Inspiration and lightning have a thing in common, it strikes when it strikes. While browsing a local discount store I saw this Halloween decoration. I don’t have any affinity with Halloween, but I instantly saw a Halloween sweater for Noa.
The plan was simple, make a sweater out of the orange fabric, embroider the pumpkin face on and recycle the stem as a hat. Of course, I didn’t take the poor, poor quality of the fabric into account and piecing it together was a struggle.
I’ve made a couple of patterns now and gained some confidence. So I measured Noa once more and made a pattern. A simple waist long sweater with wide, sorcerer type sleeves. I intended to make bias tape for the cuffs and collar, but the cheap fabric wouldn’t behave and I just gave up. This was an excellent opportunity to try a zigzag stitch. The fabric is very stretchy and the zigzag keeps the seam stretchy.
Embroidering was pretty straight forward. I use a freestyle type of embroidery called “winging it”. It could be neater, but for the overall quality of the piece I’m decently happy.
The hat was a bit of a challenge. There was fewer material to work with than I anticipated. I disassembled the piece, opened up the seams a bit, added stuffing and attached the leaves to the back. It fits, but the effect isn’t that impressive.
I also thrifted a few baggies of orange beads a while ago and tried my hand at some jewelery. I made a quick necklace and bracelet.
You may have noticed Noa is only wearing panties. *sighs* Sadly she doesn’t have much clothing yet. All she has is a pair of panties and two t-shirts. And she even has to share one of the t-shirts with Toulouse! I’ve been putting off making pants for a while now. I did get my hands on scrap of jeans fabric, so I should get to work soon.
All in all this was a fun little project. I got some new stuff for my sewing machine to try. The straight stitch plate really worked wonders on this thin fabric. Such a shame I couldn’t use it for the zigzag stitches… And I really need to see to better fabrics.
Noa's Home 