Tag: i sew my own clothes

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Everything I Sewed In 2025

I decided I wanted to see all my makes from last year in one comprehensive post. This is gonna feel long, but it’s mostly going to be photos with a few sentences. Let’s see how I did. Here we go!

Syd Graham Ruby Vest for me

I loved making this vest and visually I still love it, despite a couple flaws on the bias tape and ties. I haven’t worn it much this 2025/2026 winter, and I think that’s because I really only ever wear it with these brown Carhartt overalls, which I haven’t worn much this winter for some reason! I need to try it out with more outfits.

The Blanket Statement Birch Point quilt for a friend

The first time I saw this in my friend’s house gave me so much joy! I wish I could make and gift everyone I loved a quilt. I’m working on it (in theory. Let’s ask Sufjan how he’s doing on his 50 states project). I’d also 100% make this quilt pattern again, I still think that for such a simple pattern that it is visually very fun.

Friday Pattern Company Donny Shirt for me (x2!)

The Donny Shirt really is a great pattern and great for a beginner like me. The gingham Donny is a Robert Kaufman Essex yarn dyed classic woven indigo plaid linen/cotton blend (phew!). I made this in May but ended up wearing it a lot in August and into the fall. I don’t wear the black one as much; I don’t trust it in the wash by itself and even after washing it doesn’t have a neutral smell, what’s up with that?? I have another one I plan on making for a friend and I’m sure I’ll make another in the future!

Tropical Research Laguna Shirt for Skoog

I’m still really proud of this make but it wasn’t the dream shirt my husband envisioned (he has worn it precisely two times and that’s ok). He doesn’t love how the sleeves stick out! It’s also his only camp collared shirt—he really is more of a traditional button up shirt kinda guy. I hope to try a new button up pattern for him this year though, probably the McCall’s M6044 that is so popular!

McCall’s 2566 for my daughter

McCall's 2566 kids dress pattern

To my surprise my daughter has given this dress a fair amount of wear since making it for her. Even now, as a kindergartener who is moving away from dress wearing (SOB!), she still wears it on occasion. And it still fits! Thank goodness she chose blue, because as of maybe 6 months ago she has declared blue is now her favorite color, move aside pink and purple (again: SOB!).

Matchy Matchy Sewing Club Kids Collage Gather Dress for my daughter

See, this is why this quick roundup is good, I never made a post about this dress. And I should! I actually applied to be a community tester for this pattern and got it, so the pattern was free and I just needed to submit feedback. Hopefully I’ll write another post about it but as you can see from the image it’s very cute and I got to utilize some favorite scraps from other makes!

Common Stitch Bellbird Button Up for me

  • Trying on sunglasses. Months later got the sunglasses!
  • In the woods with my gals!
  • MN State Fair (yes we biked (brag!))
  • Trying on pants! Got the pants–love the pants!

I think I have made it abundantly clear I love this shirt and wear it all. the. TIME!

Matchy Matchy Sewing Club Kite Pants for me

Kite Pants front
Kite Pants back

Another make I never wrote about! These pants are so fun (I upcycled thrifted curtains!) but unfortunately they’re a miss. The crotch is too dropped and the white fabric is too see through. So tragic, I love the soccer boys, especially the butt pockets. Love the shape still so I’d like to revisit the pattern with a mod to the rise and opaque fabric, of course.

Melanie Ham Boxy Zippered Pouch for me

The pattern was free, the size is great, I love my fabric choices (RSS strawberries and Gone Camping by Faye Guanipa from Dear Stella). I messed up the zipper a little so it’s not smooth to open and I don’t like that wrinkled look on the outer fabric due to the fusible fleece. It currently houses some of my EPP supplies for when I have time to stitch on the go.

Sarah Kirsten Pear Pouch for me

If you click on the link you’ll see the cutest stand up pouch! I was going too fast and cut and sewed the corners incorrectly so this bag doesn’t stand up haha. I also did a bad job on the zipper. It still functions; I currently keep it in my bedside table to house charging cables and I use it to organize those things when I travel. I need to try to make another one correctly! I got the fabrics from my neighbor (the suns are Ruby Star, not sure about the moons) who was destashing her scraps (thanks Dani!).

Jan Howell Boxy Zippered Pouch for my daughter

I was really pleased how this one turned out! It was an obvious collab with my daughter. I have more of this fabric which I may just put into the little craft free library near me as she is kind of over unicorns now (😭 😭 😭 ). I love this pouch tutorial because the inside has a clean French seamed finish. The fusible fleece is adhered to the inner fabric, so there’s no wrinkled effect on the outer fabric. I used the alphabet function on my machine to sew her name on the carry handle.

Jan Howell Boxy Zippered Pouch for a friend

Well whoops, I only took video of this make before gifting it, so here’s some screenshots. This one turned out near perfect. Love the RSS strawberries still, what can I say! Interior fabric is drops from Marcus fabrics, an SR Harris purchase.

Summerhaus Nico Pullover for me

I think I only wore this one over turtle necks this winter. It may come out a little more this spring, we’ll see. If I make it again I will go down a size. I like an oversized fit but this is too big!

Oven Mitts (x3) gifted to friends and family

  • Lotta Jansdotter oven mitt
  • Lotta Jansdotter oven mitt

For the white rainbow striped fabric oven mitt I used the instructions in the Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing : Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects book I have had for probably 15+ years (maybe out of print?). I didn’t like how the inside looked so I tried the Suzy Quilts tutorial for the other two, made out of the cute Japanese cotton/linen blend fabric I got at McTavish in Duluth. Both suck to turn right side out, but I managed and overall I preferred Suzy Quilt’s pattern and instructions. I think they turned out quite professional looking and I will be making more for sure! I need some for myself, plus some potholders.

Patched Pencil Case from the book Conscious Crafts: Quilting 20 Mindful Makes to Reconnect Head, Heart, and Hands by Elli Beaven for a friend

Pencil pouch front
Pencil pouch back
Pencil pouch interior

I think I started this project in 2024, mayyybe even 2023! I set it aside because I was scared to do the zipper, and once I got over that hurdle with all my boxy pouch making I was able to finish this up in December 2025 when my daughter was down with the flu (for like a day though? Kids man, they get sick hard and recover fast). This was my first time trying hand quilting and while the stitches aren’t even, I enjoyed it!

The Blanket Statement Hi Quilt for me

Hi

This is a free pattern and one I started in May 2023 (finishing the top May 25, 2023!) when I was trying to get back into sewing. My piecing on the I is so bad, it’s embarrassing! The quilt is so smol. I’m also so happy to have this UFO finished. I think I will hang it in my studio; that’s what I did when I only had the top done for years and it kind of made a nice Zoom background.

Honorable Mention: Mends

I did more visible mending this year and loved it! I definitely hope to keep mending this year.

Totals

That’s 19 things!

  • 9 garments total
  • 6 of those are for me (4 shirts, 1 vest, 1 pair of pants)
  • 3 garments for others (2 dresses, 1 shirt)
  • 2 quilts
  • 5 zippered pouches
  • 3 gifted oven mitts

I’m incredibly proud of the strides I’ve made in garment sewing last year, as well as all the other sewing I did! I’m overcoming my fear of screwing up and I’m just having fun learning, mostly with secondhand fabric. The smaller pouches and oven mitts have been fun to work on in between bigger projects as well as my ongoing English Paper Pieced quilt I’m making for my daughter (fingers crossed I write up a post about that one of these days and finish that beast of a slow stitching project this year!).

Lastly, I’ll end this post with an image from my sewing notebook, notes I wrote down February 25, 2025. I love to make a lists and set goals, I’m just not always the best at coming back to said list and goals to direct my energy. I do a lot of side quests. But y’all, LOOK at this note?! I finished some WIPs, I am working towards a me-made wardrobe, I sewed for others and used what I have (plz ignore fabric I purchased in 2025 haaaaa)! I made buttonholes, button up shirts, more than one dress for my daughter, inserted zippers, used my serger!! I am proud of me. 🥲

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A Shirt So Nice I Sewed It Twice: My Second Bellbird Button Up

Hi hi hi! I did not mean to take such an extended break from writing about sewing but the start of the year around here was not great and I didn’t have much desire to sew. I have a few things to write about and share; today I’ve got another short sleeved shirt on deck!

👻 What’s Up With That Fabric?

I love an interesting, secondhand fabric–the weirder the better. Back in September 2025 I yet again volunteered at the Textile Center’s garage sale and one of the fabrics I got was this cartoon athletic ghosts fabric, 1at least that’s what I’m calling it. I tried doing a reverse Google image search on it but I didn’t have any fruitful results. It seems like it’s from the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. I’m guessing it’s a cotton, though it may be a cotton/poly blend. It’s not the softest but it was just the right amount of ridiculous for me so I bought it! I had about 1.5 yards to work with.

The Path of Least Resistance: Using A TNT Pattern

When my desire to sew something up finally came back online I thought a good way to ease back in would be to make a shirt using a pattern I’ve already sewn up before. I didn’t have to print or trace any patterns, hallelujah! Last year I made this Bellbird Button Up in a striped shot cotton. Out of all my shirts (made by me and ready to wear) it was by and large my most worn shirt in the spring, summer and fall! I still love it despite some flaws and can’t wait to wear it more now as the weather warms.

Hanging out in Powderhorn in my Bellbird Button Up

Always Learning

Even though I’ve made this shirt before I still learned more in the process. Here are some take aways from this shirt’s iteration (aka notes for my future makes!):

  • You don’t need to interface both collar pieces and both collar stand pieces (the instructions on this pattern make it seem like you should do this, but it is unnecessary). I looked at other pattern instructions for button ups I have and all the ones I consulted have you interface just one piece of each.
  • I think you should prepress your sleeve hems before sewing the sleeve into the bodice at step 14! It’ll make it easier when you get to step 18.
  • I had to seam rip the serged hem on both the sleeves 😦 I did a bad job and got a fold. Go slow!
  • I am still really confused with the collar/button extension instructions! I did a bad job getting the collar stand to line up with the button placket again. I am a beginner at this, but I don’t think the illustrations for this step are really all that great either.
  • I still had an issue making the top buttonhole on the placket using my buttonhole foot. I have left that mess for now!
  • I did successfully make a buttonhole on the collar stand for the first time, yay!
  • I still haven’t decided on whether to add the pocket! Left it off for now.
my brain could not
serger threads on the outside OOPS
Quite the collar stand overhang on the button placket

Project Breakdown

Here’s my lazy assessment on how much the materials cost me:

  • Fabric: $3 (such a rough guestimate; you buy by the grocery bag)
  • Pattern: Already in my stash. But let’s say $3.08 since I originally paid $6.16 for it
  • Buttons: From the stash! I think they too came from the garage sale. .50 cents?
  • Thread: Black cotton Gutermann from my stash

Total: $6.58 ish? I didn’t buy new thread, needles, or interfacing and the amount used is small.

Wow, Are You Done Yappin’?

Yeah let’s wrap this baby up! Overall I’m happy with this make. As always, it feels SO GOOD to finish something. I started this shirt on February 26th, 2026 and finished on March 5th, 2026 (I think!). Time will tell how much wear I’ll get out of it, but likely not as much as my first Bellbird as the print isn’t exactly a versatile one 😂 I finally wore this one out of the house on our first hot day of 2026, Saturday March 21st (and to showcase the true lion and lamb of this month, I XC skied on the streets to my friend’s house just 6 days prior). My new shirt was great for biking and a playground hang. Front porch selfie below 🙂

It was 73 degrees Fahrenheit when I took this photo!!! My neighbor used his snowblower that morning because he couldn’t wait two hours for the snow to melt off a corner of his driveway

As always, thanks for reading!

  1. Trying to use Threadloop more to also track my fabric and document my makes there! ↩︎
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Ticking The Box On A Boxy Button Up: Sewing The Common Stitch Bellbird Button Up

Common Stitch Bellbird Button Up, Short sleeved view

Well, after making Eric his own short sleeved button up shirt I got jealous and decided it was time to make my own. After looking at so many patterns of different button ups (been on my mind since Oct 2024!) I landed on the Bellbird Button Up by Australian pattern company Common Stitch. Really all it took was seeing two great Bellbird button ups on Instagram to seal the deal for me! This one by Bethany of @soberseamstress (she’s also the owner of Fluid Plus Drape) and this one by Emily of @ermthewormsews. Aren’t they both great? I hadn’t heard of this pattern company before seeing those two shirts. I liked the cropped sizing and boxy look and thought the box pleat on the back was a nice detail too. Before I get into allll the details, here’s the cost breakdown of my shirt:

  • Pattern: $6.16 (Normally $12.21 but I had a 10% off shop coupon ($1.22) and used $4.83 from the remainder of an Etsy gift card)
  • Fabric: $21 for 1.5 yards
  • Buttons: $2.00
  • Pattern Printing: $4.97

Total spent: $34.13

(A pink cotton Gutermann thread and weft Interfacing were already in my stash, I’m not going to include those in the total pricing.)

Roughly $35 for materials really isn’t bad in my book! This shirt is going to get a ton of wear.

The Fabric & Buttons

Diamond Textiles Cabana Stripes Sunburst fabric, a lovely shot cotton

Back in February I purchased 2.5 yards of this Cabana Stripes Sunburst fabric by Diamond Textiles from Seams Like Quilting in Spooner, WI. I purchased it without a plan and after staring at in my sewing space for months I decided I finally needed to use it, and use it NOW. It’s a medium weight, yarn dyed shot cotton. It feels sturdy, durable but not rough. I really love it and am glad I used it for a shirt since I don’t have something like it in my closet already.

Detail on the shell buttons I went with

I really went back and forth on what buttons to use. Part of me wanted to go simple and traditional with these shell buttons I thrifted the same weekend I bought my fabric. Part of me also really wanted to use some of my ridiculous buttons I got from the Textile Center garage sale. After doing a poll on Instagram (where the results were really split) my husband tipped the scales over to the white buttons made from shells. I also honestly haven’t sewn a shank button before and that little extra work on looking up a how to (lol I’m sure it’s super easy) also had a hand in me going with the shells (I just wanted to finish the dang shirt!). I like the white ones but I don’t know, do you think I should’ve gone with the fun option?

Things To Consider

Since Common Stitch is an Australian pattern company, their measurements are in metric. I want to emphasize it is not a big deal to do the conversion from metric to imperial, but you do have to do the math when figuring out sizing and how much fabric. The seam allowances are in cm and mm.

I ran into a problem with printing the pattern as it’s formatted for A4 printer paper which is slightly narrower and slightly longer than US letter. You can’t just do “print to fit” as that will throw off the sizing. I think I could’ve gotten around this using US legal printer paper but instead opted to have my pattern printed at Sewing Lounge over in St. Paul (which, HOT TIP: it’s the cheapest spot I’ve found in the Twin Cities for large format A0/copy shop pattern printing at $3/page! The turn around was incredibly fast too ). 1 Another thing to consider is that when I opened the pattern in Acrobat I found that they didn’t layer their sizes so I couldn’t “turn off” printing the sizes I didn’t want. You’ll have to print all the size lines.

I guess it was nice not taping a bunch of sheets together. I used my Swedish tracing paper to trace off the size I wanted to use in case I make this again in a different size

This pattern has a lot of ease; it’s meant to be a boxy top. I made an Aus size 14 (roughly a US 10) even though my measurements had me at a 16 for the bust, 18 for the waist and 14 for the hips. I’m so happy I didn’t go any higher for the size and next time I would make a 14 again or maybe even size down to a 12. When I hold out my arms you can see straight through those arm holes and see my bra, ope! However, I really do LOVE the length of this shirt, it’s perfect for me. The pattern also doesn’t have a lengthen/shorten line so I figure if you wanted to change that you would do so just at the bottom hemline? There is also an option to make this pattern with long sleeves, but it doesn’t have a traditional placket for the long sleeves.

Me? Issues? Always

On That Collar Stand

It just looks a little rumpled while I’m wearing it but here you can clearly see the collar stand isn’t sewn to the top of the placket perfectly and the button hole isn’t finished.

As this was my first go with a collar stand, I didn’t do the best job sewing it to the placket and just kind of had to do my best to jam it all in there. You’d have to be looking closely to notice, but I know and it does bother me some. I could try to fix it but I think I’ll just learn from my mistake and do a better job next time. I’m pretty sure this was my error and not the pattern. As it is so super thick up there I couldn’t use my buttonhole foot to make my top buttonhole. I left it as is, sewed the button on and figured I won’t really ever want to button that button. I didn’t even bother to sew a button and buttonhole on the collar stand. I may still fix the unfinished buttonhole but just haven’t attempted yet.

Pocket: Change?

Added the pocket before sewing the placket
Perfect pattern matching, but it’s too close to the placket now!

Here’s a word of caution: don’t do what I did and attach the pocket first thing. I really wanted to pattern match the stripes and in previous shirts I’ve made with pockets they have you attach the pocket first thing. This pattern doesn’t have you do that and I quickly found out why–you have to fold over and sew down the length of the front to make a placket and that could interfere with the pocket. I should’ve read through all the instructions before starting, this could’ve been avoided. Look how dumb it is that I put my pocket so close to the placket! Ugh. Do I seam rip it and ruin my beautiful pattern matching though? I also honestly think the pocket should also be moved up. Maybe for the next one I don’t even add a pocket.

Details! The Best Part Of Sewing Your Own Clothes

I couldn’t make a custom label for Eric’s shirt and not make one for myself, right? I like all of the woven “Made In 2025” labels that you can buy but I’m hesitant to buy those–what if I don’t use them and then they’re obsolete?! Using my machine to make a custom one is the perfect solution. I once again just whip stitched this to the yoke; I opted not to sew interfacing to the back of the label this time and it seems fine without it.

I also almost always like a little hanging loop on a shirt. I took a small scrap and made one and sewed it down before sewing the collar in. Worked great!

Look At how the stripes on the back yoke almost perfectly line up with the stripes on the sleeve! Wish I could say that was intentional but I just lucked out. (No, they are not lined up at all on the other sleeve lol)

Lastly, isn’t the box pleat cute? I had never made one before and this turned out great. It was so easy but it’s also such a nice detail.

Final Thoughts

I love this shirt, despite the flaws and I’m proud to have it in my closet! I’ve only had it for a little over a week, have already spilled ketchup on it (and got it out) and have worn it probably 4 times. I I’m nearly positive I’ll make it again and will pay closer attention to the details of where I went wrong like the collar stand and pocket. I’d like to have one out of a drapier fabric, like a linen, to see what the sleeves do because with this shot cotton they stick out a little more. Now that I’ve got a couple short sleeve button ups done I think it’s time I consider making a long sleeve button up! Maybe the Closet Core Jenna?

As always, if you got this far thanks for coming along!

Mom hat: on! Moms love spring blooms and easy breezy shirts!!!

  1. The Sewing Lounge has some incredibly nice linens, hemps, poplins, sandwashed linen and other lovely high quality fabric, mostly for garment sewing. She (Maggy, the shop owner) doesn’t do online sales but you can get a nice feel for what she carries by looking at the site. I walked out of there with 2 yards of a super soft white sandwashed cotton with my printed pattern! ↩︎