Sweater Pillow

 

Finished sweater pillow

     The second pillow I made for my client, was out of an old sweater that her dad loved.  Since it wasn't that big, I had to carefully undo all the seams so I would have big enough pieces.

Blocked and ready for stabilizer

Ready to fuse the stabilizer on

       After carefully dismantling the sweater, I laid the front onto my ironing board and blocked it.  I then laid a large piece of fusible stabilizer from Rowley Company.  I pressed it in place, starting from the center and moving to the edges.  I repeated this with the back piece.  Now it was ready to cut.

Trimming the corners

      I cut two squares, 18 inches.  Then I used my 'dog ear' trimmer template from Home Sewing Depot to trim the corners.  

Front with the covered cord in place

     I then made covered cord from the sleeves that I had also applied the fusible stabilizer to.  I had to join several pieces to get enough fabric to cover the cord.  I stitched that in place to the front.

Prepping the label to sew it on

     Using my software, I sized down a quilt label from Embroidery Library and added the lettering using a small font in MasterWorks.  I stitched it out on muslin, using a thread that closely matched the sweater color.  Because the sweater was ribbed, I felt the lettering would get lost so that I why I chose a label instead of stitching directly onto the sweater.  I used wash-away Wonder Tape to hold it in place while I stitched it to the back piece.

Ready to sew together

     I then pinned the front and back together and stitched around, leaving an opening to turn and stuff the pillow form inside.  I then hand sewed the opening closed.

Back of the pillow

Cording detail

Label detail

     I love that people trust me to make special things for them from treasured items of their loved ones.

Football Jersey Pillow

 

Football jersey pillow

     A neighbor of mine had her father pass away recently.  She had a couple of items of his that she wanted me to make into pillows.  The first was a jersey from high school.  She ordered a couple of pillow forms from Amazon.  They come flat and vacuum packed.  I put them in the dryer on air dry with some dryer balls to fluff them up.

Flat pillows

After time in the dryer

    I also cut off the tags before I stuff them inside the pillow cover, I hate hearing/feeling them crunching while using the pillow.

Embroidery detail

     I asked my neighbor if she wanted a label on the pillow so that future generations would know who this belonged to.  She jumped at the idea and sent me what she wanted on each pillow.  For this one I used a font that is digitized to be small.  Thankful MasterWorks has a couple in their selection.  

Football jersey

     Because the number on the jersey was near the top, I was not able to center it on the pillow.  She wanted the stripe from the sleeve to be incorporated into the pillow also.  On one side of the pillow I stitched the stripe to the bottom half of the piece.  On the other side, I did the embroidery and then added the small label that was on the jersey front.

One side of the pillow

The other side of the pillow

     I did interface the jersey, the same as I do when I make t-shirt quilts.  I then used my pillow template that has the dog-ears already removed, to trace out the two sides of the pillow.  I then sewed them together and stuffed in the form.  I then sewed up the opening by hand.

Detail of stripe sewn on

Football jersey pillow

Black, White & Grey All Squared Up Quilt

 

Finished quilt

     When I was up at Patched Works in October of 2022 they had a free handout from National Sew a Jelly Roll Day.  It looked like a fun pattern so I bought a black, white and grey jelly roll.  For the background fabric I chose a colorful confetti print.  Normally I might have gone with just a black and red print so I could put the quilt into our basement but I wanted something different this time.  I then pulled out the hot pink for the binding fabric.

Block 1

Block 2

    There were basically two blocks, one mostly the prints (jelly roll fabrics) and the other mostly the background fabric.  I pieced the blocks while at retreat October 2023 and then sewed them together at my stay at home retreat in March of 2024.   

Binding detail

     Because this quilt had no borders, I was then ready to take it to the quilter as soon as I got the backing together.  

Quilt label

Info label

     I did up the labels with my embroidery software and then stitched them out.  I finished putting on the binding while watching football in the fall of 2024. This was a fun quilt to do, I may make this pattern again.

Blush Twin Set

 

Finished blush twin set

     I bought a pretty blush ponte knit fabric from Nancy Nix Rice at the ASG Conference in San Francisco.  I used the tank top from Pamela's Patterns #108 and the cardigan from Pamela's Patterns #110.

Tank top pattern

Cardigan pattern

     I like to make twin sets as it gives me a lot of options from wearing the two pieces together or as separates with other items in my closet.  This blush color is a nice neutral that will go with so many things in my closet.

Knit stay tape

Detail of neck and arm finishes

    For the tank top, I used knit stay tape to stabilize the neck and arm openings.  It makes it so much easier to sew that narrow folder finish.

Double sided fusible stay tape

Getting ready to hem the sleeve

Sleeve hem detail

     For the hems on the cardigan, I used 1 inch double sided fusible stay tape.  It gives a nice crisp fold to the hem and makes the sewing easy.

Back neck ruching

     The back neck of the cardigan has a bit a ruching using some elastic.  It gives a nice drape to the front of the cardigan.

Finished tank top

 

      Now we just need some warmer weather for me to be able to wear my new twin set.