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.

Multi Shirt Completed

I finished and wore my multi fabric shirt before I took a photo, so apologies for the wrinkles.

It is great to wear with jeans to go to the pub!

A friend asked me if it was a CLAUDIO LUGLI shirt, which is a great compliment!

The pattern I used is from March 2020 Prima Magazine (a UK women's magazine).

I shortened the shirt dress pattern to be a shirt.

The fabrics used were all leftovers from other projects - the red paisley was mine, the blue with spots from Auntie A and the floral stripe from my mum.

I used white overlocker thread and white thread for the inner seams (as all the fabrics were printed on a white base). However for the visible stitching (topstitching, buttonholes, hem) I alternated between the red and blue to match the fabric. I lost count of how many times I changed the thread on the sewing machine during construction but it was definitely worth it for the final effect.