Finished Memory Dogs (and a bonus)

These are for family members on DH's side to remember his SIL who passed a few years ago.

Her daughter asked me to use two of her mum's embroidered sweatshirts to make 2 memory dogs, one for her sister and the other for her daughter. 

The green sweatshirt had a few bits of embroidery which wouldn't fit onto the tummy of the first dog, so the second dog has a butterfly on its tail and I also made a surprise gift for the requestor to remember her Mum.

There wasn't enough fabric remaining for another dog, but I did manage a hanging heart with a wording, a scrap of the original embroidery and a label from one of the sweatshirts.

She was pleased with the photos of the dogs, so I hope she's happy to get them at the weekend, and likes her bonus heart :-)

For construction I had two sewing machines both with a jersey needle, one with pink thread, the other with turquoise and constructed the dogs in parallel. The pattern is Kip the Keepsake Dog by Funky Friends Factory.

Wording was embroidered on my Janome Memory Craft 200E and then the pieces cut out afterwards.

The heart was self drafted. 

Burgundy 3/4 sleeve top

As I already had the machines threaded up in burgundy I cut into a remnant in a similar colour, though I did change the needle of the sewing machine to a stretch needle.

As the fabric was a weighty 100% cotton knit with no stretch I chose a simple boxy pattern - The Closet Core Tee - which is a free pattern.

I made the 3/4 sleeve version, in a length somewhere between the cropped and the longer length. Due to fabric limitations my 3/4 sleeves were not quite long enough so I drafted up some shaped cuffs to extend the sleeves.

Before I constructed the tee I embroidered a heart in contrast pink thread to add a bit of interest.

Emerald Green - ideas for bringing in a specific colour to your wardrobe - Part 4 : Add embroidery

Emerald Green - ideas for bringing in a specific colour to your wardrobe - Part 4 : Add embroidery

Butterfly Sweatshirt

Apparently the nineties are back. I still have some of my patterns from then, so thought I'd give this one a go. The pattern is dated 1992 and I probably bought it in the mid 90s when I first got an overlocker as it specifically says "Focus on Overlock (Serger) Sewing"

The fabric is a cream coloured french terry which has been in my stash for several years.

Pattern Description:
Sew News Pattern
Misses' unlined cardigan, vest, tunic and pants - for stretch knits only: very loose-fitting unlined cardigan or vest has dropped shoulder, shoulder pads and top-stitching details; very loose-fitting tunic, with collar of self or ribbed knit neckband, has , has dropped shoulders and optional shoulder pads; pull on pants have partially stitched front pleats, side seam pockets, foldback waistline casing with elastic and optional button-on self fabric stirrups.

Pattern Sizing:
Single sizes in X-Small to X-Large, my pattern is a Medium (14-16) which is the size I was in the 90s. These days I'm larger but the garment is so loose fitting it was fine!

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I made View C, shortened by 7" so it was high hip rather than tunic length.
As the fabric was rather plain I measured carefully and used my embroidery machine to add some embroidery to the front before construction. Afterwards I tore the interfacing away around the design to avoid it being too stiff on the front.

The embroidery design is intended to use different colours to this, but I replaced them with various shades of emerald, aqua and blue.

I plan to wear this with self sewn jeans and of course my emerald green trainers (sneakers).

Soft teal baby cord shirt

 Many years ago I bought a length of soft blue/grey/teal babycord with a section of beading and embroidery across it.

I think I'd intended to make a gathered skirt, but as I don't really wear them it stayed uncut in my stash.

It has now been turned into a shirt. To maximise the embroidered section I cut the front and back with the detail running near the hem, the sleeves, collar and cuffs are plain, though I did need to line the cuffs with a contrast scrap of paisley cotton from Auntie Joy's stash.

front

side

fabric details

cuff detail

back

For the pattern I used the Prima March 2020 shirtdress cut down to a shirt. It is a very economical pattern for short yardages.

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.

Embroidery 2

Tonight I wanted to try something a bit more grown up so did these teal flowers on the cuffs and one upper front of a stripe shirt I am going to make up for myself. I think I might add a few beads to the shirt body one.

I kept all the ambroidery in shades of teal in the hope that it would keep it from looking to cutesy, but still be enough to soften the slightly harsh lines of the stripe shirting.
I dare say we will see if this is the case when I make it up.

The teal flowers took ages, and compared to the small embroideries I did yesterday were fiddly to remove the excess stabiliser, and the thread kept unthreading and so on. So these took about an hour and three quarters I think.

Embroidery 1

I embroidered these which are a present for our niece. Must get them posted.
I bought plain items and added a little touch to make them a bit more fun.

I hope she likes the teapot, slice of cake and simple flower embroidery.