It’s something you hear all the time, but I definitely can’t believe 2019 is almost over!
I did a lot of sewing for the blog and my YouTube, but I did manage to sew some other things for myself. And can I say I totally needed 2 like yesterday!
Liberty henley with pearl snaps
It seems I’m always needing more long sleeve t-shirts come cooler weather. This has been an odd year in that we’ve had some serious snow in Fall. So all those long sleeve tees that I wear under my sweaters, dresses and everything else seriously need replacing.
I got brave and finally cut into my Liberty of London jersey that I bought a couple years ago. I made a simple long sleeve Jalie 2805 tee, but I added a henley placket with some pearl snaps.
If you’ve never tried pearl snaps, they are a treat, and I love them for henleys. You just hammer them into place, they add a little color, and using them means you don’t have to do buttonholes on jersey.
I bought mine in bulk from SnapSource. If you ever find vintage Ginger Snaps, they’re another choice.
More of these tees are definitely on the docket. I’ve been wearing this one non-stop. I even found it’s a good pair with both versions of this chevron sweater.
Jalie 2908 jeans with a flare
Funny/sad story. I bought the Megan Nielsen Dawn jeans and then I guess I forgot to download it and then couldn’t find it at all in my email. This periodically happens to me with PDF patterns. It’s obnoxious and I clearly need to do better.
Then I started thinking–why did I buy that pattern in the first place? Because of the flare leg.
Because I always believe in working with what you have, I just added some flare to the boot cut leg on Jalie 2908. I’ve made this pattern several times before, so it was an easy easy hack. This version with the buttoned up sides are probably my favorite.
These are a little bit looser than I’d like which I’ll chalk up to the stretch on the denim. I could’ve fussed the fit, but in the end, I can layer them up with thermal tights and they’re jeans that I needed.
It turns out you can’t go through life entirely in stretchy pants. #thingsivelearned
I’ll be making this version with the flare for Fabric Mart this month in corduroy with a twist I’m not talking about. I’m really jazzed for this project!
Toaster sweater deconstruction + tinsel = ugly sweater turned up to 11
Last year’s pompom ugly sweater was too fun of a project for me not to do something equally fun. I was asked to host an Ugly Sweater challenge inside of Sew Much Talent this month, so I had to bring my A-game!
I started with a base of this green Toaster sweater. It had lived its life as a sweater, and rather than toss it, I decided that it would be my ugly sweater victim blank canvas.
First I added a separating zipper up center front. That’s actually the only sewing on this project.
Next I spray painted tinsel. Why be gold when you can be aqua, am I right?
72 feet of tinsel, 2 cans of spray paint, and a whole lotta glue gunning later, and I end up with this. There’s some extra jingle bells and other little embellishments too. It’s way over the top, and I have no idea how I’ll top it next year!
So that’s what I’ve been up to around here with my own sewing. What’s been on your sewing table this last month?
More of my makes:
Elizabeth Farr is the writer behind the Elizabeth Made This blog where she shares helpful sewing tips, step by step sewing tutorials and videos to help you explore your creativity through sewing. She has written sewing Eguides and patterns, been a featured teacher at Rebecca Page’s Sewing Summit and Jennifer Maker’s Holiday Maker Fest and her work has appeared in Seamwork and Altered Couture magazines. She also created a line of refashioned garments for SEWN Denver. When her sewing machine isn’t humming, she’s playing and teaching violin, and hanging around a good strategic board game with her husband and 4 kids.
I LOVE this sweater! It reminds me of those flocked Christmas trees that were popular when I was a kid.
I was looking at my Megan Nielsen account to see if I could download my patterns from there so I could tell you that and I discovered that I accidentally purchased the Karri dress pattern twice (and STILL haven’t made it!) BTW, you totally can download the patterns from your account. You have to click on the order number to get to the download link for what you purchased in that transaction. Also, I used “megan nielsen order confirmed” to find my download links in my email. Hopefully you can “find” the pattern. I know I buy many patterns that I end up not making, but it would still bug me too much to not actually have a pattern that I bought.
Flocked Christmas trees are awesome!! Ugh, I’ll have to do some more investigating with that patterns. I noticed that they did have an account sign in too. Somewhere in one of my email accounts is the right info–I should totally know better, LOL! Here’s to making up those patterns we’ve not got around to!
Honestly, I can picture this sweater hanging in Anthropologie for $$$.
Aw thank you!