Tips For Crafting And Shopping More Sustainably In The New Year

It’s that time of year again when the pressure to plan out the next 12 months of your life and all your dreams and goals therein are thrust upon your shoulders.

If you’re like me and more than a tad overwhelmed by the thought of having to have it all figured out and announced to the world by the end of the first week of January, you’re in the right place.

Like many other creative people, I have a thousand creative ideas, and currently no plan for executing them all. But I want this new year to be filled with joy, and peace and lots and lots of color. So I thought I’d share my plans for making this year productive – but not overwhelming, and filled with any and all crafty projects I put my mind to.

Let’s jump into it!

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#1 Remove The Pressure

Before I fill your head with suggestions of how to properly organize your creative thoughts this year, let’s take a step back for a second and remove some of the pressure to “have it all together.”

Right now there are about a dozen “My sewing plans for the New Year” type videos floating across my YouTube feed. And I’ll admit, I do think they can be fun to watch occasionally. It’s kind of like sitting down with a crafty friend and having a little chat about your dreams and goals.

But there’s one issue I have with this premise – planning out your whole year (12 whole months!) in January.

Do you see any issues with this? Or is it just me?

For me, if I plan everything out in January (or at the end of December more likely), there will be no room for dreaming about future projects when something random pops up in June. I won’t have any space to jump on any trends if I find inspiration in it. And what if I get to April and just need a break from all the crazies in life and I end up not sewing at all for three months?

If I add documenting all of this to the list so I can share it with you, I’ll be pretty overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything. I better not catch a cold because I won’t have any time to waste.

Are you overwhelmed yet? Because I am!

Annnnnd…now I’m going to tell you to toss all that out the window.

Personally, I don’t even live by two, five or 10-year goals. Because realistically, plans change, and I don’t know where I’m going to be in five months.

So I propose you do the same with your creative goals for the year. Don’t box yourself in. Don’t figure it all out NOW. Leave room to breathe and grow and dream.

Okay, pep talk over. You can go on to the next section where I give you some cool tips (if I do say so myself) for crafting and shopping more sustainably this year (without all the added stress).

#2 Use Pinterest To Your Advantage

To get started on your sustainable shopping and creating journey, I really recommend leaning into the power of Pinterest.

Pros:

• Helps you visualize pieces that work for you
• Promotes creativity
• Helps you collect all your ideas in one location so you can come back to them again and again – which will keep you from shopping for pieces that don’t work for you if you stick to your board
• Super easy to update regularly

Cons:

• It can get out of hand – fast!
  • Ahem…at the beginning of last year, my Art Board had a whopping 1,236 pins in it… It was just so easy to keep adding all the pretty pretties to it!!
• I’ll probably think of more cons later and fill this out, but none come to mind at the moment and I felt like there should at least be two cons…

Art Ideas

In this board, you’ll want to add anything that catches your attention on Pinterest. Maybe a fun ruffle dress, an interesting puffy sleeve, a crochet pattern, or even a painting you’d like to recreate.

Have fun with this! You don’t have to fill it out all at once, just whenever you come across something that activates the creative part of your brain, save it in this board for a future project.

Outfit Ideas

Use this board to save any outfits you might want to try recreating.

I like to save pictures of:

• Ways I’d like to dress, but maybe don’t have some of the pieces for.
  • Maybe think of this as future thrifting inspo. It will be something you keep an eye out for when you are shopping, but since you already have a list, you can stick to it and not go overboard.
• Outfits with pieces similar to things already in my closet, which give me ideas for how to use what I have already instead of buying new.
  • Saving you all the $$$ when you shop your closet.
• Outfits I’m interested in that have similar clothing items to things already in my Art Board so I have ideas of how to wear those pieces if I decide to make them.

#3 Creative Board

What started as merely a doodle in my notebook soon turned into the tic-tac-toe board that motivated me to finish the year strong (even if I got a little lazy around July).

Last year I wrote a blog post about how to create a Creative Board, you can read it here. A Creative Board is something I made up when I was looking for some way to bring in the new year with some sewing goals, but not overwhelm myself by getting too specific. I wanted to grow, but not exhaust myself after an already exhausting year.

First, I drew a tic-tac-toe board, and then in each box I wrote down a way I wanted to grow creatively that year. It took me 7 seconds to draw, and a week and a half to figure out what goals I wanted to chase.

Looking back now, I’m really glad I created this. I think it was the perfect way to bust out some creative goals amid another crazy year.

Since following this last year – I’ve learned and grown from my experience and put together a Creative Board for you that you can get here. It comes all prepped and ready for you, with instructions and inspo! I’m a little biased, but I think it’s just the cutest thing!

The Creative Board is designed to help you map out your creative dreams and goals for the year ahead. It will encourage you to write down nine creative dreams or goals and aim to achieve three in a row.

#4 Build Your Own Sewing Collection

I’m really excited about this one!

This year I decided to make my own Sewing Collection. Not a collection to share and/or sell with the world. Just something for me. It’s giving me the space to dream and create a collection of pieces I need/want in my wardrobe.

I’ve already got a few pieces planned and I can’t wait to get started on them!

Here’s how I did it:

• I created a list of items a typical collection is made up of, a certain number of pieces, and specific clothing items.
• After that I went through my Pinterest Art Ideas board and Outfit Ideas board. I asked myself:
  • What do I want to make this year?
  • Will this piece bring me joy?
  • Will I – actually – wear this item?
  • Do I have inspo in my Oufit Ideas board for how I can style this piece?
  • And bonus, do I already have fabric/supplies/clothes to upcycle in my stash that I can use?
• If the item met all the criteria, I added it to my collection and started making plans for how and when I wanted to make these pieces.

By using my Sewing Collection template I’m able to make plans for pieces when inspiration hits, but also stop myself from going overboard. The template comes with a specific number of items, e.g. three dresses. Unless I already wear a lot of dresses in my day-to-day (I don’t) then I should stop myself from going overboard when making plans this year. If that changes and I start to wear dresses more regularly, then I’ll rethink my numbers next year!

Just because you (ahem – I) see all the pretty pieces on Pinterest (and have them all saved to my board), doesn’t mean you need to buy or create every piece. Use the Creative Board and Sewing Collection template to inspire your creativity and create sustainably. Make goals to create staple pieces in your wardrobe with quality fabrics, instead of purchasing everything brand new this year.

Working alongside your Pinterest boards can help you to create a dream wardrobe that you’ll not only love aesthetically but also wear regularly.

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Let me know what you thought about this post in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts and talk about some of your creative goals this year.

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