2020 in Review

It’s been a busy year, even though we’ve been at home for most of it! It’s been a great blessing having creative hobbies which I can do from home over this year and I’ve been grateful for having a stash of fabric, patterns and wool to keep me occupied over this time. I even managed to finish a few projects which had been waiting to be completed for years! Gardening also kept us well occupied in the Spring and early summer, and I took up sourdough baking for a time as well, although I have more or less abandoned that now! We also started Un:cut podcast which has surprised us with how popular it has been, partly because we are not able to socialise as much in real life.

Looking back at my 2019 end of year review, I had good intentions of having a no-spend year but I did slip back into my usual habits fairly early on and ended up with even more fabric than I had before! I’m more determined to stick to my plans this year, although I already have a couple of patterns in mind which I forgot I wanted for existing sewing plans. I’ve been given some excellent advice on No-Spend self control on Instagram so I’ll share all those tips in a separate post.

These are most of my craft projects this year, I have linked to relevant Instagram/blog posts for these where possible so you can find the details there:

1. Wool scarf (in collaboration with Lovecrafts)
2. Soldotna crop
3. Tilly and the Buttons midi Bobbi pinafore
4. I Am Lucienne Cord jacket
5. Wilder gown
6. Luna Lapin coat
7. Cielo top
8. Made by Toyal Collage sweater
9. Seamwork Tacara hack

1. Lenaline Ambre
2. Patchwork Prism quilt
3. Supertote
4. Cut Couture Hand dyed Blouse
5. Cielo top
6. Plumpy shawl in Hedgehog fibres Sporty yarn
7. Dawn Jeans
8. Merchant and Mills Thelma boilersuit
9. Wiksten Haori in Merchant and Mills cotton gauze

1. Tilly and the Buttons Indigo dress
2. Handmade cushions Adding colour to the bedroom with Luxe39
3. Paper Theory Zadie Jumpsuit and Wiksten Shift top in Wes linen
4. Pop Spots shawl
5. Wiksten shift/Tilly and the Buttons Nora hack
6. Liberty dress
7. Oliver and S Hopscotch skirt
8. Oliver and S culottes
9. Ballon cardigan in Qing Fibre mohair and Martin’s lab merino singles

1. Leather Needle Thread Stitchless bucket bag
2. DIY decorations for my son’s room
3. Charlie Caftan
4. True Bias Calvin Wrap Dress and Nikko top
5. I Am Merlin coat
6. Merchant and Mills Eve trousers
7. Paper Theory Peppermint pocket skirt
8. Foliage hat
9. Closet Core Elodie dress

1. Pink Wide leg trousers
2. Bon bon mittens
3. Fibremood Honey
4. Cielo top
5. Bakerloo blouse
6. Holiday Night Pyjamas
7. Made my Wardrobe Greta dungarees
8. Ruffled cushion in Liberty Capel
9. Fibremood Rya

As for the garden, we started off really well at the beginning of the year with lots of plans and seedlings! I grew lots of tomatoes from seed, at one point the conservatory became a jungle of leggy tomato and cucumber plants. The cucumbers did really well until they got too dry during a hot spell but the tomatoes actually better outside than inside! We were away camping in the summer so the squash arch we planted wasn’t very successful after all, although we did get some squash and courgettes. We also had plenty of dahlias, zinnias, scabiosa and my favourite frosted explosion grass growing.We have some plans for the garden in the next year or two which should help us to make it more attractive overall.

Holidays and events were of course mostly cancelled, but having had a wonderful trip abroad in 2019 we hadn’t planned anything big this year anyway. Instead we completed a long awaited bathroom project over the summer (I still have to write up the blog post!) and went camping and on a self catering cottage break to Cornwall.

I was invited to the London Eye for their 20th Anniversary celebrations and enjoyed a ride in their Royal Gardens capsule, which was filled with fresh flowerbeds and even a fountain! After this, we were of course in lockdown for most of the year, so barring a few outdoor events we weren’t able to do much. Even so I am grateful to have been able to work with lots of different people this year, with features including Guardian Labs, Gathered (originally in Simply Sewing magazine), Refinery29 Elle (40 BAME Influencers to follow) and Olympus Image Space.

So there’s a whistle stop tour through a year like no other! Of course like everyone else we have found it difficult at times having to manage without family support and the companionship of friends, especially when managing work and self isolating children. But having lots of hobbies and interests has given me a sense of achievement in what could otherwise have felt like a lost year.