If your letter to Santa reads more like a stock list from your favourite fabric shop, it might be wise to get a few seasonal scrapbusters under your sewing belt – after all there is no better way to make space for your new arrivals! Why not kick off the process with these quick and easy decorations from Carolyn Letten? A trio of cosy Christmas jumpers, they can be personalised to suit your festive aesthetic and you could switch out the word ‘cosy’ for the names of your friends and family.
ESSENTIALS
● Fabric: cotton, pink and orange scraps ● Felt, three neutral shades, assorted scraps of grey, white glitter, dark blue, blue, light blue, mustard, red ● Embroidery thread: 6 strand, white, pink, purple, violet ● Wadding
● Ribbon, narrow, silver
● Acid-free glue stick
Make a snowman sweater
1 Download and print the templates from sewmag. co.uk. Using the template, cut a jumper front along the solid line from pale grey felt. Using pinking shears down one edge, cut a 1.5cm x 7cm strip of dark blue felt. Using acid-free glue, stick it across the bottom of the jumper front, so the bottom edges meet and there is a slight overhang at both sides. Using pinking shears on both edges, cut a 1cm x 7cm piece of blue felt. Glue it above the previous piece and push the pinked edges together. Repeat the process with a 8mm x 7cm piece of pale felt. Repeat the process for the sleeve cuffs, cutting the pieces 3cm wide, ensuring the dark blue piece measures 8mm x 3cm.
2 Using navy machine thread across the top of the dark blue felt and the bottom of the blue felt, sew zig zag stitch across all the pinked edges. Use a dark teal machine thread across the top of the blue felt and a light teal across both edges of the light blue felt. Sew vertical lines in navy machine thread across the bottom of the jumper on the dark blue felt. Using the template, cut the snowman’s head from white glitter felt and sew it in place with navy machine thread. Glue the orange fabric nose, then sew the eyes, mouth and carrot using black machine thread.
3 Use the template to cut the neck cuff from light blue felt, stitch in place using the dashed line as the guide, 2mm from all four edges. Add vertical lines as shown. Trim off the overhang. Place the jumper front, right side up on top of a piece of pale grey felt roughly cut a bit bigger, and place the knotted end of a 22cm loop of silver ribbon in between them. Machine sew all the way around 2mm from the edge. Cut off all excess felt.
Sew a Fair Isle jumper
1 Download and print the templates from sewmag. co.uk. Using the template, cut a jumper fro
