The Little Red Squirrel - 1st Blogiversary!

I cannot quite believe it but I have been blogging for one year today! Also today marks the end of one year in which I have bought no new clothes, a whole year of either making my own clothes or just buying things second hand. Can you believe it?!

I want to take a moment to take a look at all the sewing I have done this year, so please indulge me. I just love how all of these projects look when they're all grouped together, it makes me crazy happy :) 

1. The "Party Dress Book" Dress, 2. The Crepe Sew Along Dress, 3. My Birthday Dress
4. The 1960s style tunic, 5. My Christmas Dress

1. The Briar Rose Sweater, 2. Fair Isle Sweater, 3. Green and Lacy, 4. Enchanting in Black and White

1. The Pin Up Embroidery Skirt, 2. The Red Pencil Skirt, 3. The Wonderland Circular Skirt,
4. The Pendrell Blouse, 5. The 1960s top with Peter Pan collar,

1. Shirt to Skirt Revamp, 2. 1950s style dress Revamp, 3. Red Blouse Revamp,
4. Floral Skirt Revamp, 5. Cream Floral Dress Revamp

Towards the end of last year I started getting a bit down about the amount of sewing/knitting projects I had completed in my first year of this challenge, I wished I had been able to achieve more. However, when I look at the photos above I feel incredibly proud of the outfits I have created, and I realise that for me it's about quality not quantity. I may not have completed hundreds of projects, but those that I have are now staples in my wardrobe and I love wearing them.

I started this blog a year ago as a serial shopper who spent a ridiculous amount of money on clothes that just sat in my wardrobe which was bursting at the seams and yet I still felt as if I had nothing to wear. Now, I have developed my own sense of style which I know is completely unique - no one else will ever been seen walking down the street in the same outfit as me! - and the thought of choosing what to wear each day excites me. Choosing to make all my own clothes started as a challenge but it's so much more than that to me now, it's a way of life. 

So what happens now? Well, basically I intend to carry on the way I have started! For me this is just the beginning. A year of living the make-not-buy lifestyle has not only shown me that I CAN do this, but it also shown me how rewarding living in this way can be. This year I am going to take the foundation that I have created last year and add to it a little more structure. Hopefully this will improve my sewing productivity so that this time next year I will be proudly looking back over about twice as many projects, all still top quality of course :) 

All that remains for me to say is a huge thank you to all of you, my wonderful, beautiful readers, who have stopped by my blog and shown your support for the past year. I never thought I would have more than one regular reader and now here I am with 163 followers, it blows me away! Thank you so much for dropping by and hopefully I'll continue to give you something worth reading this year too!

This is going to be a good year for sewing, I can't wait to get started, but right now I think that my blogiversary deserves some blogiversary cake... :)