Hand Sewing - Blog Posts

Work in progress

The golden beads were too small even for my smallest, thinnest needle so I had to put them one by one directly on the thread. Time consuming but so worth the hassle, and the blue bit is done!

Now I can start on the red part, with even more tiny beads!

Mending my favourite vintage night gown

I got this nightgown at a vintage shop a few months ago, for not an insignificant amount of money let’s be honest, and it was love at first sight. Unfortunately, I wore it for a single weeks before a nasty tear appeared in the sleeve. I already had to strengthen the neckline trim and patch the inside yoke so it wasn’t a complete surprise, but still, I was kind of pissed off since I paid kind of a lot of money for it. Anyways, here’s my repairing process in pictures:

1) The torn fabric (zoom on the picture to see just how bad it was)

2) Basting the patch. The fabric was so worn I used two patches, one inside and one outside, to securely sandwich the delicate zone and prevent future tearing.

3) I was loosely inspired by sashiko for the mending so, last night I went into a mending rampage and drew a grid before starting on the stitching proper, making up a pattern as I went on. No picture of the grid pre-stitching because it was 11pm and I had lost any sense of time and space.

4) The patched up nightgown, with the topmost buttonhole strengthened before it started spontaneously disintegrating too.

I am super happy with my pseudo-sashiko mending pattern and will really research this technique of embroidery and mending for future use!

Looking mournfully at the rip in the sleep of my favourite vintage nightgown as I put it in the Pile of Doom. The size of the patch to strengthen the fabric as well as the number of rows of hand stitching it requires is kind of daunting.

Just a little poll to share some of my embroidery ideas and maybe inspire fellow embroidery enthusiasts. Feel free to make one yourself, and tag me if you post the result on tumblr so I can see it.

The difficulty level is largely based on the size of the embroidery. The larger it is, the easier to stitch. I do love a very small and detailed piece (see my Golden Flower Locket) but it isn’t very beginner friendly.

Anyways, all of these are on my to-do list but I already have at least four other projects to start and complete before Christmas so they’re not very high on my priority list. I already embroidered the horse-head banner of Rohan on a shirt I am making so it’s one ticked off on this list but I put it anyways for inspiration. The Doors of Durin (see profile pic) is the first "big" embroidery project I ever made and it was very fiddly with the details because of the small scale of the design.

I just finished a quick sketch for a new embroidery project and I hope so, so much I will be able to make it. It’ll be a gift to celebrate a friend’s recovery from a long illness but I don’t dare start on the project until I know for sure she really recovered because I’m afraid to jinx her chances at getting better if I take for granted she is out of danger.

This is my seventh plush, on a new pattern, and the first one which turned out just the way i was intending it to. The last photo is the concept sketch.

Hand Sewn Three- Tiered Maxi Skirt- Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Here | Part 4

Update on the skirt!

In part 2, I cut the seam allowance that connects the waistband and the first tier too short, so I decided to cut a strip of fabric to sandwich them between to make it look nice and prevent fraying.

I cut it about an inch and a half in width and ironed down the folds that I wanted.

I MADE SURE the iron was on the synthetic setting! No more melted fabrics here!

I first folded it in half, ironed that down and then folded the ends to meet in the middle on that fold.

Then I ironed that middle fold once more so it stayed. I ended up with a significantly thinner strip like this.

Here I'm just showing the length comparison. I cut it a bit longer than the waistband so I had extra to work with.

I cut the seams down again so they looked less jacked and would fit between the strip.

Then I pinned it down. This part was surprisingly easy!

I sewed it down using a running stitch and now I have a nice, clean if a little bulky seam!

Next update is the sewing of the second tier of the skirt!

Hand Sewn Three-Tiered Maxi Skirt- Part 2

Part 1 | Here | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

So this took so much longer than expected because Mistakes started happening 🥲

So, I finished sewing the waistband and it was perfect! Then I started with the two tier-one panels next.

I drew on the seam allowance to use as guidelines because I can't sew straight to save my life.

I sewed the two panels together to make one long panel and I tried to iron the seam allowance to make it easier to fold.

😬😬😬🙃🙃🙃🫣🫣🫣

Unfortunately, my fabric is polyester and my iron was on the cotton setting. It got shrunk and burned and I couldn't salvage it.

Thankfully, I was able to buy more fabric after work the next day! I cut out the tier-one panels again and securely pinned down the seams so I could sew them. I folded them in half and sewed them to each other with a sitch I don't know the name of, but kinda looks like a blanket stitch at first glance.

Here comes the incredibly hard part: pinning the tier to the waistband.

I confused myself for a while and I wasn't sure which side I was supposed to pin it on 🥲 It took me two days to figure out 🥲🥲🥲

I also had trouble lining everything up and kept pinning the tier too far away from the stitching of the waistband. I finally figured it all out though and got to sewing.

I sewed right next to the stitching of the waistband so it looks flush. That's two, more or less neat rows of running back stitches!

Here's the other side, showing the gathering.

Here's how perfect the front looks! You can't tell that I struggled with this at all!

And here's the seam allowance that joins the two panels again. I thought it would look better smaller, so I undid the stitches, cut the seam allowance in half, folded it in half and sewed it all together again.

I tried to do the same with the seam allowance between the waistband and tier, but... 😬😬😬🫣🫣🫣

I cut them a bit too short... among other things. Instead, I'm going to cut a strip of fabric and sandwich the seam allowance between it.

It was a good thing after all that I had to buy that extra fabric!

Hand Sewn Three- Tiered Maxi Skirt- Part 1

Here | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Heyo! I'm back with a new sewing project and this one will (hopefully) be a garment that I plan to wear often.

I'm handsewing it, again because I don't really know how to handle a modern sewing machine and because I want the satisfaction that completing this will bring me.

It's also an easy project to start off with!

I'm making one of these!

A three-tiered maxi skirt!

I've been wanting one for a while and decided to get some fabric and make one.

I looked up some tutorials on YouTube, figured out the math

and drew my final pattern onto brown paper.

I have a waist band, which is the length of my hips. It was going to be a wide band at first, but I bought thinner elastic because I had a brain fart. You'll see in a few that I had to significantly shrink the width.

For tiers 1 and 2, I chopped the measurements in half and for tier 3 which is suuuupppper long, I had to quarter the measurement to fit it on the paper.

I had juuuuuusssst enough fabric to get all my pieces:

-1 piece for the waist band

-2 pieces for tier 1

-2 pieces for tier 2

-4 pieces for tier 3

I'm 5"1' and on the smaller side overall. I got three yards of fabric. I suggest you double that if you're taller and/or wider.

This is how thin my waist band will now be. The elastic is about 3/4 inch. I originally made this waist band to be about 2 inches and I had to cut off the seam allowance from that. I still have a generous amount left just in case I may need to widen it (hopefully not!)

I accidentally started sewing this like a left-hander, so when the thread is done, I'll start on the other side so I can finish this faster 😆

my latest finished project! it was a christmas present for my partner as sea shanty society at uni needed a new mascot and he is first mate this year

i bought the pirate fabric a while back and shamelessly stole the seagull fabric from my mother while at home for christmas