December Sewing Plans

And once again it is already December! I feel like this was a very quick moving year. I did get some of my yearly goals done, or at least worked on, but some just went by the wayside. So my December plans are pretty simple - tie up those loose ends.

I have a couple of projects that are cut out & waiting, and I just want to get them done and off my sewing table. Plus I have a few things to mend and hem, and really want to get those done before year's end. Of course being the end of the year I'm feeling the need to do a bit of a clean of the sewing space as well! 

If I can get all of those things done I may try to make a new dress for Christmas - I have two options using stash fabric. One is a burnout velvet with a slight stretch, and the other is a beautiful though muted rose print in red and navy in cotton lawn. They'd give much different effects but I think either would be quite festive. So I'm thinking about those, but not pushing myself to make them as I do have other festive options already. It would just be a fun project if I can fit it in! 

And of course lots of end-of-year wrap up to do here on the blog as well. Watch for some posts about the year's sewing later on! 

Weekend Review: Crafting an Alibi

 

Crafting an Alibi / Barbara Emodi
Lafayette, CA: C&T, c2025
224 p.

This is Book 5 in the entertaining Gasper's Cove mystery series. We meet many of the same characters we've seen over the last few books, but see them from new angles. And there are some new characters added too, perhaps ones we will see again. 

As this story begins, Valerie is invited into a big secret held by a group of senior ladies, now resident at the Seaview Manor. She is asked to find some valuable fabric hidden decades ago, but before she can do it, the hiding place is burned to the ground. Unfortunately for Valerie, it was her family cottage and there was a renter in it. 

This set-up leads to some dramatic events -- insurance investigations, attempted murders, further fires -- all while Valerie is trying to puzzle out the clues (missing important steps as usual). She is also in the midst of helping to plan her cousin/best friend's wedding, dealing with her emotions over being an empty nester, and of course losing a family property. 

There is a lot going on here, but it's rooted in the same small town atmosphere as the previous books in the series. It has the hallmarks of a Gasper's Cove story - some Nova Scotia history, some cozy relationships which involve food and tea, and Valerie's crafting knowledge, which always plays a part. I really enjoyed the cabal of old ladies at Seaview Manor in this novel and hope to see their cleverness highlighted again.  

If you've enjoyed this series so far, this is a good addition, with some lovely scenes as well as some heart-pounding ones. Beware, you may be left craving butter tarts after this one!

Literary Sewing Circle: A Project Roundup

 
This round of the Literary Sewing Circle brought lots of fantastical, fun projects. The elements of the book inspired a lot of different ideas from a range of readers. Here are the ones that were shared for the roundup! 

Over on Instagram, longtime participant @conlon.jan decided to take the green slime that Howl creates in a temper as her inspiration and made a Seamwork Cosmo blouse! 

New reader @dolorousrattus used the colours of Howl's suit as her beginning and made a grey and scarlet sweater echoing his style, using the Kajo pattern from Named. 

Over on Threadloop, Sara has shared her Magic Pants, a pattern by Anne Tilley -- inspired by the atmosphere of magic in the book in general. 

And on PatternReview, a few members shared their projects too. SewLSC made McCalls 7975, referencing both Sophie's 'fine gray dress' and the twists of fate she faces throughout the book!

VivianZ made a flamboyant vest with a pattern from Cutting Line Designs, to reflect some of the wild flashes of colour from Howl's spells 

Litapita took her lead from Sophie's cutting up and restitching of Howl's suit, and cut up a shirt she'd made for her husband to make a new pair of pjs! 

Silverdell also thought about Sophie's habit of cutting up Howl's suits (particularly the blue and silver one) and made a colour-blocked top from a Japanese pattern book. 

And of course, my own - a Celeste Dress inspired by Calcifer. This perfect fabric has all the swirly colours of Calcifer's flames, a perfect match. 

This was a fun round of reading and sewing! Thanks to everyone for participating. (And if I've missed your project somehow, please let me know, I will add it) . 

Look for the next round of the Literary Sewing Circle in Spring 2026. 

Altering a thrifted skirt suit

Last week I shared how I shortened the sleeves of two thrifted blazers to make them fit right and look like they were made for me. And one of the blazers was part of a skirt suit. The skirt needed a bit more work than just shortening in order for me to be able to wear it, but the suit together made it worth going to the effort to get this just right. 

When I tried on the skirt, I found it a good fit across my hips and posterior, but the waist was too large. The waist is finished with a bias binding, essentially, so it's pretty easy to unpick. The zip is at the centre back so I could easily adjust the side seams without too much extra fuss required. I unpicked the binding for about 4 inches, pinched in the side seam and the lining seam by 1/2" and stitched it down in a wedge about 4 inches long, trimming both and the binding (including the interfacing under the binding). Then I folded everything back down, stitched the binding back on to the outer skirt, and then basted, pinned and hand stitched the lining back onto the inside of the waist binding, as it had been originally. 

I forgot to get a pic of the skirt all unpicked but here it is
 ready to have the lining stitched back on

After this the skirt both fits and is much more functional. After about an hour of work or so, I have a great suit that fits and that I can mix and match with things already in my wardrobe. I think that's worth it! I may still shorten it at the hem by another 1/2" but I'll try it all together to see if I really need to. 

Skirt all done! And the hanging loops sewn back onto the side seam area

Now that it fits properly at the waist, I may still add in some side seam pockets. The seam allowances are pretty wide (at least 1/2" each) so it would be easy to stitch on some pocket bags. But I do wonder if that might throw the fit off. The matching jacket does not have pockets because of its design (pleats from shoulder to hem) so I might have to try it if I actually want to wear this as a complete outfit.  I will think on that idea a bit longer!

Weekend Review: Fabric Leftovers

 

Fabric Leftovers / D'Arcy-Jean Milne
Lafayette, CA: C&T, c2006.
96 p.

This is a fun little book I picked up at a thrift shop recently. I'm always looking for new ideas for scrap busting and this looked like there might be some unique projects to try out. 

I liked it, even if some of the 2006 projects are now out of date (ie: cd cover). It's an interesting combination of techniques and projects, and you might be able to adapt some of the techniques to projects of your own that you want to create. 

It starts out with a brief look at organizing and storing scraps for ease of use, some recommended threads and stitches, and a really useful 'processing' overview on how to best cut up ties, sleeves and jeans to get the optimal fabric use out of them. 

She then moves on to techniques: there are 6 covered, two kinds of fabric creation (patchwork and weaving), cording, couching, ruching, stuffed tubes she calls 'beads', and a way to make buttons into decorative blooms. I've seen some of these kinds of things before, but the weaving (into rug hook canvas) in particular was a new idea for me. I can see how these techniques could be adapted into personal projects.

The book then shares 15 projects. There are sculptural things like boxes or folios, some journal and cd covers, bags, wallets, frames, fabric flowers, and little things like stuffed 'candies' and tassels. Some of these I liked and some I had no interest in, but there was a nice variety so readers should be able to find at least one they might like to try. 

I liked the set-up of the book. It was well organized, with lots of large, colourful images of everything discussed. Some of the content may be a little dated now, but the overall techniques and concepts are still valid and useful. I can see how many of them could easily be updated to something contemporary, especially with the renewed interest in patchwork and garment making. A fun discovery! 

Style Arc Ines in Purple Knit

In another addition to my Fall wardrobe focus on purple, I thought I'd try a simple shift using a thrifted knit I picked up a while ago. I looked through many patterns to try to find something like I had in my head; I finally decided on the Ines knit dress from Style Arc. 

I used the Ines as my base pattern, but made quite a few changes. I lengthened the short sleeve to a 3/4 length, for more of a fall style. And I decided, because of the glen plaid print of this fabric, to leave out the seam at the waist, to avoid pattern mismatches. I just cut it with the bodice and the skirt pinned together on the fabric. It worked but does take out one of the interesting details of the pattern, the topstitched waist seam. 

I also added side seam pockets. Those pocket flaps on the front of the pattern are just decorative but I wanted real pockets -- I still find the buttoned flaps a nice touch though, and so still added them to the dress for a little more interest in this very plain outfit. 

It sewed up fairly easily. The pocket flaps take a little bit of concentration as you do want to get them perfectly even. And I had to baste and redo the neckline a couple of times; the first time I had to take it off and shorten the neck band by an inch to get it to sit smoothly on my neck. Then it seemed to be okay, although I don't think it's perfect, there is a little bit of pulling but I'm not redoing it again! 

I was planning on lengthening the dress quite a bit, as it looked pretty short in the pattern illustrations, and when I measured it, I thought I'd need to add a few inches. But in fact I did not have to add any length, rather, I had to shorten it by about 1/2" from the original length to get the hem where I wanted it. Style Arc does draft for 5'6", and I am barely 5'2" so that could be why! I'm not sure why I first thought I'd have to lengthen it. Oh well, better than making it too short to start.

It's okay, a functional dress, but I'm not loving it. I am wondering if that's because the fabric and the neckband make it feel a bit too casual or t-shirty for me. Or if the overall silhouette just doesn't work. I may test it out with a belt to see if that works. I'll give it a try and see if wearing it makes me feel good, or if this is destined for a donation to a friend. 

Altering Thrifted Blazers for a personalized fit

Even though I make most of my wardrobe, I still love thrifting, and sometimes come across wonderful jackets and blazers that fit well and would be both expensive and time consuming to make for myself. This is one garment I often buy because of these elements. I recently found a houndstooth blazer, in petite sizing, that is perfect except for the sleeve length -- that is always an issue for me. But it's an easy fix, I usually just have to tuck the existing hem depth up and stitch it and it's the right length for me. 

With this jacket, there were two non-functioning buttons on the sleeve vent. So I took off the bottom button and moved it above the other one, about the same distance as the original. This gave me lots of room to fold up the existing hem and catch-stitch it. Easy fix. 

I also found a purple skirt suit for $15, which fits in beautifully with my fall colour scheme. The jacket has interesting details and fits nicely, again just a sleeve length adjustment required. This jacket had a simple sleeve with no details at the cuff, so very easy to shorten in my slapdash way. The sleeves were quite long here, so I had to fold up 2". I carefully catch-stitched this to the lining so that nothing was showing or pulling on the right side. It's quite amazing how just ensuring the sleeves are the right length makes the whole jacket look so much better! 

The matching skirt needs more work though, and it will be a bit more complicated. I need to shorten it and narrow the waist too, and maybe add some pockets! More on that next week. With, hopefully, photos of the whole altered suit!