Iced shortbread biscuit with a mug of tea with a picture of a sewing machine saying sewing is my superpower placed on a coffee table

Valentine’s day selfless sewing

Hi All

Look at me go at the moment with the blog posts eh? Pacing myself and setting tasks for both being creative and everyday living I think is working. Don’t get me wrong, I still have bad days but I’m off back to work next week on a phased return. Now for some Valentine’s creations! If you are easily offended by swear words and rude prints then don’t read any further!!

If you check out my January 2021 creations post, I use Trello for breaking down tasks and I can check them off as I go. Set myself an hour at most to be sat at my machine sewing each day if I can. If not, to beat myself up if I have to miss a day or so.

Since I’ve been at home recovering and in between home schooling, the creative juices have been flowing freely. So I thought I would make the Hubby some nice sewn gifts for Valentine’s day.

I had offered to make him a T-shirt for a long while now, you know how it is when you just wanna make stuff yourself.

Wendy Ward Felix T-shirt

I am ashamed to say I’ve had Wendy’s Sewing basics for everybody book for over a year with good intentions of making things out of it but never got round to it.

Front cover of Wendy Ward's Sewing Pattern book of Sewing Basics for Everybody

The book itself is great as it’s based on five core basic patterns with full variations and instructions to make twenty different designs in both woven and knitted fabrics for any gender, age or body shape.

So I decided to make the hubby his long awaited T-shirt using the Felix pattern. I used Bamboo Jersey in Charcoal from Pound A Metre at a steal for £10 for 3m. Unfortunately, It is no longer available. It is of superb quality and just what I wanted without it being too thin and drapy.

Tracing out the pattern was ok as it was only 4 pattern pieces. I managed to get the last of my tracing paper used out of it. So that’s another thing to add to my shopping list. Yeah, I even taped together the off cuts!

Pieces of tracing paper with an empty cardboard tube with a pattern ruler

As with T-shirts the construction is quick and easy when using my overlocker. Yet, for some strange reason my knife decided not to trim anymore, It was squishing the fabric! So I ended trimming down the seam before hand and then overlocking.

I used Wendy’s technique of basting the neckband in before securing it with my overlocker and was in perfectly.

Mr Singer came out to play for twin needle hems where I used black thread for a bit of contrast and worked really well.

Hem of Grey T-shirt on a floral background

I had to use an quite apt garment label by Kylie and The Machine and use as it as bit of a feature. The hubby quite liked that.

Close up of Grey T-shirt with Label showing a seam ripper and the word shit

Here is the Tee. It’s a great fit with the raglan sleeves and made a size 43″ chest which fits his broad shoulders nicely.

Grey T-shirt on a Grey floral duvet cover in the background

Thread Theory Comox Trunks

This has been on my sewing list for a few years now but never managed to master the fly bit till now! Hurrah!

Tamlyn shared this jersey in our Felicity Fabrics Blogger chat. It was meant to be the perfect under crackers for the hubby. It is from Little Legs Fabrics, where they have a varied range of fabrics.

Faded blue jersey fabric with karma sutra positions logos

To be on the safe side i went for the size 39″ and made the front fly option. The hubby has informed me that he doesn’t use the fly so I could of saved a load of head scratching!

Sally's hand opening the fly of the boxer shorts to show it works

Thankfully, there is a fabulous tutorial on Thread Theory’s Blog showing different options. Next time round, I’ll size down and leave out the fly.

They were a pretty good sew to make and will be making them for him again. Maybe, I’ll use the jersey band option rather than plush elastic for a cleaner finish inside. I will lengthen the leg too so they are more like trunk length. Who doesn’t love a cheeky Kylie and the Machine garment label?! Yeah, there was a lot of threads to tidy up too.

Memade Card

I used my Cricut explorer Air 2 to make the hubby’s valentine’s day card. I used a simple heart and kisses SVG and cut out on glitter and plain cardstock.

Card made with kraft cardstock, burgundy glitter card and pink card. Showing hearts and kisses with the words love you

Rather than going to overboard, I kept it simple and the hubby liked it also.

I am really cuffed that I was able to make my hubby all Valentine’s day gifts and think he really appreciated the time and effort I put into them which want counts.

Received goodies

The lovely Caroline and Fliss of Felicity fabrics sent us ladies a lovely bit of shortbread biscuit with the cutest icing ever. It was lovely with a cuppa of tea.

Iced shortbread biscuit with a mug of tea with a picture of a sewing machine saying sewing is my superpower placed on a coffee table

No valentine’s day breakie is complete without croissants in the Kendall household. Had a Chinese takeaway for tea followed by making a start on this book that Mr K bought me for Valentine’s day. I even made my own bookmark with my Cricut machine too.

Did you manage to make your loved ones any gifts this year so far, even if you don’t celebrate Valentines day.

Happy Sewing

Sal

xx

1 Comment

  1. […] you will of seen from my Valentine’s day selfless makes. I’ve been quite generous to the hubby for a change! I made him a Wendy Ward Felix Tee and […]

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