In Issue 40 of Simply Sewing Magazine there was a fantastic freebie pattern by Tilly and The Buttons – The Stella Hoodie!! It’s also available from her new Book – Stretch! Make yourself Comfortable Sewing with Knit Fabrics.

Truth be told, I’ve not had much look with Tilly’s patterns in the past but on a whim i decided to give them another go and I’m glad i did!!

GirlCharlee has kindly provided me with the softest French Terry in Teal that i have ever come across! It’s a bargain at £10.96 per metre! It even behaved really well on my Singer Quantum Stylist 9960 and Singer Overlocker so a def winner in my eyes!

I had a rummage through my stash too as i wanted to add a bit of pop to my hoodie and thankfully i had some left over Grey Floral Cotton Jersey from January’s Sew My Style of the Sunny Top.

According to my measurements I need a size 4 and i risked it by not making a toile but as the saying goes “risk it for a biscuit” and I’m glad I did as it saved myself time and the fit is great! but I wouldn’t recommend it if you do have to grade between sizes as making a toile would make sure you had the perfect fit.

I used my Overlocker for the majority of the construction of this Hoodie as i am sucker for nice neat lines inside and out. Doesn’t hurt have a glass of wine as a companion either, especially when the football is on! Hahaha!

I love my Automatic Buttonhole feature on my machine as it makes buttonholes a breeze and remember if you are using jersey to interface the back of your fabric to stabilise it and to achieve a great buttonhole.

The only thing I did change was that rather have a normal cuff, I wanted thumbholes! Since the weather is still naff and i wanted to try something new!

I’ll show you how to do this! It’s rather simple but uber effective!

I had to shorten the sleeve itself by 2 inches but that’s me with short arms so best check where the cuff would be by pinning the folded cuff piece to the sleeve using 1.5cm seam allowance for guidance.

First of all I pinned the cuff piece in place and added an extra 3″ to the height of the piece.

Take one cuff and pin so that the raw edges meet, right sides together. Now mark 1″ away from the edges at the top and bottom of the cuff and then measure 1.5″ (that will be your thumbhole) so once folded they will line up when you fold the cuffs.

Sew the seam using 1.5cm seam allowance, stopping and backtacking on either side of the holes to leave them open. Start at one end to the 1st pin, remembering to backsticth and then continue on from the 2nd pin as you will need this gap for your thumbhole and repeat to the end of the seam.

I graded my seam allowance down by half and pressed the seam open.

Fold the cuffs with wrong sides together, lining up the thumbholes. Pin together along either side of the holes and along the seam. Yeah… I go overboard with Pins!

This next step is a little awkward on your machine. I flipped my cuff so that the pins were in the inside and gently eased the rest o the cuff away whilst sewing. Sew 1/4″ from the seam from end to end, closing up the sides of the thumbholes. Repeat on other cuff.

Add a bartack at either end of the thumbholes to secure this stress point.

Ta-dah! You now have a thumbhole cuffs! Yay! Can you believe that’s all there is to it!

Just remeber when attaching the cuffs that the thumbhole and seam match to the sleeve seam or you will end up with the thumbholes wrong way round.

Tilly’s instructions are great for making this hoodie and i’m thinking I need a copy of her book as the patterns look fantastix and that this one has fitted really well it’s given me the confidence to try the patterns again! So win win!

I finished the hoodie by using aqua 1.5cm wide cotton tape that I bought from eBay for 99p, gotta love a bargain!

I hope you like this little tutorial on making your own thumbhole cuffs, I have a feeling I’ll be making all long sleeve tops like this now ?

Now here is the finished result hung up.

Of course moi wearing my new secret pj top, it’s soo comfy yet pretty with the floral accents!

Happy Sewing!

Sal xx

The post Tilly and The Buttons Stella Hoody and a Thumbhole Hack appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Well it’s been of a bit of a strange couple of months, my sewing mojo totally went awol and my hubby hasn’t been very well at all, a week of him being in hospital and just me holding it all together at home, juggling work, kids, back and forth to hospital etc it took it toll on me.

So fingers crossed, everything will get back to normality soon I just hate being in “limbo” feeling.

Anyways! Finally, last week I decided to get my act together as the hubby and I had a very rare opportunity to go out and meet up with friends, eat good fatty food and have a good laugh! it spurred me on to make my Sew Crafty Design Team Project!,,

When I received my Gift card and browsing the lovely Sew Crafty Shop, I came across this beautiful Cherry Print 100% Cotton Fabric it screamed at me for a Dress! It’s a steal at £4.85 per half metre as its fantastic quality and to boot it’s 150cm (60″) wide, get in! So for a new challenge I decided to pick the Hawthorn Dress by Colette Patterns.

What a combo right with the Fabric and the pattern?!

Truth be told…. I’ve never mad a Shirt Dress before but I thought it’s always good to learn new techniques! With Colette Patterns they are great to follow with clear instructions and their Patterns fit me great without the need of taking the skirt up or making a narrow shoulder adjustment!

But to be on the safe side I decided to make a toile of the bodice as this was unknown territory of making a shirt dress and wanted to make sure it fit nicely across the Bust.

For the toile I used some scrap fabric and followed the instructions all the way to finish the bodice without the buttonholes.

As always I pre-washed my fabric on a 30 degree wash and it hardly shrunk and kept it vibrant colour, you can tell it’s a good quality fabric!

According to my measurements, I cut out a straight size 8 no grading out for the hips as it’s a half circle skirt yay!

After Cutting it all out and sewing the Darts it was time to get cracking sewing it all together!

It is pretty straight forward to sew together as always Colette Patterns have beautiful diagrams and easy instructions!

1st time ever, I’ve used the bias binding technique for armholes and my word it’s so neat!! I will have definitely have to remember this when finishing armholes in the future!!

With the help of the pins and my Simflex Expanding Gauge (My Sewing Bestie Becca aka Redwsews gave myself one for my birthday recently!!) to get the button placement right, i’d mentioned on my insta feed that i always struggle with rtw blouses/dresses, I would have ended up with a safety pin in between to stop the boob exposure but not this with Dress!!

Now the boring task on stitching 15 buttons by hand!!! Yes the pattern does state that it requires 13 but with my movement of said buttons for no gapping I just need a few extra

Now at this point…. All I wanna do is hem by skirt and get ready for twirling but no…. the instructions stated to slipstitch the hem!!! What?!!!

I was definitely not in the mood for that especially as i needed the dress all ready for the day after…. So Mr Singer came to rescue with his blind hem foot!!! It just made it a lot easier and quicker

And here is the Hawthron all sewn up!! Isn’t she a Beauty?! Maybe a little bit biased here….

Moi modelling on the Train Station! Yeah my shoes got cut off the only pic so here are my beauty of irregular choice cherry print shoes to match!!

unfortunately I’ve not been able to wear my heels at the mo to get a better overall outfit photo shoot as I’ve got blumming soft tissue damage in my right foot so I’m on high dose of anti-inflammatory from the hospital to bring my swelling down and instructions to rest and ice

But here is my fancy Dr Pepper alcoholic Cocktail and Best Brownie ever when we met with Friends in Hull and ate at the NYC Bar and Grill! Nom!

So here you go folks my Design team Project at last! I’ve got my shopping list in for my new Project coming soon!!

Sal xx

The post Sew Crafty Design Team Project – a Very Cherry Delight of a Dress appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.