The year past and the year to come

[green_martha]

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately - I suspect I was really, really tired and needed the vacation. Now I have regained some energy and I give you the obligatory "yearly costume review" post.

Back in January 2010, I tried to push myself to finish one project a month for a year. It worked quite well for the first half of the year, then as I went back to work my productivity went downward and I stoped keeping track. Most of all, this year has been bad for pictures - I forgot to snap some of half of the things I made, and I still haven't gone through the Vaux one. Boooo ! I'll try to catch up now that I'm home, but first, what did I make ?
- the 1872 half-crinoline. It has a closure now, but after getting dragged through the park in August the bottom level has a hole - I guess it was just too long, so I have to shorten it before I wear it again. Easy peasy, I deem it done.
- two pirate shirts for my brother, no pictures
- a korean han bok
- a 1790s green and godl striped redingote - not the best picture, the fichu isn't right, and the hat was a tad too small, I'm not 100% in love with the costume.
- I revamped my wedding dress for a Regency picknick, adding a hat and a chemisette. Sadly, the dress still kills my shoulders and I had to get out of it before the end of the event.
- a quick and dirty florentine
- a 1871 polonaise

All of this was achieved by the end of August, which makes almost one project per month since the beginning of the year. But after that, I got somewhat burnt out by all the BIG projects that I had done already and made a sewing break. I went back to work and that slowed things a lot as well. But I got back to knitting.
- I finished the sweater I had started back in January, no pictures because I've been lazy for months.
- I knitted a giant sweater of doom for Christmas for my Dad, no pictures either becaus eI'm stupid. The neckline is kinda wonky but he loves it.

And then I went back to sewing, and...
- finished the Erris maternity corset
- I also did my yearly bits of embroidery on the never-ending Christmas tablecloth.

That'd be 10 or 11 projects in a year. Not quite 12-12, but considering I had a baby on my hands and how exhausted I spent the last months of the year, that's really not bad.
Oh wait ! I made a 12th thing ! I made a maternity t-shirt with th serger, it was so quick I forgot it ! *ticks the last box off*

Now for the coming year, what do I want to make ?
- finish the 1887 red maternity bustle dress
- make an 18th century quilted maternity ensemble
- make an adorable baby
- work on the super sekrit eyebrow project with heileen
Nothing else is set yet, but I suspect this will change after we have the programm of the Ministère des Modes in January...

Now for the mundane stuff ...
The year was off to a particularly rotten start, but Heimlich finally got out of hospital in February and got healthy again. His hair grew back (he got his first well-needed trim today), he relearnt to hold his head, and we slowly got over the ordeal. By the end of April things were mostly good again.
For the first time in years we flew to Bordeaux to a good friend's wedding, and Heimlich was perfect, we also took the train to Paris to the HG's family with Heimlich and he was still adorable. We generally took him around and let him be babysat by grandparents or friends here and there and everything went well.
I was super-lucky this year to have heileen several times over at our place, and to go to her parents' place with Heimlich. I hope we get to get together at least as often this year for costume nerdiness and endless sewing hours.
In general I saw lots more friends this year than the previous year, as I was not working for the first seven months and not pregnant either. We spent more time at home after I got back to work (boo to saturday working shifts... they're bad for our social life). We had the Darkstones over every week and that's fabulous, that's evne more fabulous now that Lady Darkstone and I go to the same printmaking course. Printmaking = awesome, in case I haven't mentionned it already.
In August Heimlich went to the sitter for the first time, and adjusted pretty well. He had a relapse where he'd cry when I left in September, but that wa soon gone and now he's all smiles as soon as we reach her building. Yay to our fabulous sitter and her adorable kids. Heimlich also spent one whole week with his grandparents and that went perfectly as well (I'm getting repetitive here).
Then the kid turned one, we had family over and the cake was a green disaster but the party was fine, and I got pregnant again around the same time. I was consequently quite tired for the rest of the autumn, and I have the feeling September through December went by in a haze. We watched Heimlich learn to crawl and walk, point at things and throw toys to the ground. He's now very taken with spoons and has decided our cutlery organisation is suboptimal - so he spent about one hour today taking the spoons out of their drawers and putting them in the upper drawer. *giggles*
I think I've been waiting for the holidays to come for ever, and now they're gone already *sadness*. christmas with my parents was great, New Year's Eve with friends was great too (the dinner itself was quite a success in my boo, although there was waaaaayyy too much to eat, the dishes were held to a minimum and well.. it was super tasty !), I just wish it had been longer, and now I long to see them all again soon !

Comments

[jenthompson.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! You did so many pretty things. I don't even remember seeing that pic of the polonaise - that's gorgeous!!!

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

I was in a rush when I posted the picture sonline, so I might have forgotten to put the link here.
http://mfaure.are-ata.org/img/couture/events/tetedor2010/
It's from the event we did in a park in Lyon back in August... Looking back at the pictures makes me want to go to moar events ! Aaah !

[hohenstein.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of trying to do a project a month....I might adapt your idea & do a "finish a project a month" from my stock of partially completed costumes. This year I'm also going back to my "sew for 1 hour a day", that I did when I was in grad. school. I would cut out a bunch of things at once (usually on a weekend), pin the pieces together, then put them all in a basket by the sewing machine. Then, as a mental break from working on my thesis, I'd sew for 60 minutes. I got a lot done & it was a good refresher before going back to writing. I've sewn less in the past few years after developing "chronic fatigue syndrome" & fibromyalgia. I have about 2 good energy hours per day & I'm usually trying to do housework. But, working down the fabric stash has become a "do it now" necessity with the house remodeling, so I think I can justify sewing things to use up the fabric. At least some of it will be leaving the house, since I'm sewing some doll clothes for a charity raffle (well, I had some patterns I bought years ago & too much fabric that didn't work for my personal costumes...) & a friend has decided he wants to start attending costumed events. so, now I'll be sewing 18th c & Regency for 2 guys as well as myself. He's my husbands hiking partner & they're both avid photographers. He thinks it would be fun to go to historic events & photograph them.

a.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

I liked the idea as you don't have to really put pressure onto you, and it was a good reward to realize I did get 12 projects done in a year, some of them really big ones.
It sounds fun to have guys wanting to come to events ! Sadly, the only male I could put into a costume would be my brother, and he's drowning under work and living far away :(