Winter sewing (or how to beat winter blues)

I was supposed to be absent for so long from this space.

Somehow, I don’t really do Winter very well 😦

I always knew I had an higher than average sensitivity to the weather and winter months are the most challenging (and ours are really mild winters. A bit too much rain this year, but that’s all – no snow and no freezing temps). Nevertheless, I keep daydreaming for a bit of sunshine!

So, what can a girl sew while waiting for warmer days (considering that it’s still a bit too soon for Spring sewing – I need some sunshine to get inspired for that as well …)?

Well, just a few random, and quite easy and useful, projects, of course …

It has been a year since I first tested this pattern for my kids (free zip pouch tutorial, again enlarged by 125%) and I really wanted to sew a couple of these purses for me for quite a while as well. I needed to replace my older ones (store-bought) and decided to use some Liberty remnants from previous projects. For the inside/lining I also used a remnant from a previous Oliver+S Birthday Party dress.

These turned out so lovely. I was having second thoughts about actually putting them to use, but my girl volunteered to test them for their toys so I decided it was best to use them right away.

I’m using the blue one for my make-up and the other for my cosmetics. They look so pretty inside and this way I get to use them daily.

And that makes me happy 🙂

While making these purses I got to check all the bits and scraps of Liberty fabrics that are in my cupboard – most of them are just too small and will be used for sewing hair bows and bias tape, but others are long enough to be used for “bigger” projects.

Like, sheets and pillow sets for my kids (!)

Again, the Liberty was a remnant from a previous Oliver+S Ice Cream blouse and had the perfect length for this project. I just needed to add some peach-colored rick-rack.

Of course, a boy’s set was also needed – For the blue set, I used blue/mint striped seersucker and blue rick-rack.

I didn’t use a specific pattern for making this – I just added a fabric band to the top of a sheet (I also made the sheet from a crispy white sheep fabric bought on a local shop, but you can use a purchased sheet and add the fabric band and trim). For the pillowcase I just did the same (and used french seams so there’s no exposed seams inside).