For someone who is an inexperienced sewer I seem to make many sewing projects without a pattern. I’ve done this in the past to make a laptop case for Boris, bedroom curtains, and pillow slip covers. They’ve all turned out okay, so I keep diving in with my patternless improv.

I’ve been wanting to make a proper case for my sunglasses, which came with a crappy slip bag that has slowly come apart over time. I did not photograph any of the work in progress of this project, so you can only see the end results. I used a piece of scrap padded foam left over from Boris’ laptop case project, and chose a grey and white fabric square recently purchased from A Spool of Thread.

I measured, cut, sewed, and voilà, the glasses have a very simple case to protect them while bumping around in the bottom of my bag.

I should really put more time into learning more advanced sewing techniques.

I have many pieces of clothing that are waiting in the wings to receive an awesome upgrade of stitching, but at the moment I’ve been focused on sorting out a design to add to a stretch denim skirt I purchased secondhand last summer. Pictured above is the start of a sashiko design made up of hexagons that I thought for sure was the design of choice. I changed my mind after stitching the first hexy as a test because there is a very specific way I am supposed to proceed in sewing these patterns and because of the flow I had in mind it was going to be tricky. The thing that turned me off was realizing I wasn’t excited by the work ahead.

Yesterday I sat down for an hour or so to make time to experiment with another idea I had in mind of creating textured shapes (not necessarily circles) using the straight stitch. I made one small circle on my trusty sampler and I love how it turned out. Even better, I feel SUPER excited to make more of these on my skirt. That feeling is how I know I have stumbled upon the right idea.

More recent work on my sampler is this experiment with using French Knots to create freehand designs and texture. This is a test for an idea I am sorting out to do on my winter coat. I’m waiting to get started after the weather warms up and I no longer need to wear it. The idea I have in mind is to do swirls of French Knots in various shades of reds and pinks. I want to make it into the spectacular winter coat I have often dreamed of but could never afford to buy.

I’m sure I will come up with more clothing embellishment projects once these ones are complete.