 like renewal and new beginnings and fresh clean slates in the air and so when I go I'm going to like what am I gonna be sewing this month I have that in my head and when I go to plan out what I'm gonna be sewing this month like that is very loud and noisy in my head. Also sort of all the things that I was annoyed with myself about in the sewing room from last year are kind of like weighing heavy on me and you know I'm motivated to like do different and be better and all of those things. So when I'm going to plan for January my first thought is don't pick a million things. Like one a week you should be able to accomplish and you should be really good about that. Also on top of that no more works in progress finish everything till the end and with that you know finishing up some projects that I didn't finish from last year. So that's sort of where my mind is at. I don't know about you but I am like strongly resisting the urge to sew for spring. Is it just me? I mean maybe because the winter has been so mild we haven't really had that like you know really freezing temperatures it hasn't snowed none of that. So maybe my mind is just like let's just skip over winter and let's just go to spring where I can sew all my dresses again but I'm not. I am going to resist that for as long as I can because ultimately I do need stuff for you know the winter months. So keeping all of that in mind I have a few projects that I've picked for this month and three of them are works in progress which would feel really really good. So let's start with those. I know I talked about this in my December plans video but I didn't touch it in December. December I was just at a crafting bug. I just wanted to like make cute things for the apartment. So I made pillows and sewing ornaments and wreaths and things like that. I did sew a couple of things you saw in my holiday dress and that felt really really great. I love that outfit certainly one of my favorites I've ever sewn but I need to finish up this jacket. It really only needs buttons and I think that's part of the reason why I'm like you know so hesitant because I don't want to screw it off. I don't want to screw it up. So I've got to finish the buttons and the belts and this guy will finally be done. This is like a year and a few months in the making. So yeah I definitely want to finish that because come you know February March this is going to be a great item to have in my wardrobe that I can reach for to stay a little bit warm. Next up on the work in progress train is this little jacket from Simplicity 8604. So cute. All I've done is cut this out and I cut out the version that the model is wearing. I just think that's so cute with jeans and a t-shirt just like she's wearing. The fabric is this really cool boucle that I got from Joanne a couple of years ago. I feel like it was very popular and a lot of people picked it up. I just love the gold fleck in there. I love that it's navy. I love that it's black. So it goes with blue jeans and black jeans which I have and love and wear a ton of and then you can be a little bit more neutral with your top color or you could do something really bright and fun. I just think it's going to be a really really cute simple outfit and you know when you're just not feeling like putting a lot of thought into what you're going to wear throwing on like a cute fancy jacket with a little bit of sparkle will instantly jazz up any outfit. So I am super excited to finish that up. I think that what stopped me from finishing this is I don't have a good lining so I just have to grab some of that and I'll be off to the races on this guy. Next is okay so when I first started going into making the holiday dress my initial thought was to use McCalls 7719 and I even went on Instagram and asked everybody which bodice they liked best. I was definitely going to be making the flared skirt but I was unsure about the bodice and so a lot of people chose the off the shoulder one which I definitely want to try but I had started this little version up here. I had this twill I don't know if it's ray on twill or not and I actually made the entire bodice so this is kind of like a muslin a wearable muslin and when I went to fit it it's enormous it is so big I have to probably take like I don't know six inches or something out of the back. It seems to fit well in the front bodice but these little I don't know I looked and I put the the back waistband pieces to like the pattern pieces together and I was I don't I thought that I did something wrong it's so big but I didn't it's just that big so I need to take it in and do a lot of extra work to it so for that reason I was like I'm not going to make my 2019 holiday dress out of this pattern because I don't know what to do with it my instinct is to try and make this bodice and just see if it's the same if it's still very very big like this one wait this one is the one I made and see if there's just some funny drafting thing with that version I don't know so that's what stopped me in my tracks on this but I do have it all cut out I have the lining cut out and everything so it's just a matter getting it to fit and then maybe trying another version I don't know has anybody out there made this 7719 I didn't even think to look on pattern review I will do that too and see what other people had to say about it hi you guys I'm cutting in while I'm editing because after watching this video back I was like you know what I should go on pattern review and see what they have so I found three reviews for this pattern and all the reviews are great but they're all for the version of the pattern that has the like full back piece so I don't really know how to take that other than to go with my gut and to make a muslin of the other versions and see what happens there but for Alexander the third one there she has a youtube channel so if you want to know more about her version of this dress I will have that link below but let me know if you thought it was like gigantic as well you know me like I'm pretty good about the measuring you know I'm pretty good about knowing which size to cut so I don't know what happened there okay and then the last two things are actually for so my style so I did a first impression review of all the so my style patterns for this year last year you remember they didn't pick specific patterns they just had like in January it was like workout wear and then it was like jacket and then it was like pajamas in December they didn't have actual patterns they just had like garment types this year they've gone back to doing specific patterns there are two that you can choose from or you can do both so for sure I chose the Courtney bodysuit by rad patterns never worked with rad patterns but the bodysuit it's knit it's pretty straightforward not a lot of pattern pieces I know it's going to sew up really really fast and I decided to make it out of this navy it's almost like a royal version of navy like if navy and royal had a baby it would be this and I have this fabric I thought it would be great for a bodysuit because you could tuck it into like light colored denim you could tuck it into black pants which I think would be really cool um I don't love navy tops with dark denim but going back to my little jacket um how cute will these two things be together it's not an exact match on the navy but if you have black pants then you're kind of telling a monochromatic ish navy black story this almost reads black until it the light hits it and then this is like a blue blue I don't know I was just trying to think of ways because I have this knit and I'm not going to make a dress out of it it's too lightweight in my opinion so it has to be a top um so I thought a bodysuit would be a great way to tackle this because then you know it's always tucked in and it just elevates the look a little bit and I don't really tuck things into jeans dark jeans very much I do have that wide leg pair I don't know I'll have to see I don't know I've just picked I don't know why I'm going on and on about the color I will find a way to wear it it's kind of looking purple so that could be kind of cool I don't know eggplant it's definitely navy but when the light hits it it could be purple ish it's probably looking purple to you guys because of what I'm wearing um anyway so a bodysuit and I'm gonna do the long sleeve bodysuit and there are like three different necklines for the back and I think I'm gonna do the scoopiest one I mean why not um I don't have any tops like that so I'm gonna do the real scoopy back and then the not so scoopy front so it doesn't fall off um and that'll be that but they also have the um the culottes oh shoot I forgot the name of them mega nielson something culottes oh I can't remember but there's uh various links um and I was struggling because with so my style I really like to sew for my stash like I like the idea of that being a stash buster for me um just because it feels like I don't know why because I guess I can plan it out a little bit more and and also because the patterns for sew my style tend to be a little bit more basic so I feel like the stuff I have in my stash that I'm not like reaching for to make like the hot new pattern that came out from big four like this for example came from my stash like this is definitely just kind of like a basic type of fabric so maybe that's why but I was having a hard time finding fabrics I think with the shorter lengths of the culottes it's wider so it ends up looking a lot like a skirt so you really need something that's very drapey and the longer the pants are the narrower they are so it looks a little less like a skirt but still very very balloonous so I grabbed this it's like a slob linen type of situation and I think that with a lot of wash and wear it will uh lighten up even more it's very thin can you see me through it I can see you um and the color I feel like is neutral enough for a bottom I mean I love a pop of color I think some people were commenting on my Instagram post about it that they were going to do red which I think would be really cool emerald green would be awesome um but this is what I have in my stash so I'll probably do one of the longer lengths as long as I can go with the yardage that I have here and it'll just be kind of like a neat little take on suiting you know kind of like a suiting but it's linen so it's more casual so that's where I'm going to go with this and the only reason why I think I'm going to sew up both this month is because this bodysuit is going to take 30 seconds to sew there are very few seams you just run it through your serger and the hardest part are those snaps at the crotch um so that's what I'm going to do so those are my plans for January I'm eager to hear how many of you are going to be participating in Sew My Style I know a lot of you on that video that I posted last week hadn't ever really heard of Sew My Style before a lot of you commented that the patterns were very very basic which I agree but I also feel like that's an area where I don't I don't sew a lot of basics so that's attractive to me to have something that can go with all the fancy like dresses and jackets and things that I am naturally inclined to make I also have some fabric coming for February that I will be working on so that I can bring you guys a like a Valentine's Day date night outfit I'm real excited about it so I'll be kind of working on that behind the scenes the fabric's just not here yet I also don't have a pattern picked so I want to have that finished by the end of this month so that I can bring it to you early in February in case you want to steal my idea and make something similar for yourself so that'll be in the mix as well so you know one two three works in progress two Sew My Style easy peasy quick sews and then the Valentine's Day thing is what I've got on the agenda but I'm also curious what I mean are you guys sewing up jackets still are you guys ready for spring like me let me know kind of where your mind is at for the month of January so let me know what you guys think of my plans and let me know what your plans are and I will see you all very very soon thanks for watching