Celebrate December Solstice With These Sewing Projects

It's both the winter and the summer solstice!

I have readers who live in countries that are far flung from me, situated in the "other" half of the world. Occasionally, our interactions remind me that while we occupy the same planet, our seasons are completely opposite.

Therefore, in celebration of this upcoming 21st of December – which may arguably be my favourite day of the year – let me wish my down under readers a happy and safe summer, while I offer a "stay warm" message to those of us in the northern hemisphere who will be marking the winter solstice.

Regardless of weather, this time of year is still the thick of the holiday season. If you're in a bind for last minute stocking stuffers or small gifts, today I'm going to highlight some past projects that would be appropriate for a quick, last minute sew... with an eye for the differences in temperature.

Yeah, nothing really new here today, apart from my words. If you're short on time, you can run along... although you'll miss out on my third last regular blog post! ʘ‿ʘ

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For those who might suffer in summer's heat, I suggest my Icy Cool Neck Wrap.

In the latter part of August, hubby took part in a show and shine with his muscle car. Unfortunately, it took place on a concrete parking lot at the big mall on a 27 degree (Celsius) day. While a few small trees lining the boulevard that separated the parking lot from the adjacent sidewalk provided some shade, there was no real respite from the heat. He took along his icy cool neck wrap and when he put it on, apparently it became as much a point of conversation as his car. (Which didn't exactly thrill him — LOL!)

An indispensable item to have in the summer...

If I had made extras, he could have sold them that day. Which is why I'm taking this opportunity to draw this project to your attention. I'm usually not one to recommend making things for sale, because (as I said last week) unless you're really good at marketing yourself, it's not likely to be a worthwhile effort. However, this thing – especially when able to be shown off at an outdoor event such as a car show – just might sell itself.

In looking through my archives, it's clear that I have more projects aimed at staying warm than cooling down. However, there are a couple of clothing related ones that are appropriate for summer. The first is the quick sew crop top that I came up with in 2017 to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

This was made with a single Spoonflower fat quarter of my own design, but you can apply the simple technique to any knit fabric you have on hand.

A more "mature" take on the crop top...

I am, of course, suggesting it as part of this modest layered look for summer if you're beyond the age of exposing your navel to the world. 😜

The second summery project that I made very early on in this sewing journey was this sun hat from a pattern by Lorenna Buck that I found on Craftsy. (You can still find it easily online by searching for lorenna buck sun hat.)

Coincidentally enough, she states that she first made this for her mom for Mother's Day and then made another for herself. In my case, it was the opposite. I made this first one for me and then another for my mother for her birthday.

My summery sun hat...

I remember being approached by a beach vendor who wanted to sell me a straw hat on one of my subsequent Mexico trips. I took this out of my bag and showed it to him, demonstrating that I could crunch it up with no issues. ᕙ(`▽´)ᕗ

I'm still not much of a hat wearer, but this one does the trick when I need one, and yes, it travels well.

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For those who will be shivering under the wrath of winter, my recommendation is these fleece mittens. During this past summer, I took the time to make three new pairs; one for me, one for hubby and one for Mom.

Three new pairs of soft pile-lined fleece mittens...

The exterior of each pair can be made out of one of Spoonflower's fleece fat quarters (30" x 18"), if you're looking to make this out of new fabric. The two identical pairs shown here are made out of my Maple Leaf on Black (Medium) in Polartec® fleece. When purchased on sale at 50% off – although it's questionable whether that level of discount will ever be offered in future, since the last two sales were only 40% off – it's a decent buy at $8.50 for each FQ, plus shipping.

These can be worn with the ends turned out or not...

That said, if you're looking for a more sustainable option, you can repurpose a fleece scarf for the exterior of these mittens. As I wrote a long time ago, we all likely have fleece scarves that we no longer wear. Most are long enough to accommodate this pattern.

For the lining, you may be able to find something in your household or thrift shop to repurpose like I did.

Got a blanket like this that you don't use anymore?

My linings came from a small blanket that had pile on one side and black faux fur on the other (similar to the one shown above). The blanket was sized for a child and had never found any real use in our household, so it was a successful repurposing. Some of the faux fur got paired with more of the maple leaf fabric to become a scarf for hubby.

Faux fur and fleece scarf...

I first made these mittens about three years ago, using my Luminescent Ocean Dreams minky fabric and some of the leftover sherpa-like material from my refashioned vest. (The free pattern comes from Helen Spencer at Hellosewing.com. Search for free mitten pattern hellowsewing and you'll find it).

My original pair in minky...

This time, I made them all in the large size so that there's room for all of us to wear an additional pair of knit gloves underneath for extra warmth. [A bit of advice about the pattern if you want to make this: pin the top and bottom part of the two palm templates together and compare it to the single back template before you commit to cutting any fabric. I found that they didn't match in length.]

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If you're looking for even quicker projects, how about these socks turned into hand warmers? I've been wearing these again since late October and they really do an amazing job of keeping my hands comfy and cozy while at the keyboard.

Turn old socks into handwarmers...

I will say, however, that someone in your actual household might welcome these more than others. After all, this would be a gift of old socks. (¬‿¬)

On that note, happy summer/winter solstice, everyone!

'Til next...

Socks For Your Hands

A practical way to recycle old socks...

By the time either I or my hubby decides to part ways with a pair of socks, they have holes in them. And while I recently watched one of my favourite YouTubers demonstrate the art of darning socks, it's not something that I can see myself doing on a regular basis... if at all.  

From a crafting point of view, however, there's not a whole lot that one can do with socks in that condition. If you've ever seen a sock puppet, doll or snowman idea, wouldn't you agree that they always look like they were made with new socks?

In our home, discarded socks would usually be tossed into a bag for future use as rags. Hubby is always polishing something or other and old socks are often good for that. From a crafting perspective, I suppose they'd be useful for stuffing plushies if you cut them up into small pieces.

But in my case here, I had a couple of pairs that the other half bought for me years ago because they were adorned with certain black and white flightless seabirds, for which I have an affinity. Despite being no longer wearable as socks, I was reluctant to let go of them.

Socks about to get a new life...

Then I had a thought: how about turning them into hand warmers or quasi fingerless gloves?

I tell ya, it's a quick project with a solid return. And if you have socks that are similarly decorated, the result can even be a fashion statement of sorts!

 

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The project is as simple as can be.

Just take your old pair of socks, stack them up and slice them off right before the damaged area. (In this case here, both the toes and the heels had holes in them.)

Cut away the toe to heel area...

You might notice I have a bit of an angle going on here under the ruler. How you make this cut is totally up to you. You may want to retain as much of the sock as you can at this point, just to see what your preference is regarding overall coverage for your thumb. (You can always trim it down before you sew.)

Create a division for the thumb on each sock...

On the side opposite to where the heel used to be, use a pin to create a divided space for your thumb. Try it on for size and then you can decide if you want to do some trimming.

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I have seen this project done up as fingerless gloves where the crafter has gone to the trouble of creating four additional stubby little compartments, but in my mind, I'm thinking, why bother?

Once you're satisfied with the size of the compartment that you've created for the thumb, go ahead and sew a line anywhere from 3/4" to 1.5" (roughly 2 to 4cm) in length at that location. (As indicated by the broken white lines in the photo below.) 

The only bit of sewing that you'll need to do...

The longer the sewn line, the more coverage your thumb will have.

I would highly recommend that you use whatever stretch stitch setting you have on your sewing machine for this. (And perhaps a ballpoint needle.)

And it's done!

The sock won't fray, so you don't need to do any further sewing. As a matter of fact, the top part will eventually curl a bit to create some added dimension, as you can see on the other pair that I made.

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See what I mean about simple? Can a useful project get any easier than this? This one hits all the right chords with me, especially in being a recycling effort.

Two pairs of new hand warmers!

Now I can leave a pair of these wherever I "hang"... upstairs, downstairs, and in between. I've been regularly using my minky fingerless gloves while at the computer, but I find it a bit constricting to type while wearing them, since minky doesn't really stretch a whole lot. (Those can now go in my sewing room.)

Staying warm while the fingers fly...

On the other hand, these recycled sock hand warmers enable a great range of movement at the keyboard. All in all, very happy to have kept my penguin socks out of the rag bag!

'Til next...

Do You Sew Clothing?

Vintage Simplicity jumpsuit pattern...

The news that Fabric.com had ceased operations came to my notice last week.

While I had likely known that a domain like it must have existed (of course, right?), I had never browsed or shopped there. From a short fact finding mission, I learned a bit about its history. It came into being in 1993 and was purchased by Amazon in 2008. Its demise has been linked to a move towards "efficiency" — as dictated by Amazon — that fabric suppliers could not agree with, nor meet. In typical amazonian fashion, the parent company decided simply to close the shop rather than sell it.

Loyal customers of the site are lamenting the loss of an online resource that provided a wide range of high quality fabrics for sewing clothes.

It made me think back to my first experiences as a sewer of clothing and consider how lucky I was to have had in person access to fabric shopping, even when I lived in a rinky-dink sized town as a teenager.

The world was just different back then.

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Many people sewed clothing for their enjoyment and because it was cost effective to do. I have an example right here to show you.

This is a pair of gauchos (culottes or just a split skirt, if that first term is foreign to you). I saw the inspiration version of this on a mannequin in a shop window and recall almost having a mini heart attack when I checked the price.

The last significant piece of clothing I sewed...

I no longer remember what the price was, but understand that back in the early 80s, we routinely paid more for clothing than we do now. So it had to be an amount that I would never consider paying. Therefore, I went into the nearby fabric shop (which was located maybe two doors down), rifled through the pattern books — big, giant-sized catalogs, really — to find what I needed to make it, and eventually left with a closely matching fabric as well.

Eyelet fabric for the pocket lining!

The legs of this pair of gauchos are quite full, so the project required significant yardage. And yet, cost-wise, the whole enterprise had to have been quite a lot less than what the finished garment was selling for. That's how the sewing and clothing world has changed in the past several decades.

This turned out to be the last significant garment that I ever made, apart from the small projects that I've since featured on this blog.

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When I started this current sewing journey, I wasn't interested in taking any side trips towards making structured clothing. I truly felt like I had been there and done that. Furthermore, I don't have a need to keep adding to my closet at this point in my life.

But to come back to the convo I started at the top of this post, when I was reading about the loss of fabric.com, I came across recommendations for moodfabrics.com. While someone complained about their expensive prices, someone else gave them props for their abundance of free sewing patterns.

So of course I had to take a look. And this caught my eye...

image courtesy of moodfabrics.com...

This is called the Ivy Trench. I think the slightly modified version shown above looks absolutely smashing. If I needed a trench coat and had access to the same fabric, I'd make this in a heartbeat.

It's no ordinary trench. The part that you see in the contrasting fabric is actually a removable bolero jacket, meant to act as a rain guard. Isn't that clever?

Another pattern that caught my eye was the Trillium Ensemble. It's a long (balloon) sleeved cropped jacket on top of high waisted shorts.

image courtesy of moodfabrics.com...

Not particularly crazy about the fabric choice for this one, but I have to admit that it's unique.

In case you're wondering, each related blog post for these patterns provides some basic instructions on how to sew the projects. (You can find them easily by searching for their names alongside "mood fabrics". To download the actual pattern templates, you'll have to give up your email address.)

Sizing is available for US size 2 all the way up to 30; there is a chart to allow you to select correctly. 

Needless to say, there are many, many more patterns available on moodfabric.com's site. Another big change that's occurred since the early 80s has been the upwards swing on the price of sewing patterns. They're horribly high if you ask me, so free is always good (even if you have to print and piece them together).

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Some years ago, I thought it might be a fun topic to survey readers re: their most complex item of (self) sewn clothing. From past communications with fellow bloggers, I already know the answers range from a wedding dress to a men's three piece suit.

For me, the most ambitious I ever got was a denim jumpsuit based on a pattern similar (if not identical) to the one that you see at the top of this post. I made it in high school but I don't recall whether or not it was a project from Home Ec. Wish I still had it.

So what was the most challenging clothing project you've ever attempted? Was it a success?

'Til next...

Shortening & Changing Out a Metal Zipper

Doable but not fun...

Let me preface today's post by saying that shortening and changing out a metal zipper on a pair of jeans is not a project for the faint of heart. While technically doable, you really have to ask yourself whether it's worth the pain and suffering. I took it on as a challenge, with the proviso that if it didn't work out — at any point in the process — I could just toss it aside.

What brought this about?

The zipper on a pair of hubby's jeans lost a tooth, with the result that the zipper pull came off one side.

A zipper that's lost one of its teeth...

I managed to put it back on, but the reality of this kind of problem is that it will keep happening. Because I look for different things to amuse (and abuse?) myself with on the sewing front these days, I said I'd try removing and replacing the zipper.

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I have a few metal zippers in my possession, but they were all longer than the one that was attached to this pair of jeans.

Shortening a zipper involves two main tasks: removal of the metal stopper and as many teeth as required, and then cutting off excess tape and reinstalling the stopper. The most difficult part in all of this is removing the stopper. (By the way, you can shorten a zipper from the top or the bottom; I chose to go with the top method after seeking some online help.)

Just like pulling teeth!

One would suppose that metal zippers on jeans are typically meant to last, so I don't know exactly what happened here with hubby's pair. In fact, if you think of metal zippers in general, you'd likely conclude that the zipper teeth are held in place very tightly... which they are. So your next assumption might be that the removal of these things is not accomplished easily.

My pair of pliers managed to pull the zipper teeth fairly well — at least for this zipper; see bottom of post for more on this story — but it wasn't the right tool to remove the stopper.

Removing the stopper is going to be the hardest part...

Whatever tool you end up using, what's likely to happen is that the zipper tape around the stopper will be damaged in the process. (This, however, is not an issue because the excess tape will be cut off anyway.) This little piece of metal — which is just a miniature clamp — needs to be pried apart with tweezers or small flat head screwdrivers.

Using one (of three) small flat head screwdrivers to spread open the stopper...

It's essential to be careful during this whole process because the last thing you want to have happen is for the little stopper to go flying off into the air to who knows where.

Replacing the stopper...

After shortening the zipper, you can put the little stopper clamp back onto the zipper tape.

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Before doing anything with a new zipper, my first step was to remove the damaged zipper, in order to ascertain how long the replacement needed to be.

Starting the process of zipper removal...

What surprised me is that different jeans manufacturers sew in the zipper fly differently. This pair seemed quite a lot less complicated than a pair of Levis which I dismantled a few days later.

One side done...

For that reason, I would suggest that if you want to do this that you take photos as you go, and also that you leave the last few stitches in place so that the old zipper is not totally removed until you're ready.

Hanging on by just a few stitches!

Once you have the new zipper prepped to your specs, you can fully remove the old one while pinning the new one in place.

Basting is a good plan...

In the end, I was surprised by how relatively easy it was to sew the zipper back in using a sewing machine. (Again, it was for this particular pair of jeans... YMMV.) It was only at the very bottom along one side where I couldn't quite manoeuvre close enough to tack the zipper tape in place. After trying the jeans on, the other half stated that it didn't matter; the zipper was otherwise firmly attached.

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By the way, I could not easily find any short metal zippers to buy. But the both of us had a face palm moment when we noticed the bag of old jeans that we had brought back from our vacation home and thought, why the heck didn't we think to remove one of those zippers??

Had to switch tools and use a cutter to remove the teeth from this zipper...

For those eagle eyed observers among you, here is the post script explanation for why there are clearly two different (replacement) zippers featured in my photos. Shortly after switching out the zipper, the new one began to have issues: it kept snagging at one particular spot. Deciding that my metal zippers weren't quite heavy duty enough for this application, I harvested a zipper from an old pair of jeans and repeated the whole process.

Yep. Lotsa fun.

I don't often get the opportunity to share Spoonflower sales announcements on the day that I post since new sales usually start on Monday, but there is a sale going on now through the end of the month on all fat quarters, tea towels and wall hangings. Plus free shipping! Believe me, that's a big deal, so if you've been intrigued by Spoonflower's fabrics (mine or otherwise), here is your chance to get a huge bargain.

I'm going to be busy this weekend tweaking a couple of new designs, because this is a promo that I can't pass up either!

'Til next...