Sew Thankful Tour

Want to know a secret? I've typically passed on November tours before this one. Why, you ask? With Thanksgiving as the notable November holiday, they always have themes of thankfulness. That's great, and I certainly have things I'm thankful for, but I'm terrible at writing about them. I'm worse at finding a way to tie it into sewing, or any other crafting.

Ellie saved me at the last minute by asking for a new dress for Thanksgiving. In past years I might have questioned it, but we're fortunate to have been able to travel this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with Patrick, and a new dress for Thanksgiving with Daddy's Boss seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea to me.

She loves twirly dresses, so my current go-to pattern for her is the Patterns for Pirates Me Hearties Dress. It's fast to make, comfy, and the circle skirt is just perfect for twirling. I bought the fabric for this after lunch, and in spite of taking time for a trip out to get ice cream and a break for dinner, the dress was finished by bed time. Originally she asked for turkeys, but JoAnn's was pretty much devoid of any turkey prints by the weekend before Thanksgiving. As a second choice, the feather print jersey is super soft, and twirls nicely.

This dress was a hit. She says it's super comfortable, and even wore it for one of the long days of driving on our way home. I'm so glad I could fulfill her request and make her happy.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out more Sew Thankful posts from some great bloggers!

Week of November 6th:

6: Sewing By Ti, 7: That's Sew Lily, 8: Elli and Nels, 9: Jot Designs

Week of November 11th:

11: The Sewing Scientist, 12: Sweet Mama Life, 13: Big Fly Notions, 14: Manning the Machine, 15: Stitched by Jennie, 16: My Heart Will Sew On, 17: Sew 4 Five

Week of November 18th:

18: The Fairy Dust Bin, 19: Kathys Kwilts and More, 20: Sewing with D, 21: My Sewing Roots, 23: Tenille's Thread, 24: The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Week of November 25th:

25: Sewing By Ti, 26: Vicky Myers' Creations, 27: MNW Sews, 29:Auschick

My Monster: The Wicked Witch in Residence

Today is my stop on the Sewing By Ti My Monster tour! So my wicked witch and I cordially welcome you to Castle Hangnail.

Castle Hangnail is an excellent book by Ursula Vernon about 12 year old Molly, the sweetest wicked witch you've ever known, who shows up to fill the vacancy for a master at Castle Hangnail. She may not be a monster, but certainly some of the loyal minions of the castle are! Both my son and daughter absolutely adore this book (and really anything by Ursula Vernon), and honestly so do I. So when Ellie firmly decided she was going to be Molly for Halloween I was happy to oblige.

For better and worse, there are very few pictures, so I was largely on my own to interpret Molly's outfit from those plus the written descriptions. Her basic outfit and hat aren't really mentioned, but ARE shown in the illustrations. Ellie was adamant about a top and skirt instead of a dress, so I made a Go To Patterns Adventure Tee with slightly gathered sleeves. Instead of a regular band I finished the neckline with lace elastic, and the hems were all left raw. For the skirt, I used the circle skirt from the Patterns for Pirates Me Hearties Dress - even little wicked witches can't resist a twirly skirt! I'm honestly not entirely sure of what fabric I used since it was all leftover bits from my stash (I, um, have a lot of black fabric), but I think the top is a bamboo jersey, and the skirt is a rayon knit from JoAnn's. I used this tutorial from Delia Creates for the hat, and black premium felt from JoAnn's. The brim is a tad floppier than I'd prefer, but the cone scrunches perfectly so overall I'm really pleased with the result.

Really though, the best part of this outfit is the witchy coat. This piece was a big deal in the book, so I was determined to get it as right as possible. Getting the right fabric and trims was important, possibly more to me than her! It's described as being different shades of black, which ended up very frustrating when you have difficulty drawing the line between "Halloween costume" and "cosplay".

As a base pattern I went back to the Peekaboo Pattern Shop Little Gentleman Suit Jacket - for the fourth time. After my son grew out of it, I didn't expect to use it again, but I knew I would heavily modify almost any pattern I used - so why buy a new one? I used the top half of the jacket, and redrafted the bottom to make it a longer, full dress coat. I also added in seam pockets, because who doesn't need pockets?

For the outer sleeve I just added a french cuff and the lace trim, but I drafted and added a fitted, knit inner sleeve. I used a gabardine suiting for the body of the coat, and lined it with some silky, iridescent fabric I bought for last year's costume and didn't use. I also added a flannel interlining for warmth, because let's be real here - we live in Maine, and by evening on Halloween it can be downright cold.

Probably the most frustrating part was finding a trim for the collar that I was happy with. I'm not sure the one I chose is really metallic, but it's shiny without having sequins or glitter, which had to be good enough. The buttons are from Etsy - I couldn't find raven skull buttons with twinkling black eyes, but I found custom cast raven silhouette buttons which are so freaking amazing. I am ridiculously proud of how this coat turned out, and fortunately she adores it too. For finishing touches, I upcycled some striped socks into no-sew hand warmers.

To finish the look, she has a vulture necklace (another Etsy find), tights, and her Very Witchy boots. The pictures and the written description don't entirely agree, so we went with the book and bought boots with laces, then replaced them with purple ones. She has a tiny bat that likes to be awake during the day, so when I found this little bat puppet we decided he was a perfect Bugbane. And of course, a witch needs her spell book! I whipped up this version of the little gray book with a faux leather remnant.

Now you should grab a copy of Castle Hangnail, then be sure to visit the rest of this month's tour stops!


Monday, October 1st- Sewing By Ti (intro)

2nd- Tales from a Southern Mom

3rd- Shalini's Sewing Space

4th- Tenille's Thread

5th- Sewing By Ti



Monday, October 8th- Back 40 Life

9th- Family of Makers

10th- Made for Little Gents

11th- Big Fly Notions



Sunday, October 14th- The Fairy Dust Bin

17th- Sewing With D

18th- 52 Week Sewing Challenge

19th- Auschick Sews

20th- Sew Cute Couture by Kathy



Sunday, October 21st- The Bear and the Pear Atelier

22nd- Seams Like Style

23rd- Seams Sew Lo

24th- My Heart Will Sew On

25th- JOT Designs USA

26th- My Sewing Roots

27th- Manning the Machine



Monday, October 29th- Frulle Mieke

30th- Sew Like a Sloth

31st- Sewing By Ti

Me Made May '18 Pledge

This has been one crazy busy year so far! Given how little sewing time I have, it's way past time to take inventory for Me Made May this year. Each year I participate I try to push myself a little bit further for this challenge. This will be my fifth(!!!) year, so to increase the challenge is, well, a challenge. It has taken me awhile to decide, but I'm ready to officially make my pledge. Is this the first time you've heard of Me Made May? Check out the details on So, Zo...

'I, Kate of The Fairy Dust Bin blog and @thefairydustbin on Instagram, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '18. I endeavour to wear at least 2 handmade items daily, and fully handmade outfits 4 days per week (with the exception of gym clothes, undergarments, hoisery and footwear) with minimal outfit repeats throughout May 2018.' I intend to document by photographing and posting to Instagram most days, and will have a writeup on my blog at the end of the challenge.

Having gone through my current handmade wardrobe, I still have a little work to do. Specifically some quick, and a couple not so quick, alterations, and finishing some UFOs. I have plenty of skirts and a couple of pairs of leggings, but my plan to work on some things last week did not come to fruition thanks to illness.

With that said, I think I need to go sew myself some pants!

Spring Into Color

Thank goodness for these tours, or I might forget to make posts for months. I swear I've been sewing, but I've been so busy with school and parenting and basically life that I can't seem to get around to taking decent pictures of anything to put up here, especially in the freezing cold. At least the last part of that might change, now that it's officially spring! Now if the weather would just get the memo, because it definitely snowed today...

March's theme for the Sewing By Ti blog tour is the spring Pantone color forecast.

Most of the colors are, well, really not ones I wear. Hm. Plus, for colors that are supposedly the big thing for this season, the ones I liked were very hard to find! So I tried for Palace Blue, and ordered this beautiful Art Gallery Challis, only to realize once my fabric arrived that there was no lighting that would make it match that shade, no matter how much I love it. Those sketched roses though, they have a pink that's definitely somewhere between Ash Rose and Blooming Dahlia, and I realized I had some french terry in my stash that was almost precisely the same color.

I made a Deer & Doe Reglisse Dress, which is also on my #2018makenine list this year so it's a two birds with one stone make! This is view B, with no collar and a faux button placket. Even though I was running out of time, I was a responsible seamstress and whipped up a muslin of the bodice. I'm petite from shoulder to bust, and found that this was a little long for me, plus the armscye was really low. The front fit okay since I took up the room in the bust, but for the final version I took almost an inch of length out of the back between the shoulders, which also shortened the armscye. It turned out gorgeous in the challis, and the skirt has amazing twirl factor. This sewed up surprisingly quickly, though I found the directions for the bias neckline finish a little confusing at first. I finished the skirt with a rolled hem instead of the bias tape finish used in the pattern to prevent stiffening the hem.

To go with it, both for the color and because it will be cardi weather for months still, I made the New Horizons Vermont Cardigan with sparkle french terry from So Sew English that I had on hand. I chose the cropped version, which didn't exactly turn out all that cropped, or at least not quite like I'd envisioned. I'd call this hip length on me. But remember that petite adjustment I did on the dress? I definitely didn't do anything similar here, so that's pretty much my own fault. The pattern itself was straightforward and came together really quickly, and the French terry is oh so soft and easy to work with.

Apparently I'm going to be wearing pink sweaters this spring, who'd have figured? And also get to be closer friends with my rolled hem foot for finishing these circle-type skirts that I seem to have a thing for right now. I think I'm good with that one!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out the rest of this month's great color inspiration!

Thursday, March 1st: Sewing By Ti- Intro

2nd: Tenille's Thread



Monday, March 5th: Confessions of the Pink Obsessed

6th: Sewn By Lone

7th: Sewing By Ti, Stylin Stacy

8th: EYMM

9th: Stitched by Jennie

10th: Elli and Nels



Sunday, March 11th: Make it Sew with the Bear and Pea Atelier

12th: Very Blissful

13th: My Heart Will Sew On

14th: Sewing Blue

15th: Seams Like Style

16th: Kate Will Knit

17th: Twinado Alley



Sunday March 18th: Mermaids Den

19th: My Sewing Roots

20th: Our Play Palace

21st: Kathys Kwilts and More

22nd: The Fairy Dust Bin

23rd: Oak Blue Designs

24th: Aurora Designs Fabrics



Sunday March 25th: Flaxfield Sewing

26th: Seams Sew Lo

27th: Ma Moose

28th: Back 40 Life

29th: Auschick Sews

30th: Manning the Machine

31st: Mermaids Den

Red, White, and Pink Tour

Welcome to February's installment of Sewing By Ti Tours!

I couldn't tell you the last time I made, or even bought, something pink for myself. It's really more Ellie's color than mine, and I don't really have much red or white in my wardrobe either! But when my red project didn't come together as planned, I found this pink triblend French terry from SoSewEnglish and just HAD to make something for myself. It is so soft and cozy, I could buy it in every color and live in it.

Made for Mermaids Mama Claire has been on my list of things to make for awhile, and it worked great with the lightweight French terry. I should probably have chosen something else for the neckband since there's no spandex in this fabric to help the stretch recovery, but it works fine as a layering piece. I'll know better next time! I really like the crossover front, and even though it's supposed to be reversible, I don't see myself wearing it the other way.

While this top goes pretty amazingly with jeans, I had the urge to pair it with a white skirt. Problem being, I didn't have a white skirt of any kind, nor do I have a ton of white fabric. Fortunately, I had ordered several yards of white voile for something else which arrived at the very last minute, so I used it to pull this two layer circle skirt together the night before I took my pictures. I have never been so thankful for my rolled hem foot!

I put them together and... it was just too super sweet. I totally adore these pieces, but since the straight up sweet and innocent look just really isn't my style, I paired it with Moto boots and a black camisole for just a little touch of edge.

It was so beautifully warm for picture taking that I didn't even freeze in a skirt without tights! Too bad the spring weather won't stick around, but I'm enjoying the preview!

Thanks for reading! Make sure you check out the rest of this month's red, white, and pink inspiration!

February 1st: Sewing By Ti (intro),  Mahlica Designs

2nd: Sewing With D

3rd: Sewing With Sarah

Sunday, February 4th: Tenille's Thread

5th: My Heart will Sew On

6th: Kathy Kwilts and More

7th: Stitched By Jennie

8th: EYMM

9th: With Love In Every Stitch

10th: The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Sunday, February 11th: Our Play Place

12th: My Sewing Roots

13th: Margarita on the Ross

14th: Very Blissful

15th: Seams Sew Lo

16th: Sew Sew Ilse

17th: Aurora Designs

Sunday, February 18th: Sewing Scientist

19th: Manning the Machine

20th: The Fairy Dust Bin

21st: Hazelnut Handmade

22nd: Kate Will Knit

23rd: Lulu & Celeste

24th: Flaxfield Sewing

Sunday, February 25th: Twinado Alley

26th: Ma Moose

27th: Auschick Sews

28th: Oak Blue Designs

New Sews for the New Year

It's a new year! Last year, in spite of good intentions at the start, I drifted more and more behind. Then I just totally dropped the ball once school started in the fall. Oops. So I'm picking up, dusting off, and will try again! So welcome to 2018, and another Sewing By Ti Tour!

My new sew for the new year is the Jasper Sweater by Paprika Patterns. I've had this on my "want to make" list for a seriously long time - about 3 years. Last year I finally bought it, and now I finally made it! I skipped a muslin,  jumped right in with my good fabric, and crossed my fingers and toes because I really do know better. Apparently my pleas to the sewing gods were heard, and granted, because I'm in love.

I chose the dress version with the collar, used this organic cotton sweatshirt fleece from Fabric.com, and this is the softest, coziest dress ever. It's a terrible shame that I didn't get this done before Dressember, but there's still plenty of cold weather to go here in Maine! The princess seams give this a much more tailored look and it passes for being dressier than a usual sweatshirt, especially with the collar instead of a hood.

The pocket on this sweatshirt is awesome. I always like having a front pocket, but don't always like the way it looks. This pocket is on the inside, and the welts are really super easy to do. She walks you through, and even has a video if you are a more visual learner! Lining the pocket calls for a lighter jersey, and provides an opportunity for a hidden fun fabric - I used some very colorful galaxy print scraps that were hanging around from another project. Please excuse the cuff wrinkles - I wore and washed this once before taking pictures. I tried to press them after coming out of the wash, but they stubbornly refused to iron out completely.

I almost skipped the epaulet and button at the collar, but I'm so glad I added it at the last minute. The button is another great place to add a pop of accent color if you're so inclined, though for this one I stuck with just a lighter blue. This will definitely be a repeat to try other options, like the neat hood!

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to check out the previous tour posts if you missed them, then look for each new stop this month!

Monday, January 1st: Introduction- Sewing by Ti 😀

2nd With Love In Every Stitch

3rd FABulous Home Sewn

4th Kathys Kwilts and More

5th The Fairy Dust Bin *** You are here.

6th The Bear and Pea Atelier

Sunday, January 7th: Minn's Things

8th Lilla Gumma

9th Threadistry

10th Very Blissful

11th Margarita on the Ross

12th Stitched by Jennie

13th Mermaid Mama Designs

Sunday, January 14th: Sew Like a Sloth

15th Sewing With Sarah

16th My Sewing Roots

17th Back 40 Life

18th Sewing With D

19th Ma Moose

20th My Heart Will Sew On

Sunday January 21st: Flaxfield Sewing

22nd Tales from a Southern Mom

23rd Auschick Sews

24th Sew Sew Ilse

25th Seams Sew Lo

26th Kate Will Knit

27th Tenille's Thread

Sunday January 28th: Sew Haute Blog

29th Kathy's Kwilts and More

30th Sewn By Lone and With Love In Every Stitch

31st It Sew Colorful