Spirited Look Book - The Garments

Spirited Look Book - The Garments

Just over a week ago Art Gallery Fabrics published the Spirited virtual Look Book full of beautiful projects made from my new Spirited fabric collection. If you missed it, view the Spirited Look Book here.

I contributed a lot of sewing projects to the Spirited Look Book that to be able to give you more images and project information, I’m splitting up my blog post coverage into categories. Last week it was all about The Quilts. This week will be all about The Garments and next week will be The Sundries.

View the entire Spirited Look Book HERE and then come back to see extra photos and learn more about each project.

The Garments

Boundless Spirit rayon by Sharon Holland

Art Gallery Fabrics is known for their fine quilting cotton that feels like percale but did you know they offer other substrates besides? Spirited offers two rayons and three knits—both incredibly soft.

Spirited by Sharon Holland - Art Gallery Fabrics rayon and knit substrates

My absolute favorite is the rayon. The drape is superb in garments, it’s comfortable and breathable like cotton, and even though it’s silky and lightweight, it’s very easy to sew with.

Sew House Seven Burnside Bibs and Burda Style Viscose Bouse

I wouldn’t consider myself a garment sewer but I may need to adjust my thinking because I sure have made quite a few pieces this year. I did a quick count and think the number comes in at 16 garments! That’s more than I’ve sewn in total over the last 10 years!

The big difference now a days over the past is Indie clothing designers/patterns. I find the fit of the Indie patterns truer to size and on trend and one successful sew makes you braver to try more.

When I started planning what I wanted to make for the Spirited Look Book I had a specific mood I wanted to capture. After seeing Sew House Seven’s Burnside Bib garments on Instagram I knew I wanted to sew these overalls. I made them in AGF natural linen for a chic farmhouse look and pulled the look together with the Viscose Blouse by Burda Style made with my Boundless Spirit Sorrel (horses) print in rayon. I think this has a 40s-vibe to it and love the current trend of wide-legged, cropped pants. That’s my beautiful daughter modeling the look, by the way.

We took the majority of our garment shots in Kentucky on a very cold and dreary day. Hopefully we don’t look like we’re freezing.

Here’s another look at the Burda Style blouse on me and the Cleo Skirt by Made by Rae on my daughter. I like that we can still share each others clothing!

Cleo Skirt by Made by Rae in AGF Spirited fabrics

I combined view A and B on the Cleo Skirt to have the longer length skirt with the big side pockets. This skirt is super flattering in rayon and was the easiest of all the adult garment patterns to make!

The most challenging garment I stitched for my Spirited Look Book was the Button-up Button-down shirt. It was challenging only because there were so many pieces and steps to making it. The pattern by Oliver + S was an excellent pattern and they expertly talk and illustrate you through every step. It went together perfectly but just took time to get it done.

Button-up Button-down shirt by Oliver + S in Spirited cotton

I used the Lore and Legend print in quilting cotton with accents of Bright Star Washed quilting cotton on the inside yoke, neckline, and sleeve plackets. Instead of buttons I attached Dritz Pearl Snap Fasteners and and love how it turned out. Unfortunately it was too large for my grandson as the smallest this pattern comes in is a 3T. But, he’ll soon grow into it.

The same Spirited Lore and Legend print comes in a knit. AGF knits are buttery soft, cozy, and have just the perfect stretch for garments. My daughter has been sewing pajamas for her kids and as gifts from my beautiful knits.

The original plan was for my grandson to wear his cotton button-up shirt and matching Lore and Legend knit ear flap hat but since the shirt didn’t fit—he just modeled the hat.

Ear Flap Hat by Delia Creates in Spirited knit

Oh, my goodness, the kid rocked modeling his hat! I mean, come on, just look at those baby-blues! This print and the fit are perfect on him. I used the free Ear Flap Hat pattern from Delia Creates and this was another fast and rewarding item to make.

I love this sweet snuggles photo from our day out in the cold.

If you’ve never sewn with knits before they really are an easy material to work with and quite forgiving. You don’t need to worry about edges unraveling and the stretch makes the garments hang nicely and fit comfortably. Yes, there are some consideration for sewing with knits but nothing to stop you from tying them and garments can be made just with a domestic sewing machine—no need for sergers, if you don’t have one. There’s many books, sites, and videos available with expect advice for working with knits. I know I could stand to learn more about it but my little dip into sewing with knits has given me confidence to try more!

Tatum Dress by Violette Field Threads in Spirited Knit

A really good beginner pattern for first time working with knits is this Tatum Dress by Violette Field Threads. I think this only took about 3 hours from start to finish to make. That includes cutting out the pattern from the printout, cutting the pieces, and assembly. The fit on my 4 year old granddaughter was perfect and I love the lavender Calico Days knit on her—so cute! This sort of dress would be great any time of year and can be worn with leggings or shorts.

My last make was stitched after the Look Book and purely for no other reason than I wanted to make it for myself. I used the Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater pattern and Spirited Delicate Balance Terra knit.

Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater in Spirited knit

I took this with me to Thanksgiving in Iowa with hopes of having a chance to get a photo of me wearing it but the timing and weather just didn’t cooperate at all! Another great pattern by Sew House Seven and it comes in two views. I plan to make more of these (in each view) but will add a little length the the torso next time for the A view. I love how the neckline, cuffs, and waist band are folded over so there’s no hemming!

I hope you’ve gotten inspired by my Spirited garment makes and that you give some of these patterns a try!

Spirited quilting cottons, knits, and rayons are shipping to quilt shops everywhere. I’ve started a stock lists of online shops for this collection on my FABRICS page and will continue to add links as more shops get their listings up. If your local quilt shop hasn’t ordered it yet, let them know you’d like to sew with these prints and feel the AGF difference for yourself at your favorite shop.

When you do make a project with my fabrics, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns because I love to see what you’re sewing! And tag the Spirited collection as well with #AGFSpirited.

Giveaway Alert!

This week I’ll be hosing another Spirited fabrics giveaway on my Instagram account @sharonhollanddesigns in collaboration with Linli Boyd of @lambandloomfabrics starting on Friday, December 13 with the drawing on the 16th for a 10-piece fat quarter bundle for you and a tagged friend. You’ve heard it here first so be sure to stop by IG on Friday and enter on this Friday’s Instagram giveaway post.

—Happy sewing!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post. Thank you!

Spirited Look Book - The Quilts

Spirited Look Book - The Quilts

This week, Art Gallery Fabrics released the Spirited fabric collection Look Book and I can’t wait for you to see how my new fabric collection comes to life in this virtual magazine.

Because I contributed many different projects to the Look Book and took many of the images used in it I thought it would be nice to break it down into subjects over a few blog posts and give you a personal tour of this virtual magazine. Go take a look at the entire catalog HERE and then come back for more views that didn’t make it into the magazine.

The Quilts

Blossom

Blossom by Sharon Holland

The largest quilt of the Spirited Look Book is my Blossom quilt of 72’’ square. This is my newest pattern release and now available in my SHOP. I labeled this quilt a Confident Beginner because it uses A/B blocks to achieve the overall design. What you get is the perfect canvas for showing off your selected prints and a lovely chain effect that connects the blocks. I even added a Controlling Directional Prints video to my You Tube channel especially for this quilt so you can tame those directional prints and be the boss of how they go together.

My beautiful daughter is the clothing model and quilt wrangler in these images. I’m not sure if it shows at all in the photos but it was a cold day. I draped the quilt over her shoulders to keep her warm between shoots and it was so pretty—I had the capture this scene! It’s one of my many favorite shots from the photography shoot.

Normally I machine quilt my quilts but because I had a heavy sew-list of makes and not much sew time I decided to make things simple for myself and send this quilt out to be long armed. I’m sure glad I did farm out the quilting to Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabrics. She did a beautiful job and with a quick turn around!

Brooke is wonderful to work with and she has a wide variety of super cool quilt designs to choose from. She helped me pick out this Garden Trellis pattern and I love how it echos the shape of the quilt blocks.

Lady Belle Fabrics is also a fabric shop and Brooke is carrying my Spirited collection along with many of your favorite AGF collections. She sells by the bundle and fabric by the yard—all at great prices!

Giveaway Alert!

For those of you that follow me @sharonhollanddesigns or Lady Belle Fabrics on Instagram we have a heads up for you that on Friday, December 6 Brooke and I are collaborating on a Spirited fabrics giveaway! Be sure to stop by IG on Friday and enter on my Instagram giveaway post.

Inside my quilt I used my favorite Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting. Silk handles much like traditional cotton batting but has a blend of 10% Polyester to help keep it from shrinking and the combination blend is light weight yet warm. The drape is wonderful as well with beautiful stitch definition.

This quilt looks right at home on the prairie as it does inside on a bed. If you love this quilt as much as I do, Lady Belle Fabrics will be exclusively carrying quilt kits to make a Blossom quilt just like the one you see here.

Free Range

Free Range quilt by Sharon Holland

With every Art Gallery Fabrics collection there’s an accompanying free quilt pattern. The Free Range quilt was designed by me (Sharon Holland) and made and machine quilted by the AGF Studio. This is the perfect size for a baby quilt at 42’’ square. I love how you can use a lot of your favorite prints in the half-square triangles and still have the large areas of hour glass blocks to break up the busyness. I even have you use the left over scraps for a scrappy binding—it all adds to the boho vibe of the collection.

Peppermint Twist

Peppermint Twist by Sharon Holland

The Peppermint Twist pattern could be my most popular design and you can find the pattern on my SHOP page. As you can tell by it’s name, I’ve always shown it in Christmas prints and the pattern comes in a table runner and large throw size.

I’ve been wanting to remake this quilt for some time now in non-holiday prints. I love the dramatic look of the dark Pure PE-482 Forest Night solid to pop the Spirited prints. I made less blocks than called for in the large throw and added some half blocks to the top and bottom edges (which were later cut off for a straight edge) and came up with a baby quilt size. The pattern does not reflect this baby size quilt but rather I’m showing you how to make a variation on the existing pattern and customize to the size you’d like.

Another change I made to this baby quilt was to keep the pinwheels all one print rather than two prints as in the original pattern. I love the movement of this quilt block and it shows off the prints really well.

Because of the small size I decided to hand quilt this quilt and used DMC Perlé Cotton thread in size 8. I backed it with the Tender Arrangement print from my Art Gallery Fabrics Signature collection. I love that there’s so many of my past collection prints that coordinate well with Spirited. If you already have some of my fabrics in your collection then you’ll love adding Spirited in the mix!

More Quilts

The stunning quilts in the above collage are made and designed by: AGF Studio (Dream Catcher and Izel Blocks), Harvest Star by Elaine Bergman, and Blooming Prairie Quilt by Marija Vujcic. See more of these beauties in the Look Book and on their blogs.

Spirited quilting cottons, knits, and rayons are shipping to quilt shops everywhere. I’ve started a stock lists of online shops for this collection on my FABRICS page and will continue to add links as more shops get their listings up. If your local quilt shop hasn’t ordered it yet, let them know you’d like to sew with these prints and feel the AGF difference for yourself at your favorite shop.

When you do make a project with my fabrics, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns because I love to see what you’re sewing! And tag the Spirited collection as well with #AGFSpirited.

—Happy sewing!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post. Thank you!

Chenille Pillows

Chenille Pillows

Chenille pillows by Sharon Holland

It’s been a pretty intense couple of weeks here as I’ve been sewing and photographing for the Spirited Look Book coming out December 2, 2019. The Art Gallery Fabrics Look Books are a virtual magazine of inspiring projects made with fabrics from the newest collections. I’ve got about one more day to wrap everything up and take a little breather so this seemed like a good time to share my Chenille Pillow project with you before Thanksgiving week rolls around. Who knows, you may be looking for a quick decorating project to spruce things up before the holidays.

This is one of those projects that looks super high-end and difficult but is SO easy! I guarantee once you add chenille to a project you’ll want to chenille everything—the texture it adds is amazing and the application is as simple as doing a straight stitch on your sewing machine.

Here’s How to Make Chenille Pillows

Gather your supplies to make two pillows:

• 5/8 yard SPT-85229 Trail Marker Range print fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics Spirited

• 5/8 yard DEN-L-4000 Soft Sand Linen blend from Art Gallery Fabrics

• Two rolls 3/8’’ -wide Chenille-It in Natural

• Off-white thread (to match chenille)

• Two 22’’ squares of cotton batting

• Two 16” invisible zippers to coordinate with print or linen

• Two 18’’ pillow forms (I used feather pillow inserts)

• Spray baste

Chenille-It Blooming Bias

When I designed my Trail Marker print for Spirited I envisioned embellishing this print with embroidery or some sort of extra details to enhance the geometric-global design.

First I experimented with embroidery but wasn’t in love with the results and it was very time consuming. Then I tried needle punch embroidery but because of the tight weave of Art Gallery Fabrics cotton it was a big fail. I really wanted to see my vision come to life and remembered the wonderful Chenille-It product I used when sewing for my Signature collection Look Book. See the pillow tutorial made with Signature fabric and Chenille-It HERE.

Chenille-It is a blooming bias tape that gave me EXACTLY the look I wanted and is incredibly fast and easy to apply.

Chenille the Pillow Tops

• Cut two 21’’ squares from the printed fabric. These will become the fronts for two pillows. Layer in this order: 22’’ square batting and 21’’ print square right side up. Spray baste according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

• Working in one diagonal direction at a time and starting near the center of the layered fabric, apply the chenille by stitching down the center of the blooming bias tape, sewing through both fabric and batting layers. There’s no need to pin the bias tape down, I just eye-balled the diagonal line as I sewed. Trim bias to edge of fabric then start a new row parallel to the first.

• Continue adding parallel bias strips that run in the same diagonal direction.

• Repeat to attach blooming bias to the diagonal lines running in the opposite direction by crossing the tape right over the previously applied diagonal lines.

• Once all the chenille bias tape has been sewn to the foundation, follow the instructions on the package to “bloom” the chenille. I lightly wet the stitched pillow top under the faucet to get it damp-wet and vigorously rubbed the chenille with my hand to fluff it before tossing into the dryer with some damp towels to bloom and fluff further by tumbling. In the photo above, the pillow top on the right has been fluffed lightly. I ended up fluffing it more when I bloomed the second top on the right that hadn’t been bloomed yet.

• Carefully press the dried, bloomed pillow tops. Trim and square to 19’’.

Assemble Pillows

• Cut two 19’’ linen squares for the pillow backs.

• Referring to my Hidden Zipper tutorial, to finish the pillows using the 19’’ linen squares and 16’’ invisible zippers. Again, a hidden zipper sounds super intimidating but you’ll be amazed how easy this technique is and your pillows will have a professional, high-end look when finished.

Chenille pillows by Sharon Holland

Be watching for the Spirited Look Book coming the first week of December and find more inspirational sewing projects for your home and family.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Spirited fabrics by Sharon Holland

Handy Baskets Pattern

Handy Baskets Pattern

Handy Baskets by Sharon Holland featuring Spirited fabrics for Art Gallery Fabrics

Sewing with my new Spirited fabric collection for Art Gallery has been such a joy—I can’t stop thinking of new projects!

With every collection I like to add a new free project to my FREE PROJECTS page and have been wanting to create a fun basket pattern for some time now. With the holidays right around the corner, it’s always nice to give and get handmade gifts. It’s even better when those gifts are practical and can be used all year round—these Handy Baskets are perfect for the job.

The Handy Baskets are a petite size of 6” high, 5” wide, and 5” deep. Just right for small items, a gift bag, or a modern-take on the traditional stocking because they have a loop for hanging.

With a fat eighth each of your three favorite Spirited prints and a half yard of Cork fabric from Sallie Tomato, you can quickly stitch up three baskets! There’s no interfacing needed because the cork adds all the body necessary to keep the baskets standing up sturdy. Using cork has the added bonus of being easy to wipe down, if needed.

Spirited fabrics pictured from left to right: Boundless Spirit Sorrel, Rambling Rose Briar, and Calico Days Aqua. See full collection HERE.

These Handy Baskets are fully reversible and they’re just, plain, handy for organizing kids toys, crayons, toiletries…

Or, for more organization in your sewing space that’s also pretty!

Spirited quilting cottons, knits, and rayons are shipping to quilt shops everywhere. I’ve started a stock lists of online shops for this collection on my FABRICS page and will continue to add links as more shops get their listings up. If your local quilt shop hasn’t ordered it yet, let them know you’d like to sew with these prints and feel the AGF difference for yourself at your favorite shop.

When you do make a project with my fabrics, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @sharonhollanddesigns because I love to see what you’re sewing! And tag the Spirited collection as well with #AGFSpirited.

—Happy sewing!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post. Thank you!