The Avid Embroiderer Presents - My Favorite Sweaters need a little something and My Own First Freebie

I have a "Love" "Hate" relationship with some of my sweaters. I love my "creamy orange," light-weight, 3/4 length sweater. It is such a beautiful color and always looks classic on me. I feel good when I wear it! (If your clothes don't make you feel terrific wearing them, get rid of them.)

I actually did go into my closet about 5 years ago to chose my "I Love This" versus "I Don't Like This." I was going to put the hated items on the floor and leave the loveables hung up. When I was done, there was very little hanging (maybe 10%) and a large pile (likely 90%) on the floor. What an eye opener that was for me.

Anyway, my orange sweater is great for southern California because it is a nice weight. But - - when it is cold, the sleeves are down. As the day warms up, I start to push up my sleeves and they lose their snug feel. You know what I am talking about. Then as the day goes on, it gets cool again and down come the sleeves. Unfortunately, they hang and don't look nice. UGH!

It finally came to me what to do. You probably have a free standing lace (FSL) design in your cache. Lets make use of them.

Using a lace design, I sewed the FSL in an off-white. See my FSL tips here. Because the FSL always advise not to resize, it took some fancy thinking to determine what size would work for this project.

Starting off, the fresh wrist size of the sweater is 20cm (8").
The stretched size of the wrist on the sweater is 22cm (8-11/16").
The circumference of my hand at widest point is 17.5cm (6-7/8").

The length of my FSL item 16cm (6-5/16")

The length of the FSL is small, but that works to my advantage. That leaves some knit fabric open that will have some 'give' making it easier to slide the sweater on and off easily. At the same time, I lightly 'gathered' a bit of the knit so it fit with the FSL.

Frankly, I had to work through the dimensions to get it to work. I was not able to come up with a formula for the numbers. The numbers did, however, give me an idea of where I needed to gather and where I needed to allow some give. (Got that??) I barely have the concept and I am the operator. . . .

Starting at the center of the design and the center of the sleeve (opposite the seam), I tacked down the FSL.



  

I will be adjusting as I go along until I have approximately 18cm (7-1/16") which is slightly wider than my hand width.

The remaining work is all done by hand. I started from the center of the sleeve/lace and worked left and right doing some gathering as I went. I don't do a lot of gathering, I want the sleeve to have some give with 'leftover' sleeve space. (Hope that is a clear. . .)

The end result is that I have a suitable long sleeve, a push-up sleeve with either the plain sleeve or I can turn over the sleeve to expose the lace side. ♪ ♫ It's Magic ♫ ♫ ♪

    



Now for the free embroidery designs. I have always wanted to learn to digitize. I have looked lovingly and hungrily at the different programs but found them to be too expensive for something I needed to have a steep learning curve to work it. I was able to find one that was in my price range and did a 30-day trial. I am delighted with my selection.  Email me at pat71896@hotmail.com if you want more information.

Here is my first attempt, well the first that I might feel OK about sharing, with a heart. Valentine's Day will be upon us really soon. 

There are actually two hearts (♥). The first is one with some contours (
◠‿◠ ) to make the heart a little more interesting. The second is a heart with a radial design (☼). The radial design does leave a small hole in the center. You could place a button/crystal inside that hole or leave it there.

Heart pt 7 Contour 75mm.zip (60KB) 




Did you know? . . .that Indonesia is the largest Archipelago*, both by area and population. Located in between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia has more than 13,000^ islands with 735,358 square miles of land and approximately 258 million citizens.
*chains, clusters, or collections of islands that make up a geographic region
^who counts these things?

Best wishes to everyone. A new year is upon us, it is an opportunity awaiting us with 365 new, shining days.
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