While everyone else is pretty much doing their year in review posts or goals for 2015 I'm going to do my own little spin on the subject.  I'm notorious (as I'm sure a lot of you out there are too) for making resolutions or goals for myself and just kinda forgetting about them midway through the year.  Instead of taking a look back at what I did do I want to take a look back at what I said I would do and didn't.  My goal here is to not beat myself up but to reflect on why I didn't accomplish what I set out to and decide if it's something I want to continue to pursue.   I've spent the morning looking back at my posts from the year and have found a handful of goals I talked about and failed to follow through with.  I'm embarrassed to say a few of the posts I don't even remember writing...*buries head in a mound of fabric*

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The first goal I set for myself was joining Sarah's ready to wear fast.  I knew this was going to be a stretch for me going into it.  I LOVE to shop.  Not buying clothes (only underwear) for a whole year?? I felt the withdrawal sweats forming at just the thought of it.  I pondered it for some time and while the thought of saving money was a positive one it was more of the opportunity to improve upon my sewing skills that pushed me over the edge.  I joined the fast and I made it 6 whole months people.  I blame my Florida vacation for falling off the wagon and of course time...lack of time should just be a given.  Weeks were spent thinking about the clothing I was going to sew for my vacation and as time flew by and the departure date grew near I had managed to sew up only a bikini and a couple pair of shorts for the trip.  Time won this round as it quickly ticked out and I still needed tops and a few more bottoms to fill the gaps.  Long story short, I shopped and I shopped well.  I don't feel bad about it at all.  Shopping is something I enjoy so why am I taking away that joy?  Back to the thought of saving money.  I get asked quite a bit or shall I say told, "You make your own clothes? I bet you really save the money!"  Uh tell that to the UPS man delivering a box of fabric almost once a week.  We should know each other on a first name basis.  And let's not forget we need to also factor in our time, like the saying goes, "time is money".  So no, no I did not save any money on my fast.  I do believe I improved upon my skills and addressed some of my fitting issues.  But the main thing I realized...I want to sew on my own terms.  What and when I want to. It should be for fun, not because I have too.  I already have the have to part, a full time job.  Sewing a pair of black trousers for work because I need them..how boring! Just takes all the fun out of it for me.  I would have more fun shopping for those black trousers and sewing up a plaid skirt instead.  So will I be furthering my RTW fast? No.

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Because I was on this RTW fast and faced a year of sewing my own clothes I decided to follow along in Sarai's Wardrobe Architect series in the hopes of finding my style and building the "pefect" wardrobe based upon that.  To accomplish this I set myself some more goals, *sigh*.  This was the post I actually forgot about writing.

GOAL #1:  DEFINE MY STYLE.   I still can't define my style.  It's all over the place.  I know what I like and that should be good enough.

GOAL #2:  FIND MY TNT PATTERNS.  The intent here, find tried and true patterns for tops, dresses, bottoms, etc.  Patterns that I can reach for over and over and adapt for work and play.  The first post was all about tops.  You can read about it here.  I totally intended to revisit each of these posts and follow up so let's consider this my follow up...

Basic Knit Top: Sewaholic Renfrew

Ding, ding, ding we have a winner!  I put the Renfrew up against the Plantain tee and the Renfrew won.  I just prefer the fit of the Renfrew over the more relaxed fit of the Plantain.  I've made a couple of "play" Renfrews and blogged about one of those, here.  I've improved upon the fit since then and have made a version for "work" to be blogged about soon.