also made some really cute things this year which aren't clothes, the first was this
necklace and brooch set that I actually made on a Patreon live-stream.
I love this so much because I wear them together with the brooch here and the necklace here
and then I can pretend to pour people a cup of tea and I'm a massive dork, so that's like
the best thing ever.
Okay so not everything that I have made this year has exactly worked out.
The next things that I'll show you I consider to be "semi-wins" meaning that they were still
wearble in particular contexts - you'll see what I mean.
Okay so this is the first one-piece swimsuit that I tried to make - and when I made it
I was really proud of it and I thought it looked awesome and so I immediately took it
to the swimming pool to test out - and I jumped in the water and I discovered that the material
goes totally see-through when wet.
And had I lined the swimsuit - no, absolutely not!
So there I was, stuck in the pool with a totally see-through swimsuit on, kinda just hiding
down in the water so nobody would see me and I was miles away from my towel.
Luckily Luciano had also come to the pool with me and was able to grab my towel for
me so that I didn't flash the entire populace of the pool.
However, just like the pink bodysuit I'm still able to wear it like as a singlet top when
I wear it under pants or shorts, with a bra underneath just in case it rains.
So that's why it's still a "semi-win".
It's just not functional as an actual swimsuit, which is kinda what it's supposed to be.
And finally, the part that you've all been waiting for - some of the stuff that I've
made this year has just flat-out failed.
I'm actually a bit sad because I have cut up or recycled or donated most of the failed
things that I've made this year without recording any evidence of their existence.
Like I have on my list here to talk about: accidentally pornographic swimsuit top and
the boob-squish crop top from hell - but I couldn't actually find these pieces anywhere
and I think I must have gotten rid of any evidence of their existence.
But I CAN show you the couple of fails that I did hold on to.
So remember a couple of videos ago I showed you all how to turn dresses into rompers?
Well, this one was actually the first attempt I made at that.
I accidentally made the crotch way too high up and - I'll let the video here speak for
itself.
Yeah.
I know.
I think I'm going to try and salvage the top part of it though by just cutting the skirt/shorts
part off and then just having it as a cute crop top.
So when I first decided that I would try and be less scared of using commercial patterns
I made this.
It's sooooo unflattering!
Just so unflattering.
It was made from a commercial pattern - a Simplicity Quicksew pattern - but I don't
know what I did wrong or IF I did anything wrong, or if the pattern's just really, really
ugly.
I kept it because I want to salvage the fabric and make like, you know, a pillow or something
out of it, 'coz it's really pretty fabric.
Oh yeah, okay.
This makes me sad.
So when I made my tutorial with Print All Over Me, on making patterned clothing, a really
cool artist contacted me and said they made a store and I checked it out, and they had
the COOLEST designs and I asked if they could make some of their designs into fabric for
me so that I could make clothes out of it, and they did, which was awesome, and then
I just totally butchered the whole thing *laughs*.
I tried to make this high-necked sleeveless shift dress type-of-thing, but it just really
didn't work out and it's really really unflattering and it doesn't fit properly and kinda looks
like - a bit like a nightie, but it isn't even good enough to be a nightie, but obviously
I've kept the fabric because it's amazing and after making that pink bodysuit a couple
of days ago I've decided that I'm going to turn this into a bodysuit - and I think that
will actually suit the fabric really perfectly.
And hopefully I can show you guys how it turns out on my social media channels in the next
couple of weeks or so!
So I'm embarrassed that I still make pieces that look this bad, but um - this is something
that I also made this year.
It's meant to be um, a crop top with actually like a criss-crossed neckline, like this or
something, and I actually made it on a sewing machine which isn't really suited for stretchy
fabrics, um so that's my excuse for why this exists.
God damn it, it actually doesn't look as bad on camera as it does in real life - but trust
me, it looks really atrocious in real life.
But I would like to still try and make something like this properly sometime soon.
Okay, this is the last and most embarrassing fail that I have had.
Soooo um this was actually meant to be a Make Thrift Buy episode, and I was trying to recreate
these pencil case earrings - I think they're from Shop Inu Inu - and this was my version.
I was too embarrassed to even make a Make Thrift Buy episode out of these because they
were just SO, so bad.
I made the items inside the pencil case out of polymer clay, which snapped immediately
as you can see here.
I then painted them with acrylic paint which came off when it came into contact with the
glue, and the glue is what I used to seal the edges of the pencil case together, because
I used PVC and I was a bit worried about using heat to seal the edges, because I actually
think that's kind of toxic, so I used glue instead.
And the whole thing is just such a trainwreck.
I'm very embarrassed that I made these.
But hey, you can't have wins all the time!
So I hope this video can provide you all with some encouragement if you have ever had a
sewing fail or even if you frequently have sewing fails!
I've been sewing since the beginning of 2012, so, almost 5 years, and I still completely
screw up things which should be pretty basic.
But if you don't try, you also won't end up making anything cool, either.
So don't be afraid of making mistakes - or slicing your thumb with a rotary cutter which
is why my thumb is bandaged up here if you were wondering - thanks for watching, check
out my beginner's sewing resource on my new website if you haven't already and I'll see
you all in my next video.
Bye!
Thank you to all of my supporters on Patreon for making these videos possible.
To become my Patreon supporter, go to Patreon.com/annikavictoria!