In the last two weeks, I have made 5 items of clothing; a Deer and Doe Lupin jacket and Reglisse dress, a Threadcount Patterns jersey skater skirt, and a couple of self drafted, everyday dresses – one was made literally for the sole purpose of accessorising a gorgeous recent buy (a sewing themed necklace from Smile&Make) and the other as an experiment in necklines. Neither are perfect but I just wanted to see how I would get along without a pattern – but I just loved this gorgeous bright floral from Sew Me Sunshine, without a doubt my favourite fabric stockist.
Sewing has been a great distraction over the past couple of weeks, but -sometimes – you just don’t feel like taking on a big project or want a little simple project in between projects. I don’t know about you but I enjoy a little craftiness every day, even if I only have 15 minutes. So I’ve been doing little things over the last day or two; a little hand sewing, mini projects, a little knitting (as I’ve mentioned in my previous post), and even a little card making (because we have more cause than ever to indulge in a little letter writing to friends).
Simple Sewing Projects Using Leftover Fabric From Projects
Sometimes when I want to make but don’t want to avoid the effort of pattern drafting and and marathon fabric cutting, I’ll use the leftovers of my last few projects to make little accessories:
Head scarves –
With the arrival of spring and sunny but windy days, I love a little head scarf just to keep my hair out of the wind – it requires one rectangular pattern piece so it’s very minimum effort and you end up with a very useful little accessory.
Even if you don’t wear it as a headscarf, you could embrace your inner Audrey and wear it as a neck scarf. Another alternative is using it to jazz up a plain handbag!
Zipper pouches
Those leftovers can also be used for mini projects such as zipper pouches. These are easy enough to make and take only about 15 minutes. You could always cut out the pieces at the end of every project and leave them for a rainy day – a little project ready to pick up and make in no time at all. Such a lovely wee gift to pop into a handmade card to a friend!
Hand Sewing Projects
If you fancy giving the sewing machine a rest, there are plenty of little projects you can do by hand. One of my favourites is to take plain accessories I have lying around and revamping them. Because I love all things vintage and floral, I keep a stock of little lace embellishments in one of the drawers of my bureau – you can pick these up literally for pennies online.
During the winter months, I used them to vamp up my beret collection – all it takes is 5 minutes (and a cup of tea) and you have something a little more different:
Later today, I’m going to embellish a couple of hairbands – it’s not really the weather for hats anymore but I am partial to hair accessories, especially since I’ve been in the process of growing out my hair from a pixie cut since last year. So, to make up for the lack of length to style my hair the way I’d like, I use accessories instead.
These are only a couple of a long list of suggestions – I suspect if we weren’t social distancing I’d be going all out with Easter table settings and bunting but there doesn’t seem like much point this year. Instead, I’m letting my little bunny ornaments pass on the sentiment in a very understated way. I do have a little Easter cross-stitch that I picked up in Hobbycraft weeks ago which I might just turn my hand to.
