Since the first week of 2017 is coming to an end, I thought it was high time I took a look at how I did resolution-wise last year. I decided to cut myself some slack and instead of ticking things off the list, or not, I gave myself a score judging how far I’ve gotten on the path of completion. 😉
1. Make a Little French Jacket – 10%
In 2015 I managed to get to the stage where I ordered my first 20 samples from Linton Tweed. In 2016 I got another 40 of them, got super confused and decided to just chill out and make a guitar case (pictured unfinished below) from all those samples.
I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out whether I should go with a goes-with-everything-little-black-jacket or something fun and colorful. I then ended up buying 3 meters of some really interesting looking, white-blue fabric from Linton for less than half the original price.
Now, of course, I can’t see the logic behind this move and I’m thinking that on the long run it would be worth buying the black fabric that I really want, if I’m gonna spend 80 hours making it. I have already spent about 4 hours on the toile alone and I haven’t even started the fitting, so that number does seem to be realistic!
2. Try lingerie making – 100%
I really wanted to try making my own lingerie for a while, but I didn’t think I needed to take classes to learn how to. However, when I found out that the pattern cutting class at Morley that I was about to sign up for wasn’t going to go ahead, I sort of panicked and enrolled for a bra making class instead.
Best. Decision. Ever. Carol, our teacher, used to work for brands like Coco de Mer and Agent Provocateur, so I knew I was going to learn from someone with a similar taste, but I had no idea how fun she was! And so were my class mates.
Long story short, I have almost finished a wearable muslin and I finished a bra made of some vintage lace. I think it turned out great (I’ll show you soon), it’s my best fitting bra ever, and I’m already working on the next one! 🙂
3. Continue learning French – 61%
Resolution: Reach level 52 on Memrise by the end of the year.
Result: Reached level 32. Way to go, but the real achievement here is not giving up on it! 😉
4. Watch a play once a month – 100%
This brought me so much joy last year! I bought a “passport” to one of my favourite Off West End theatres, so I watched half of the plays there on my own, and caught the rest in theatres all around London, sometimes with friends joining me.
The best show was definitely Yerma at the Young Vic (probably one of the best plays I have ever seen tbh), and apart from 2, I have enjoyed all of them. 8 out of the 12 plays had the same theme, which says a lot about the whole year I think: terrorism and the refugee crisis. (You can read a brief description of the plays by clicking on the images below if you’re interested.)
NINE LIVES – ARCOLA THEATRE ‘Some of us wanted to belong.’ Ishmael has fled from his home in Zimbabwe, where a fresh wave of homophobia threatens his life. In Leeds is the prospect of sanctuary, and of a new life among strangers. But will those strangers accept him? The clock is ticking, and his fate is being decided… can Ishmael find a place to call home again? Following an acclaimed debut at West Yorkshire Playhouse and a national tour, Nine Livesreceives its London premiere at Arcola. This gripping new play from Zodwa Nyoni (Channel 4 Writer in Residence 2014) threads together humour and humanity to tell the real personal story behind asylum headlines. Former West Yorkshire Playhouse Associate Director Alex Chisholm directs Lladel Bryant, UK Young Citizen of the Year in 2006 and the co-founder of Chicken Shop Shakespeare.
http://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/nine-lives/2016-01-06/ 
A Steady Rain – ARCOLA THEATRE Joey and Denny have been best friends since kindergarten. Joey helps out with Denny’s wife and kids; Denny keeps Joey away from the bottle. Now they’re cops in downtown Chicago, crime is a fact of life. But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, it brings about a change in the weather… A Steady Rain, from House of Cards and Mad Men writer Keith Huff, is a heart-stopping drama about a lifelong bond on the line. Since its 2009 Broadway debut, starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, the play has won major plaudits and has been earmarked by Stephen Spielberg for a film adaptation. Don’t miss the London premiere at Arcola, starring Vincent Regan (300, Troy, Clash of the Titans) and David Schaal (The Office, The Inbetweeners).
http://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/a-steady-rain/2016-02-09/ 
If I were Me – SOHO THEATRE It’s spring. The world is in bloom. Phillip tends to his dying potted daffodil. A copywriter at an advertising agency, fading into the background of a pale office wall, he rearranges words until they work. But life isn’t so easily edited. Phillip doesn’t want to be Phillip. But what if he never really has been? What if Phillip is yet to become Phillip? And then there’s Person, who isn’t anybody…yet Previous IdeasTap Underbelly Award winners ANTLER present If I Were Me, a playfully surreal portrayal of the performance of identity. Winner of the Pulse Suitcase Prize 2014 Running Time: 75 mins
http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/if-i-were-me 
Love, Bombs and Apples – ARCOLA THEATRE Love, Bombs & Apples is the hilarious and poignant new play from award-winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak (Baghdad Wedding, The Prophet) – a tale of four men, each from different parts of the globe, all experiencing a moment of revelation. A Palestinian actor learns there is more to English girls than pure sex appeal. A Pakistani-born terror suspect figures out what is wrong with his first novel. A British youth suspects all is not what it seems with his object of desire. A New Yorker asks his girlfriend for a sexual favour at the worst possible time. Following a sold-out first run at Arcola last year, Asif Khan returns to play all four roles.
http://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/love-bombs-apples/ 
Cargo – ARCOLA THEATRE “Goods get damaged all the time. Wouldn’t want to spoil the cargo, now, would we?” This timely world premiere is a tense and provocative thriller that reveals how much people are willing to risk in search of a better life. In the dark of a container ship, a group sits huddled. Waves lap against the walls. The metal creaks softly. Then, all of a sudden, somebody whispers… For the cargo on this vessel, home is a long-distant memory – and a new land still many miles away. Will they survive the perilous journey to find a better future? Or could the greatest threat to their safety be locked amongst them? Cargo is the enthralling new play from author and playwright Tess Berry-Hart (Someone to Blame, Sochi 2014). Directed by Evening Standard Award nominee David Mercatali (Little Light, Radiant Vermin, Johnny Got His Gun).
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/cargo/ 
Yerma – YOUNG VIC Billie Piper plays Yerma, a woman driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child. Simon Stone creates a radical new production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece. The enfant terrible of young Australian theatre, this is Stone’s first original work in the UK. His hugely successful The Wild Duck was at the Barbican in 2014.
http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/yerma 
A Man of Good Hope – YOUNG VIC The true story of one refugee’s epic quest across Africa, brought to life with music from the world-renowned Isango Ensemble. Asad is a young Somali refugee with a painful past, miraculously good luck and a brilliant head for business. After years in a refugee camp and then learning to hustle in the streets of Ethiopia, he sets off for the promised land of South Africa. But when he arrives, he discovers the violent reality of life in the townships – and his adventures really begin. The critically-acclaimed South African Isango Ensemble return to the Young Vic after the Olivier Award-winning The Magic Flute. This adaptation of Jonny Steinberg’s riveting book is told through roof-lifting songs and dance accompanied on the marimba. A collaboration with the Royal Opera House.
http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/a-man-of-good-hope?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MKT2016-AMOGHpre-show&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=2579 
I Call My Brothers – GATE THEATRE A car has exploded. A city is now crippled by fear. Amor walks the streets, doing his best to blend in. For twenty-four, intense hours we walk with him, as the lines between criminal and victim, fantasy and reality become blurred. What do you do, walking around your own city the day after a terrorist attack, when everyone thinks you look like a terrorist? I Call My Brothers is a funny, frenzied look at our prejudices toward other people. Directed by Tinuke Craig (dirty butterfly, Young Vic) in her Gate Theatre de
http://www.gatetheatre.co.uk/events/all-productions/i_call_my_brothers
Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
5. Knit a jumper! – 100%
I’ve done it!!! 3 years after learning how to knit I have finally finished something I could actually wear! I will take some photos of it soon, but in the meantime I might try to improve it a little (boring neckline + bulky arms).
6. Make a quilt. – 99%
Done. 99% means that some threads need to be tied and the binding needs to be finished by hand on 2 sides. It was a Christmas gift to the wonderful guy who makes me not want to spend all my waking hours sewing, because he really needed one.
7. Finish the UFOs. 0%
Did not even touch them, just created more…
8. Drink more water! 50%?
Since I did not come up with a tracking system I have no clue, but to be super honest I don’t think I did very well.
I have now compiled a list of resolutions for 2017 too, as I really like having a plan for the year ahead, but there are a number of factors that could change how my year pans out, so I’ll hang onto them for a little while…
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