The ever so awesome Mark from Girlcharlee has kindly gifted me these cute fabrics to make myself some comfy summerwear aka secrect pjs! How can anyone say no to a cute deer print cotton jersey?! The Black denim is a beautiful French Terry which is snuggley yet breathable!

I chose to make the Cropped Derwent Pants and Winnants Tank from Wendy Wards Book Sewing with Knits. I planned these using my Sewcrafty Design planner where i made sure i adjusted the cropped pants to my short legs!

These beauties just came in time for my Sewing Weekend away with Becca, Carol and Vicky at Teesidecreatives in Middlesborough, where we drank pletny of tea and ate some nice biccies and even some cake with Jen and Laura!

Think i gabbed on too much and didn’t manage to finish my Tank there but finished it off at home but Mr Singer decided to be a bit of a d*** and chose to eat my fabric whilst sewing the bands…. but somehow managed to rescuse the bands and just made them smaller to hide the ‘bite’ mark!! Yes…. Milk Bottles and a can of Larger came to my rescue!!

Plus here is my Man Mog approving of the fabric also hahaha!

So here are the finished results!

Happy Sewing!

Sal xx

**These fabrics were gifted to me in exchange of blog post**

The post Deer, a Doe, A Female Deer Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

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.