Sewing catch-up

I thought I had a month’s worth of projects to share, but looking back, I have two. I sewed a large variety of things in November and December, so this may be lengthy.

First, here are the new tops I sewed for myself. The two raglans with black sleeves are modified Lane Raglans from Hey June Patterns. The multi colored front is the Carolina Tee by Shwin Designs. The blue sweater is the Jasper Sweater from Paprika Patterns.

I made the raglans out of double brushed poly and they are very soft. I modified the pattern to make them more swingy. The scales fabric is custom fabric from Smoogie Fabrics. The pink rose fabric is from Cali Fabrics. I was not happy with the Carolina Tee. I’ve made it before, but I started from scratch with my modifications, and it’s still too broad across the shoulder and too snug at the waist for me to wear it comfortably. That made me sad because I love the fabric (also from Smoogie). The blue Jasper sweater is a new pattern for me that I’ve owned forever but haven’t made. I love how it turned out, and the patterned french terry is so snuggly. I won that fabric from Sew Big Fabrics.

I made some more hats for Delaware Head Huggers (handmade hats for chemo patients). After this batch I ended up taking a break. I need to get back to making these, especially as I already have a bunch cut out.

Next are some different Christmas projects and crafts I made. I needed a project to do with the teenage girls at church, and I found these button ornament ideas on Pinterest. The first row were my example ones. My kids loved making them too! Because we went on a trip to see my sister the week before Christmas, we didn’t have time to make cookies or treats, but we wanted to give our neighbors something when we went caroling. I made them each a button ornament. I also needed a new tree skirt and made this one out of various colors of jacquard that I use for stockings. I never ended up with a good picture of it in use, but I chose colors that matched the ornaments we bought. Lastly, I made two different types of embroidered shadowboxes. One was in a shadowbox frame, the other was two hoops glued together. These were for two different birthday gifts for family members. I love them and hopefully next year can make some for myself! The embroidery files can be found here and here.

I made my daughter a super cute pullover from the Love Notions Navigator pattern. I used teal super plush fabric (awesome stuff, just pricey with shipping costs) from So Sew English fabrics, and the unicorn fabric is from Peek-a-boo Fabric Shop.

I made three stuffed animals for my nieces and nephew for Christmas gifts. Both the cat and bunny are patterns from Ribizli Design. They ended up cute and a little quirky. My youngest daughter desperately wanted one too, and my baby seemed really interested in them, so I ended up making two more. After all that work, the baby doesn’t care about his and my daughter (hers ended up looking more like a pig than a cat) hasn’t played with hers at all, but we’ll see, maybe they’ll love them later?

Much of my time in November and December was taken up with sewing stockings. I took last year off because I had an infant, but he’s a year older now and I felt more ready to take on a bunch of custom orders now that I have three of my kids in school all day (and the baby still takes two naps!). First up is two special stocking projects. My mom and Grandma are serving a church mission together in Arizona and I wanted them to have a taste of Christmas without giving them a bunch of extra stuff. I made them each a stocking made from my Yuletide Stocking in the X-Small size. They were thrilled! Second, my brother and his wife asked me to make them three custom stockings. They asked for the X-Large size! The difference in size between these two projects is kind of funny. Even though I decided to not sell velvet stockings this year (too much of a headache), I agreed to make them in velvet for my brother. I love the finished result. And I decided velvet isn’t too bad, so next holiday season I plan on offering a selection of velvet stockings again.

And here are some more custom orders I had this year.

I had a really great holiday season, and I hope you did too! I’m ready for 2019 and exploring new things in my business and having lots of fun in my sewing room! If you’re interested in seeing my sewing projects as I finish them, I post all my sewing projects, both business and personal, on my Instagram as well.