Christmas Countdown Sachets for Celebrate the Holidays blog tour

I’m joining the Celebrate the Holidays blog tour hosted by my friend Sewing by Ti. More details about the other great blogs on the tour are at the end of the post.

I have a dream count down calendar in mind for my family. In my imagination I see village store fronts decked out in holiday cheer; handmade out of wood with little drawers and doors to place all my count down goodies and messages. That dream is yet to be realized, so in the mean time I’ve created my own version in my handmade wheelhouse, fabric.

I used the Advent Calendar pattern from Zierstoff Patterns. There are options for little mittens, stockings, or sachets included in the pattern. I thought the sachets would be the most versatile and I like that I can close them up to keep the goodies hidden from peeking little boys.

I had just enough of the Michael Miller fabric left from my Sewing Portfolios Ambassador project to make up the Advent calendar. I like that all the fabrics go together and to be honest, I really needed that kind of easy.

Having an Advent calendar has been a missing part of our Christmas celebration, so I’m thankful to finally have one after putting it off for so many years.

You’ll really want to see all the inspiration this month from so many of my sewing friends.

December 1st Sewing By Ti (intro), Octaves of Color

Sunday December 3rd, Me Made
4th: Sew Sophie Lynn
5th: Hazelnut Handmade
6th: Tales from a Southern Mom

Monday December 11th, Tenille’s Thread
12th: MNW Sews
13th: Mahlica Designs
14th: Very Blissful
15th: Stitched by Jennie

Monday December 18th, Kate Will Knit
19th: Sewing by Ti
20th: Vicky Myers Creations
21st: Margarita on the Ross
22nd: Auschick Sews
23rd: Shalini’s Blog

Tuesday December 26th: Seams Sew Low
27th: EYMM
28th: Sew Like a Sloth
29th: Sewing By Ti
30th: Kathys Kwilts and More
31st: Embrace Everyday

As always, thanks for reading today.

You can follow me on instagram, Bloglovin, or by entering your email in the right side bar.

ALENA and NICKI Show Your Stoff

Welcome to day two and my stop on the Show Your Stoff blog tour. We’re featuring  Zierstoff Patterns throughout the tour and I have a discount code for you below.

I’m really excited to Show My Stoff today, but before I jump in, please be sure to stop by today’s other Show Your Stoff bloggers.

Musings of A Seamstress, mahlicadesigns, Anna’s Heirloom Boutique, FABulous Home Sewn

Now, back to me. 😉

The ALENA top was an easy pick for me with its slight kimono sleeve and high and wide neckline, both of which work really well to deemphasize my round shoulders and balance out my pear shape.

Finding a match for ALENA did take some thought and I finally settled on trying the NICKI capris. My one try with rtw capris in the past looked pretty awful on me;  I know there’s some magic formula for where cropped bottoms should land, but I didn’t use it. I took a chance with what felt comfortable and am super pleased that the NICKIS look good on me.

I made the ALENA in size 40 using 3/4yd of a very lightweight jersey knit from Finch Fabrics. The fit is perfect and the construction was quick and easy. My sewing machine is no fan of tissue weight knits, so I stabilized my sleeve opening with Pellon Knit-n-Stable before folding it over to hem.

I made the NICKI capris in size 36 using about 1 yd of a brushed poly from Sew Vagabond. Using the brushed poly was a bit of an experiment. I knew the fabric would give me some nice stretch but wasn’t sure how it would work for the pocket and fly details on the pant. It sewed up wonderfully. The faux fly and front slash pockets look neat and tidy and the stretch makes these oh so comfy. Take care pressing multiple layers though, it took a couple washings for the press mark to come out.

I did make some of my usual adjustments for pants: adding a full seat adjusment and shortening the legs for my 5″3′ frame. I also topstitched the pockets closed and cut out the pocket bags. In the brushed poly I was getting pocket seams showing through.

The ALENA is going to be a Tried and True pattern going forward and I have a plan in the back of my mind to do a pattern hack with the NICKI capris. In the mean time, I’m going to get good use out of this outfit for an upcoming trip to New Orleans and any other time I want to look smart this spring and summer (and secretly be really comfortable).

Thanks to the ladies at Zierstoff for supplying the patterns to enable me to make todays outfit, gving you a discount code,  and thank you for stopping by today.

Use code MahlicaDesigns30 to save 30% through the end of April.

Did you miss yesterday’s bloggers? Here’s the full tour.

Monday April 10- Anne-Mari Sews,  Inspinration, Tenille’s Thread, Sew Cucio, Embrace Everyday

Tuesday April 11- Musings of A Seamstress, mahlicadesigns, Anna’s Heirloom Boutique, FABulous Home Sewn

Wednesday April 12-  Thread and Scissors, Kaleidothought, Idle Sunshine, mahlicadesigns

Thursday April 13- Very Blissful, Sew A Piece of Joy, Zowie Zo, Nina Makes, Thread and Scissors.

Friday April 14- Tales of a Tester; Bless, by Tone; Life Sew Savory; Needles to Say, Adventures with Bubba and Bug

Saturday April 15- Musings of A Seamstress,  Anna’s Heirloom Boutique, Ronda B Handmade, Glitter in my Coffee, Anne-Mari Sews, Stitches by Laura; Tea, Dust and Stitches

As always, thanks for visiting the bloggers on the tour.

 

Sew Your Zierstoff with the ALIZIA Tee

I made a whole outfit!

Sure, that phrase shouldn’t need an exclamation point, but since I am notorious for sewing pieces with barely a thought given to what I’m going to wear it with: I made a whole outfit!

The pieces for my casual outfit are simple enough, but I gave thought to pairing fabrics that would work together and that’s a big step in the right direction.

Firstly, I made the SVEA Pants (see details here)

My second piece is the ALIZIA Top.

The Alizia is easily constructed; but if you’ve not inserted a V shape before, I’d recommend watching the V neckband instructions from Hey June as a good guide to successfully making a smooth insertion.

So, once completed, I put on my Alizia to see my handiwork and realized I made a tunic. How on earth did I do that? I still need to go back and figure out how I made it so long. I did fit checks along the way, but I was focusing on how the sleeves and width of the bodice fit and didn’t even look at the length. Geesh.

On the positive side my Matilda leggings are a perfect match, since I used remnants from them as the accent pieces on the Alizia. This is not at all the outfit I was aiming for, but it is lemonade out of the lemon of making a way too long shirt. I do like how slimmer I look in this pairing versus the Alizia plus Svea pants combo I originally planned. Loose fitted top plus loose fitted bottoms just doesn’t do it for me.

So, I made an outfit! It’s not what I planned, but I’m still going to call it a success. I’m pleased with the fabrics I chose, but just need to pair patterns that balance each other better. Lesson noted. Let’s see how long it takes to sink in.

Are you sewing up anything from Zierstoff Patterns for the Sew Your Zierstoff contest?

There are prizes to be had, plus you get new wardrobe pieces.  (details here)

To help you along, Zierstoff Patterns are 40% off with code VALENTINE40 until 2/28/17

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

 

Scavenger Hunt Day 6 with Zierstoff Patterns

We’re finishing up our scavenger hunt today, so I hope you had fun finding the objects of the hunt and got your entries in. I’ll be announcing the winners of Giveaway week and Scavenger Hunt week pretty soon- I hope it’s you.

The current hunt ends soon, so get to it!

Visit Zierstoff Patterns to hunt for your answer and come back here to enter for a chance to win one of two 10Euro gift codes for Etsy.com.

What’s you favorite Zierstoff pattern?

Enter Here!

 

So… are you curious about what’s happening next week? I won’t give the surprise away right now, but you may want to start planning your Zierstoff outfits.

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Scavenger Hunt Day 5 with Zierstoff Patterns

We’re starting our final hunt today and after making you work on the last clues, I’m taking it easy on you this time.

Visit Zierstoff Patterns to hunt for your answer and come back here to enter for a chance to win one of two 10Euro gift codes for Etsy.com.

What’s you favorite Zierstoff pattern?

Enter Here!

Here’s how the Scavenger Hunt works: Today and tomorrow you have the chance to hunt around the Zierstoff Patterns website to find the answer to the posted question. Enter here with your answer to be entered to win one of two 10 Euro gift codes for Etsy.com.

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Scavenger Hunt Day 3 with Zierstoff Patterns

I hope you have your sleuthing hats on because we’re starting a new hunt.

Visit Zierstoff Patterns to hunt for your answer and come back here to enter for a chance to win one of two 10Euro gift codes for Etsy.com.

Here’s the Question of the Day:

In what country do the Zierstoff ladies live, work, and create?

New hunt and added chance for entries begins on Friday. Hope to see you back!

Enter Here!

 

Here’s how the Scavenger Hunt works: Today and tomorrow you have the chance to hunt around the Zierstoff Patterns website to find the answer to the posed trivia question. Enter here with your answer to be entered to win one of two 10 Euro gift codes for Etsy.com. The final hunt and added chance for entries begins on Friday.

As always, Danke Schoen for stopping by today.

Scavenger Hunt Day 2 with Zierstoff Patterns

Are you needing a little help finding where this image snippet belongs?

 

Hint: Take a look through the Free Patterns from Zierstoff

New hunts and added chances for entries begin on Wednesday and Friday. Hope to see you back!

Enter Here!

 

Here’s how the Scavenger Hunt works: Today is your last chance to hunt around the Zierstoff Patterns website to find the image this snippet is a part of. Enter here with your answer to be entered to win one of two 10 Euro gift codes for Etsy.com. New hunts and added chances for entries begin on Wednesday and Friday.

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Scavenger Hunt week with Zierstoff

Thank you to all that entered last week’s giveaway from Zierstoff Patterns. I’ll announce the winners of the giveaway and scavenger hunt early next week.

This week we’re doing scavenger hunts to earn entries for more prizes from Zierstoff Patterns. (Hmmm, I wonder what will be coming next week?)

Here’s how it will work: Today and tomorrow you have the chance to hunt around the Zierstoff Patterns website to find the image this snippet is a part of. Enter here with your answer to be entered to win one of two 10 Euro gift codes for Etsy.com.

New hunts and added chances for entries begin on Wednesday and Friday.

Hint: I might be sharing clues to help.

Enter Here!

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Zierstoff giveaway week is wrapping up

The Zierstoff giveaway for two 10Euro Etsy vouchers is ending soon, so be sure to get yourself entered below.

Next week we’ll be doing something a little different and I don’t want you to miss out. You can follow me on instagram, Bloglovin or clicking that “Follow” button in the sidebar.

 

Reminder: One of the giveaway options is to complete a survey. The gals at Zierstoff would really like you to take a look around the Zierstoff site and share what you think, so I’m giving you extra entries for doing so and my sincere thanks too. Don’t be shy, take a good look.

Enter the GIVEAWAY here.

 

As always, thanks for stopping by the blog today. I appreciate it.

Fun with Zierstoff -Giveaway Week

Welcome friends, I’ll be your M.C. for fun with Zierstoff Patterns over the next few weeks. We have some giveaways lined up and then a really fun event.

 

To start things off this week, Zierstoff is giving away two 10 Euro vouchers to Etsy. Oh the the goodies you’d be able to choose from: fabric, patterns, notions, or you know…anything.

One of the giveaway options is to complete a survey. The gals at Zierstoff would really like you to take a look around the Zierstoff site and share what you think, so I’m giving you extra entries for doing so and my sincere thanks too. Don’t be shy, take a good look.

Enter the GIVEAWAY here.

Make sure you’re following the mahlicadesigns blog so you don’t miss out on the fun that’s happening next.

SVEA pants by mahlicadesigns

I have a serious need for pants in my wardrobe, but am not quite ready to make another pair for jeans, so instead I made the SVEA Pants.

I made a size 40 according to my measurements using a double knit. The result was baggier looking than I would have liked and I’m sure the drape of the double knit didn’t help with that. Since the 40’s were baggier and longer than I wanted, I’m giving these to my sister. I know the drape of the knit plays a factor here, so I felt I needed to play with things a little.

On my second attempt, I sized down to the children’s size 170 all around but kept the size 40 crotch length. I still ended up shortening at the hem by 2 inches. I’m much more comfortable with how these fit.

What do you think? Did I get closer to the look of the pattern by sizing down?

Image from Zierstoff Patterns

Pattern:

SVEA Pants from Zierstoff Patterns. Size 40. Shortened by 3 inches at hem.

SVEA Pants from Zierstoff Patterns. Size 170 width & leg length, size 40 crotch length. Shortened by 2 inches at hem.

Fabric: I used a double knit with a subtle houndstooth print from my stash for both pairs of SVEA Pants.

The SVEA Pants took me 2 hours to complete (each).

Total Cost: $10.80(each)    Fabric $5       Notions: $1       Pattern $4.80*