Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to you and you got lots of nice gifts. Around 9/10ths of the presents in my household were for the baby, as you would expect, and he was thoroughly delighted with all of them. We weren’t sure if a nine-month old could unwrap his own presents. Turns out he can! It takes a very, very, veryyyy long time, but he can! Anyhow, our attention now turns to New Year, or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland, and the adage “Out with the old, in with the new”.

I guess that applies to crafting as well and so with that in mind, I’ve been browsing for patterns I would like to make – a kind of to-do list. I see a lot of other sewists/knitters/crocheters making these kind of lists and I always enjoy reading them to get ideas, so here are five items I have vaguely planned so far for 2016. I already mentioned a few ideas in an earlier post, so I will try not to double up:

Photo from Cloth Habit website

I hate bra shopping. Doesn’t everyone? Having said that, I hadn’t really thought about making my own lingerie at all until I came across the Watson pattern at the Cloth Habit website. Firstly, I really just liked the pattern for both the bra and pants. They look pretty but comfortable. It also helps that I loved the variations that the designer made up. But what sold me was the amount of information and the sewalong that was on the website. As I mentioned in an earlier post about independent pattern makers, this is the sort of support and help that makes a difference.

I would like to make a lot more bags in 2016. I love bold prints and I love contrast. First, I really need a bag that will fit in the back of my pram, in which I can sit bottles upright. My sister bought me a supercool nappy (diaper) bag that I use a lot, but I need something in a softer material and the bag above may do the trick. It’s from The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam. I would probably use something like the barkcloth below, but let’s see…

I would also like to make a few things for my little boy, Joseph. I have this super cute knit fabric:

I reckon it would make a nice pair of pyjamas. I’ve made a few pairs of leggings and I think I’m going to use the top part of some of his current pyjamas and try my hand at making up a pattern from that. It’s worth a shot anyway! It should be fairly fast and easy (famous last words!)

Next, the Belladone dress from Deer and Doe. I have the pattern already and a number of different fabrics I think will work for this. This pattern is a little more advanced than what I’ve made so far, and I’ll probably go for this one closer to summer, for obvious reasons!

And finally for today, I really, really like this Globetrotter shawl I saw pop up on Craftsy the other day. It is so not something I would normally go for, but I love the colour contrast, I love the different stitches, the fringing and the styling. Winner! It’s actually a kit, which is on sale right now. It’s still over $50, which I have no doubt is a great deal, but I can’t really justify it at the moment. I’ll keep an eye out and maybe later in the year (autumn?) I’ll revisit this shawl.

There we go – five planned makes for 2016. What do you have planned? Bye for now!