Felt Polar Bear hanging decoration

 

I made this felt polar bear hanging decoration from a Trimmits kit.

I pretty much followed the instructions except I used one of the pompoms as a tail instead of stitching them to the end of the scarf.

The instructions are quite vague but perhaps that is to cover the different ways people might want to make up the kit. I decided to sew everything, using my own red and pink thread for the scarf and cheek.

But someone could just use the blunt plastic needle to do a running stitch round the edge through the large holes, draw the face on with a pen or pencil, glue the other bits on and call it done.

I have traced round all the pieces and kept the instructions so if I want to make my own version from felt I can.

Sparkles

Inspired by the lighting at a recent concert by Icelandic band Sigur Rós I decided to make a shirt from black babycord with embroidery and sequins. 

I used some plain black baby cord for the under collar, collar stand and lower back, but was able to get the other pieces out of the 1.2 metres of embellished fabric.

To echo the embroidery and sequin embellishment I chose these amber coloured buttons I bought some years ago from Bonds of Farsley (closed in 2019) and stitched them on with some lovely Ruby coloured Sylko40 thread.

The pattern I used was one I have used before several times, the shirtdress pattern from March 2020 Prima Magazine (a UK women's magazine) shortened to be a long shirt.

The only change I made was to cut the upper back from the embellished fabric, and the lower back from plain black fabric.

Black stretch jeans

These are the Mountain View jeans from Itch to Stitch. I made the alterations I needed to the pattern paper on my last pair so I was able to just cut and sew these ones.

The fabric is a thin black stretch denim from my 'Resource Centre'. I used silver grey thread for the topstitching bar tacks and embroidery on the back pockets. 

The front pockets are cut from some fabric I had from AuntieJ's stash which seemed to work well for these jeans.

Once I'd cut out the main pattern pieces, I interfaced the back of some of the offcuts and did a snowflake embroidery (downloaded for free from Kreative Kiwi)

I added silver star shaped sequins round the edges of the embroidery secured with a silvery seed bead. In the centre I put a round sequin again secured by a seed bead. Time and wear will show if the star shaped sequins catch on things or are alright.

Here I'm wearing them with the grey Style Arc Molly top I made in 2020

Christmas Party Top

 Here's my red lace top, which I plan to wear for various Christmas events.

I started with my normal New Look 6735 knit top pattern but did a high round back alteration and brought the neckline in and up a bit as I wasn't going to be adding a neckband. I cut the lace front and back out first so I could have a whole number of scallops, then cut the same out of the jersey lining. The sleeves are just lace.

I sewed the lining back and shoulder seams and the same for the lace. I only put ribbon shoulder seam stays in the lining. (I stitch on the sewing machine and then overlock.)

Then I put right side to wrong side and sewed the neck seam, adding some elastic to stop things sagging.
I then used machine basting to secure the lace to the lining at the shoulder seams and all the sides.

I inserted the sleeves flat and topstitched the finished seam to the body so it doesn't show through the lace sleeve.
Then I sewed up the sleeve and side seam in one go. I threaded the tails of the overlocking back into the seam with a large eyed needle and knotted.

This sort of top seems to be fairly widely available, but I like the quality and fit of mine!