Welcome to my 2025 holiday sewing and creating series!
This year my plan is to stitch up or create several items for the upcoming holidays, some for gift giving and some for myself.
In my ideal plan, I'd like to be able to complete at least one item per week, maybe two, however I know that life has a way of taking our 'ideal's' and laughingly toss them out the window.
At any rate, I'm going to give it a shot!
Here's the first item ...
(and it's for me)
I started with an oversized Christmas sweatshirt.
I cut the bottom ribbing off right above the seam stitching. This was not hard at all, I used scissors and went slowly. For the sleeves, I cut the cuffs off using the same method and then decided I wanted the sleeves to be shorter so they would hit me between the elbow and wrist. To achieve that I needed to cut off 2 more inches in length from each sleeve. I used my rotary cutter, mat and an acrylic ruler to do that.
I also measured 2 inches up from the bottom of the sweatshirt at the seam on each side and made a slit. I forgot to get a picture of that step, but you'll see it in future pictures.
I stretched the cut edges of the sleeves and bottom of sweatshirt by gently pulling/stretching them. See the way the ends gently roll, this gives it a softer look that I really like.
I can pair it with jeans, jean skirt, wear it over a sleeve-less dress (I have a sleeve-less black linen dress that this would work perfectly worn over.), or over a skirt (I have a skirt in mind to stitch up that would work well with this combo.)
Stay tuned!
(You can use this same method/concept with any oversized sweatshirt. It doesn't have to be holiday related, in fact this would make a nice gift!)
This project took less than 30 minutes to complete and required no sewing at all. The other project I hope to get done this week won't be that quick and it does require sewing! In fact, I would really like to complete two other holiday projects this week ... wish me luck!
Have you started on any holiday sewing?
