Winter Laundry Day Tee

I liked the fabric I used to sew my cardigan last year so I reordered some in a fuchsia color for a top. It is a Hatchi sweater knit by Telio I ordered from Amazon. The fabric is a lightweight polyester/rayon/spandex blend with beautiful color variations that reminds me of hand dyed yarn.

Because this was my first time making a sleeved version of the Laundry Day Tee by Love Notions, I had to print out the pattern again. I used a glue stick to put it together instead of tape, and like this new-to-me method.

I set up a long folding table in the living room to cut fabric. My napping dog in the background was too cute to leave out of the shot.

I printed out the medium and large sizes, and then cut out size large. I cut the smaller bottom width of the dress version. It can be confusing if you only print out the top length to see multiple cutting lines for each size, but you can use these lines to choose the desired “swing” amount.

I wanted my top to have 3/4 sleeves. The 3/4 length sleeve pattern would be full length on me, so I had to shorten them several inches. I was shocked that the sleeves are cut on the fold! I have never seen a sleeve pattern like that. I’m used to cutting mirror images with two notches signifying the back. The human front and back armhole is different so in the future I would find another pattern and draw new sleeves because I think that is needed to make them hang straighter and fit better.

I sewed it on my regular machine with a zigzag stitch, serged the seams, and hemmed with a zigzag stitch. I don’t like the ridge known as tunneling when hemming with a twin needle so I don’t bother anymore.

I wanted a modified cowl neckline. I cut a much narrower piece to fold in half, and then fold over at the neckline. I took a photo from the TV of a neckline I liked as my inspiration, and tried to copy it.

I love the completed top! It’s just what I envisioned, and I love the fabric, fit, and color.

I was sewing the top on a very hot Superbowl weekend in February, then it got very cold with a wind chill, so I’m hoping for more “just right” weather to wear it.

Embroidery 2021

Last year I embroidered two cross stitch pieces, and two embroidered designs from kits.

I already showed you the California and New York state pieces in this post: Little State Samplers Cross Stitch. I didn’t want to just store them in a drawer for years, so I set about to frame them myself.

I bought two 5 x 7 mounting boards, marked the pieces, and used a pretty tape.

The finished samplers in their dollar frames:

Not bad.

I received this Hawthorne botanical themed embroidery kit as a gift.

It contained an insert with illustrations of many stitches. I enjoyed the variety of stitches used to complete this design. My favorite was the fly stitch for the feathery leaf. I added some additional colors for interest. I have two shoebox size plastic bins of floss to choose from.

Why use a kit? The hardest part of creating free form embroidery is getting started and transferring a design; with a kit it is more likely that a design will be actually stitched.

For taking part in an Instagram sewing challenge, I won a voucher to Rocco-Sienna’s embroidery shop.

I chose a cute little alpaca (or llama) design, and a little scissor set, which is not part of the embroidery kit.

I hesitated on choosing this one because I thought I would get tired of embroidering so many French knots, but I enjoyed making them.

Both of these kits came with hoops. I always consider making something out of embroidered pieces like a little pillow or ornament as an alternative but these remain hooped.