Lisa's embroidered Christmas jumper!
Hi Again
Long-time no see. I’ve not been quite “with it” what with all this Covid and our business being in furlough I’ve not really felt up to being committed to sewing/blogging.
However, I couldn’t resist joining in this month what with it being Christmas Jumper as the theme!
I mean, who doesn’t love a Christmas jumper eh?
I searched through Sammy’s website looking for some fleece backed sweatshirt when I inadvertently stumbled upon this grey melange winter knit fabric. OH MY GOSH!!! Is almost all I can say about it? This fabric is absolutely divine. It’s super soft, sews together and handles beautifully, and is so so cosy.
I immediately got it in the pre-wash as I usually do with my fabrics upon arrival. That way whenever you get the urge to sew something, the fabrics all washed and ready to go straight from the cupboard. I was a bit wary of washing this with it being a knit however it washed beautifully. I didn’t peg it on the line as I was worried it might pull it down and out of shape with the pegs as it is quite weighty. Apart from anything else, it’s usually raining where I live!! Instead, I draped it over my airing stand in front of the radiator and in all fairness it didn’t take long at all to dry even though it was folded.
I originally thought I might use my Cricut to cut out some festive vinyl and apply that to the jumper but decided to don the big girl pants and use the embroidery machine to do an embroidered image instead. Ok you got me sussed….I was scared to embroider it in case I messed it up. They can be temperamental things and fussy about fabric/stabiliser/threads etc but my word when they all run smoothly they are so satisfying.
One of the websites where I buy my embroidery designs from decided to have a sale just at the right time and so I indulged in this lovely little daschund pulling a sleigh. I opted for the largest size they did with the intention that it would be ideal for the front of a jumper or could also be used to embroider onto some cotton and be used as a cushion. You got to love a cute little sausage dog right?
I decided against hooping the fabric just in case the hoop pulled the fabric out of shape or left any sort of imprint so I floated it on top. I did a small sample of embroidery on one of the left over scraps of fabric before I did this on my actual jumper front to check the stabiliser would be ok. I opted for Stiffy cut away on the reverse with it being quite a dense design and water soluble on the front to stop the stitches from sinking into the fabric. After I had embroidered the front panel I had to wash out the stabiliser and did this by hand just using warm water so there may be a tad left in atm but this will come out in the proper wash. Despite washing it twice there is still no bobbling on the fabric and it’s as good as when it arrived which I’m super happy about.
After much umming and ahhing I decided I would make the new Tilly and the Buttons pattern, Billie Jumper/Dress as everything about this pattern I absolutely love. I mean those sleeves are just gorgeous and bang on trend right now. The amount of tops I’ve seen on TV that are similar is unbelievable. Now, I have quite a few Tilly patterns and they are all really well drafted and the instructions are clear enough that even a complete beginner sewist could follow them. This one is no different. The jumper itself was constructed mainly using the over locker for the seams although I did tack the neckband and cuffs on using my regular sewing machine first. I made a straight size 5 and I am happy with the fit. It took under a couple of hours to stitch together so it’s a fairly quick make too.
I’m usually so last minute with everything that I normally end up buying a Christmas jumper from the likes of Asda and Tesco and end up with whatever they have left (M & S have usually sold out of the one I want especially after Lorraine wears them on her program lol) but not this year and never again now I know how easy it is to have something so different to what’s in the shops.
I’m super happy with how this jumper turned out. The fabric is just divine and I highly recommend grabbing some whilst it’s in stock! I’m hoping Sammy can lay her hands on more of this fabric in different colourways as I think it will be a super seller ☺
After taking these pics for my blog post I took off the jumper and despite it being too big, Mia had it straight on and was very reluctant to give it back!!! She’s given me instructions that I must quickly buy more before it sells out ☺ Safe to say this fabric went down well at our house!
Wishing you all a happy Christmas
Keep Sewing & Stay safe
See you in 2021
Lisa xx
@sewlastminutelisa