Last January, when HSF ’13 started, I began saving spools.  Every time I finished a spool of thread I tucked it in a bag in one of my drawers.  At the end of the year, my bag, and my drawer, were full. I find looking at it a good way of assessing my year.  Sure, I made all this stuff, but it’s a bit abstract even in my own mind.  But those threads, I used em up! I’m measuring my year in thread So how much did I sew?  Did I sew an inch of thread for every minute? There are 525949  minutes (not, as Rent would have us believe, 525,600) in a year. 525949 inches =  14609.7 yards 14609.7 yards =  13359.1 metres. The average spool of thread has 150 metres of thread on it. 13359.1 divided by 150 = 89. There are 76 spools of thread in my bag ‘o finishes spools.  Now, some of them would have been part finished before the year started, but at least 10 of them are 500 …

Last year I posted the HSF Challenge themes 8 challenges ahead: so that people had a bit of time to plan, but couldn’t see the whole year at one go. This year I said I’d post all the challenges for the entire year in January.  Good to my word, here they are! Planning all the challenges so far in advance was really scary though.  Last year I had an idea of what each challenge would be, but could rearrange and adjust them based on feedback from the participants and the mood of the group.  This time, they are locked in!  We’ll see how it goes! #1: Make Do & Mend  —  due Wed 15 Jan.  Let’s start of the year with a clean slate, and with a bit of a tidy up.  Use this challenge as an opportunity to get your historical wardrobe in order by fixing any little bits that have worn out and gone wrong.  Alternatively, you could focus on the  historical precedent of making-do by re-making something into a historical garments, whether …

Woohoo!  HSF ’13 is DONE!  We made it! So many beautiful creations came out of this year.  Some owe their existence entirely to the HSF, some we would have made anyway, but the HSF allowed more people to see and enjoy them.  I’m so proud of myself, and so very, very inspired by all of you! As the year has passed I’ve been sharing my favourites for each challenge in sets of 5.  I shared my favourites for  Challenges 1-5 here, and for  Challenges 6-10 here, and for  Challenges 11-15 here, and    for Challenges 16-20 here.  You can see  all  the creations for each challenge either through the comments for each individual challenge page,  or through the  Facebook group albums). My favourites are the ones that most inspire me as a seamstress, and best reflect the goals of the HSF: to keep creating, and to push ourselves as sewers and historians, no matter what level we are starting from.  There are always too many to pick as favourites, so check out the full albums …