A Zip Up Hoodie

The first project I want to show you is the latest pattern from Itch to Stitch. The Nazare Zip-Up Hoodie has become a closet staple for me so quickly. Before starting this one, I noticed I had lots of pullover style sweatshirts and cardigans in my closet but only a few zip ups!

The detail that instantly stood out to me on the Nazare is the seam lines on the bust for shaping and style. They bring some nice interest, are great for colorblocking, and also mean the pattern has the option for a regular bust or a full bust (those with a larger difference between their full and upper busts). The front has nice big pockets, the sleeves have cuffs, and the bottom band has a cuff.

Aren’t the details of the pocket and front seams so great! I also love that the bands are not stretched to fit the opening so there is not this poof of gathering above them or a tight fit. I also love that the bands don’t require ribbing because I don’t have a matching color of ribbing for so many of my french terries and fleece fabrics (more on that later).

Another fun part of the Nazare pattern is how pretty the insides are! The pattern actually calls for twill tape to finish the zipper and hood seams, but I only had white twill tape on hand. So, I pivoted and used some quilting cotton that doesn’t stand out too much against my main fabric. I cut my strip of quilting cotton 1 and 1/8 inches wide out of scraps.

I chose my size based on my full bust measurement and graded out for my hips that were one size larger. After making it, I am unsure the grading for the hips was necessary because it hits right above my full hip and is not a snug fit there.

The hood is not optional and does not have a drawstring. If you feel the need for one, though, I would add a buttonhole where I want the drawstring to come out and then before adding the hood, I would sew a line of stitching around the hood opening to encase it.

I love the way it fits and wished I had enough time in my day to make a dozen. I already started on a grey fleece one and hopefully will finish it soon. 

The red fabric I used is a cotton spandex french terry from Made Whimsy. My zipper is from Wawak.

Leggings and a Sports Bra

Next up is a new pair of Cavallo leggings and an Embrace Sports bra. I did an Embrace bra sew along a year ago and since have made so many more of these bras! 

During the sew along, I stuck to the pattern as written, and since then, I have had the freedom to sew the bra just the way I want. So, I don’t use binding on the neckline and don’t use the colorblocking piece included in the pattern for the front (because it is one extra seam I don’t need to show through my shirts!). To finish the neckline, I sew it the same exact way the Power Sports bra is sewn. This means that I put clear elastic in the seam and then sew it inside out through the shoulders.

I sew the racerback option the most because it works well for support when working out, but the pattern also includes a u-back option and a layered back option (where you layer the u-back and racerback for the ultimate support!).

And now the pants…

The Cavallo Leggings have no inseam and huge, wonderful pockets. The waist is HIGH (which I LOVE). I chose the lower of the two rise options available in the pattern. These have been the perfect winter running pants for me!

For the stitching, I chose a gold thread. I think it is a nice subtle contrast to this gorgeous print.

Speaking of gorgeous print – this one is from the Alcohol Ink round at The Styled Magnolia. It is offered on multiple bases, and of course, I chose my favorite – Athletic Brushed Poly. It is truly my all-time favorite base for workouts and for everyday life. It feels so good to the touch and to wear. You can find this particular print here or look at all the other ones in this collection here. The round is open through the end of this month!

Two Long-Sleeved Tops

Next up are two tops for layering. Since our winters are all over the place with how cold it really is on a given day, I made a lightweight T shirt and a thicker sweater for layering. 

For the T-shirt, I used the FREE Green Tee pattern from Greenstyle (the code to get it for free is found in their Facebook group). How do I not have a dozen of these in my closet!! I always forget what an absolute treasure this pattern is. If you need an easy knit T-shirt pattern, download this one. It also has a V-neck option.

I used bamboo lycra from The Fabric Fairy for fabric. Isn’t it such a pretty shade of pink? Well, sadly, this color is no longer in stock! If you still need a good T-shirt fabric, they have plenty of other colors. 

Next, I made a Cambria sweater from Greenstyle. This is a similar knit pattern but has multiple options for the sleeves and hem as well as a mock neck option for the neckline. 

I made the bishop style sleeves (the ones with the poof at the bottom).

The fun thing about this sweater is that I have MATCHING rib knit for the french terry. And, it is super luxe! The fabric is from Greenstyle and they have an entire assortment of matching french terries and rib knits. I also got pink and plan to make a zip up out of it. They are all on sale this month too!

A Slouchy Sweater

The last thing I made for 2022 was a slouchy sweater. This fabric is a squishy thick sweater knit from Minerva. 

The pattern is the Besharl Jacket from Style Arc. Their patterns are not very beginner friendly. The instructions are very sparse and to the point, but this one proved to be really easy to put together with just a few steps. 

I love the oversized look of it and have kept it on the back of a chair to throw over any outfit when I get chilled while working from home.

You can read more about this one on my posts on the Minerva page here and here.

That’s all for now! I have a project pile that is HUGE. I don’t think it ever really goes down because I tend to think of sewing projects quicker than I can actually sew. (The same goes for buying fabric, although I have been better at that lately!)

I hope I have inspired you in today’s post!  I would love to stay connected with you. You can find me on Instagram. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE. If you want to take a look into the things that inspire me, you can follow me on Pinterest. You may also follow my blog with Bloglovin. 

If you want to support my creative endeavors, you can buy me a coffee HERE.

Disclosures

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate your support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.

The Pattern

The pattern that I used for our bottoms is the Greenstyle Lounge Pants. It is a unisex sewing pattern that includes kid sizes 3-14 (which includes hips measuring 22-34 inches) and adult sizes B-M (which includes hips measuring from 32-62 inches). The pattern is drafted for woven fabrics such as flannel, quilting cotton, lawn, voile, silk, rayon, etc.

The pattern has a wide straight leg option like a traditional pajama pant or a slimmer jogger style leg option. The jogger style can be finished with a knit cuff or with an elastic casing.

The straight leg traditional pajama has multiple lengths of shorts as well as long pants. These are the shortest short options.

More importantly. Yes, it has pockets!

The pattern includes 2 rises. My blue/green jogger style pair is the higher rise. It hits at my natural waist.

The shorts I made are the midrise.

The kids pattern has only one rise option. My daughter found it roomy, which I loved because that means it will fit her for longer.

The red top that she is wearing is a Lee Raglan that I made her out of cotton lycra. It is one of my go-to staple quick knit patterns for my kids.

Back to the pants, the most important part of these pajamas is the ability to LOUNGE in them. With a woven, you need extra ease to sit, relax, and cuddle up without feeling restricted or like your pants are digging into you.

I had lots of fun taking photos of me sitting down. I really don’t do that often enough, but it’s especially important when the purpose of a garment is to relax.

I recently got the Magnolia Table at the library, and it has some great recipes!

My oldest daughter made the silk pie a few days after these photos. It was SO YUM!

At the beginning of this post I also said we would talk about these things such as relaxing, grace, hope, and kindness, so we will dive into the non-sewing part next. Before we do that, here are some resources that I used for all the handmade garments in this post.

Resources

1. Greenstyle Lounge pants pattern is FREE with any $15 purchase for the month of December. You can also get it on sale for $6 without any minimum purchase.
2. The blue/green fabric is a quilting cotton designed by Amy Butler. The fabric collection is Cameo, and this particular print is Angelica.
3. The shorts fabric is Liberty of London Tana Lawn.
4. My daughter’s pants are made from Hello Kitty flannel from Joanns. I had no recollection of buying it and the selvage says 2013!
5. My daughters top is the Made for Mermaids Lee raglan.
6. My top is a P4P pumpkin spice dolman top I made several years ago out of sweater knit.

Disclosures

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.

Relaxing

Relaxing is hard for me. I think I have a mindset that I have to constantly be doing something or staying up late to finish everything. During the holidays, I ON PURPOSE tell myself that this is the time I want to take in every moment and allow my body to just refuel, reset, rest and be ready for a new year. 2020 was not what any of us expected, but that does not mean I am going to lose hope for the year we have ahead.

Part of allowing myself to relax/rest is NOT making a to do list, stopping to read that book on my night stand, taking that long walk to the park with my kids, making a cup of tea and watching a movie with my family, or just DOING nothing and catching up on sewing blogs. <wink> As a sewing blogger, it is nice to make things that I have no intentions of posting on the internet or blogging about. I think it is healthy to have breaks!

Grace

Give grace to yourself and to those you come in contact with. Grace to me means undeserved good things. I see it like when someone doesn’t have to do something for you that you by no means earned, but they do it anyways.  Parents are often graceful to their children (I say often because that is not always the case. I have one parent who is like this to me and another who I am estranged from.)

I give grace to myself by making sure I spend each day doing something that brings me joy and not focusing on the things that I can’t change.

You give grace to others when you don’t automatically assume the worst of people who make mistakes. Such as when you want to cuss that person out who really does deserve it, but you scroll on anyways, or if you do comment, you say something nice. How different our (internet) world would be if we had more people who showed grace!!

I started this blogpost with saying that I intended to make pajamas for my whole family. Maybe I will knock out one more pair for another one of my kids before Christmas. Maybe not, and that is OK! I hope if you are feeling the stress of the season that you also give grace to yourself and celebrate what you have finished and where you are.

Hope and Kindness

I think hope and kindness have been hard this year. Hope has been hard because our world is so different than anything we have learned to live in. Kindness has been hard, and I am not sure why. I see fighting everywhere I look online. I want to leave you with one thought today, and this is one that I (try to) think anytime I feel discouraged.  “As long as I have breath, I have hope.” as well as “I have the ability to choose how I treat you, and not how you treat me.”

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading!

XO

Sharon

The Evergreen Tee

The Greenstyle Evergreen tee is a standard tee shirt without feminine shaping. It is a straight cut like a standard t shirt. If you are looking for a feminine and shapely tee, check out the Greenstyle Green tee (which is also free)

The Evergreen is a great canvas to put all the HTV. My friend Aimee applied this one the last time we had a crafting day together. You can find the cut file for free HERE.

The pattern includes short and long sleeves as well as crew and v neck.

The pattern is drafted for 5’10” and is very easy to add length to since the side seams are straight. I added 1.5 inches at the bottom. My husband is 5’11” and every shirt that fits his shoulders and chest correctly is just too short. He is always frustrated when he finds the “perfect” shirt, and then sees how short it fits him. He is incredibly happy to have shirts that he can lift his arms in without showing off his stomach!!

I like the sleeve fit of the long sleeve. It is just fitted enough that he can push his sleeves up and they “stick to” his forearm.

I made him a size large based on his measurement. That is the same size he also fits in the Men’s Hudson Raglan and Muscle Up tank I have made him from Greenstyle, and it is also the size he wears in store bought shirts.

For fabric, I used cotton lycra from Made Whimsy for the white t shirt. I used the white from her dream solid collection, which is super soft. It reminds me of the higher quality t shirt fabrics that I love from Abercrombie and a few other stores, except this one has stretch.

For his blue shirt, I used a fabric that I found in my stash that is 100% cotton and has only two way 50% horizontal stretch.

You can see that even though I used the same pattern, the blue one isn’t as long because the fabric does not have vertical stretch.

My husband is wearing some of his favorite Iron Joggers* that I made him in these photos! It makes my heart so happy to see how much he wears them!

Ellie and Mac Kids Joggers

I also recently did a pattern test for the Ellie and Mac kids joggers* for my youngest daughter. I ended up making three pairs of joggers! I think if I had more time on my hands I would have made her a dozen! I took photos of two of the pairs, and love the fit on these!

She has discovered that she loves clothing with pockets, or as she says it “poppets.”

She is also learning all the poses required for testing to show the full garment – front, side, and back!

I used all cotton lycra on her pants, but they could also have been made in a french terry or any fabric with at least 50% stretch.

I made the relaxed version in the pattern. A slimmer version is also included as well as color blocking options.

She is not as chunky as other 2 year olds but just as tall so I made the 12-18 month width and the 18-24 month height for her.

Resources

You can find the kids joggers pattern here. In order to get the men’s tee for free, you need to join the Greenstyle Facebook group or follow on Instagram. On Facebook, the Free code is in the announcement section. On Instagram, it is in the bio.

Thanks for stopping by today! I would love to stay connected with you. Find me on Instagram! If you want to take a look into the things that inspire me, you can follow me on Pinterest. You may also follow my blog with Bloglovin.

*Disclosures

I received both patterns for free as part of the testing process so that I could give the designer feedback about the pattern. Also, this post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.

XO

Happy December friends!! It is the last month of this decade, and I have such a sense of anticipation. My heart feels so full as I plan and plot to participate in all the joys of the season. I love when I can sew up a quick gift for someone, and I am excited to share a new free pattern with you that is perfect for just that!!

The Pattern

The Alpine Earwarmer* is a lined ear warmer that comes in adult and youth sizes. The youth size is designed for children around ages 6-10, and the adult will fit most kids 11 and older through adults. It is contoured and lined and perfect for all those smaller scraps that you just couldn’t part with but are too small for most projects! I LOVE scrap busting projects!!

Here is the inside of my earwarmer.

You can do the binding on the edges as single fold or double fold. I chose single fold binding.  On this one, I cut my strip only 1 inch wide, serged one raw long edge of the binding to finish it. I applied the other long edge right sides together with the edge of the earwarmer, wrapped it over the raw edge, and applied it with a zig zag stitch. This step would be much quicker with a coverstitch, so do use that if you have one! Here is a video of me sewing single fold binding on a tank top. I decided to use single fold because I was working with bulky fabrics. For thinner fabrics, I prefer double fold.

Fabric

The fabric I used on this one is from Joann. The outside I found next to the Ponte, and the inside is a Sherpa fleece. It is super warm! The fabric does not need to have a ton of stretch (unless you have a really big head!) I used the microfleece from Joann on a trial version and it worked great. Just to give you an idea of my head size – it is 22 inches all around (measuring where the earwarmer sits). My earwarmers also fit my husband, and his head is 26 inches! I can tell his is a bit stretched but he said it is not uncomfortable at all. If I make another one for him, though, I will probably add width at the center front though to give him more breathing room!

You can grab your free pattern HERE. While you are there, don’t forget to grab any other patterns you have been eyeing during Greenstyle’s biggest sale of the year!! You can take 40% off patterns (excluding the newly released tempos) through December 2nd at midnight CST. Use code thankful2019.

Happy Holidays friends and thanks for stopping by today! I would love to stay connected with you. Find me on Instagram! If you want to take a look into the things that inspire me, you can follow me on Pinterest. You may also follow my blog with Bloglovin.

*Disclosures

I received this pattern for free as part of the testing process so that I could give the designer feedback about the pattern. Also, this post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.

XO