#imademyclothes, Christmas ideas, Crafts, Dog Clothes, dogs, Ellie & Mac Patterns, fashion, sewing

My Sew Sew Life-One Yard of Black and Red Flannel & Zero Waste

by terrigardner1

Four or five years ago I purchased one yard of red and black plaid flannel. My aim was to sew some type of garment for Dylan, our Mountain Feist dog. He’s a short hair dog and in the winter gets cold (he does have a few sweaters). But mainly, I though he would just look fantastic in a black and red plaid.

But, I just wasn’t inspired by any of my dog clothes patterns. Then Ellie and Mac came out with their Hoodie Dog Sweater. However, their pattern was designed to be made in 4-way stretch knit but flannel is a woven with zero stretch. However, I did have a 1/2 yard piece of red 4-way stretch knit (who knows why I bought that).

If I cut the pattern about 1/2″ bigger for his normal size from the flannel but used the red stretch knit for the bottom panel, would that give me and Dylan the easy fit for slipping the hoodie on and off?

Yes it did! I also added the red knit for the hood, back pocket, leg and bottom bands. Our boy looks very stylish and, yes he loves the extra warmth.

But Now I Have All This Fabric Left

Lately, I’ve been reading a few books about sustainability and am really interested in zero waste. Looking at the left over fabric from Dylan’s hoodie, the wheels started turning. Could I keep making items until there is nothing left? A project was born!

A New Shirt For Niki

The next logical thing in my mind was to make sure Niki got a new shirt too. A Poodle has to be stylin’!

I pulled out McCalls 5776, a good but now discontinued pattern, which can still be found on ETSY.

I made view F, which is a shirt. The flannel had great selvedge fringe and I used on the bottom edge of Niki’s shirt. The red knit came in handy again for his pocket and decorative sleeve patches.

A New Christmas Scarf For Penny

Penny is our only four legged girl and I decided she needed a new Christmas scarf. Almost all the fringed selvedges left were used for her scarf’s ruffled edge. Two other design features is the deep red gross-grain ribbon and an embroidery pattern that came with my Baby-Lock sewing (and embroidery) machine. I think it looks great against her white and black. Again, the red knit came in handy because I used it for the scarf’s lining.

There wasn’t a pattern for this. First, I decided how big the triangle needed to be and then measured Penny’s neck to get the length of the band and went from there. The band is fastened with red Velcro (again from my stash), which makes for a quick on and off the dog.

About Down To Scraps Now

Now I was down to scraps but some of them were pretty big. I’ve been thinking about cutting down on how much Christmas paper I buy to become a tad more sustainable. Making a few Christmas bags will help me accomplish this.

This was a plan as I go project. Sew two pieces together and then figure out where to put the next one until I had something that was close to a rectangle. I used a decorative stitch for top stitching and used my red stretch knit for the bag back. Also, I added a little pocket (with some more of the fringed selvedge) to put a card in for who the gift was for.

I have a stash of ribbons and used one of them for ties. I’ve already made another Christmas bag and have pulled out scraps for a few more. I like making these bags!

Even Smaller Scraps Left At This Point

My scraps were getting smaller but I could still seam them together. It was time to make something for myself and I chose to make a bow to wear as a Christmas accessory. I pieced together four rectangles and backed them with some black broadcloth that I had in my stash.

I liked the idea of adding some glitz against such a utilitarian fabric like plaid flannel. I have Swarovski crystals in various colors and chose red and black.

For versatility, I put a pin and a way to attach a chain on the back.

And here is me wearing my new bow. I rather like it. It’s very festive!

The Scraps Were Getting Pretty Tiny

At this point the scraps were so small, there was no sewing anything! But, I still thought I could get one more item out of my flannel and decided to make a Christmas ornament.

Using Wonder Under, I fused a few scraps onto that black broadcloth which I had cut into a 6″ x 6″ square and added machine embroidery.

During Embroiderydesign.com’s Black Friday sale, I found some very adorable holiday embroidery patterns. The Santa Kitty was just to cute not to have.

The kitty is stuffed with flannel scraps that I cut up into small bits so I didn’t have to used that polyester stuffing.

And this is what I have left after I stuffed my ornament, so not quite exactly zero waste but I will use this bag to collect more small bits that I’ve cut up to stuff future projects.

This is the end of my “One Yard of Black and Red Flannel” adventure. I hope you enjoyed as I merrily sewed along. I had a hoot doing this project-just designing as I went along with what I had left.

Take care everyone, and if I don’t get another post in before December is over, Season Greetings!

27 thoughts on “My Sew Sew Life-One Yard of Black and Red Flannel & Zero Waste”

    1. Hi, Michelle and thank you. This was the most fun I have had with sewing in a while. Sewing clothes will always be my #1 focus but I sure enjoyed having the shorter projects. And I decided if I want to get more use from the embroidery side of my machine, I need to more things like this-especially the bags because I bought loads of embroidery patterns on Black Friday.

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    1. Thanks Emma, The best way I suppose to do zero waste is to use zero waste patterns but they are far and few. I just need to think of ways to put scraps together. I think I’m going to make dust bags here and there for my bags that didn’t come with them-I think that would be a good.

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  5. Great! I so enjoyed this post! Melody B.

    On Sun, Dec 13, 2020 at 3:47 PM MeadowTree Style wrote:

    > terrigardner1 posted: ” Four or five years ago I purchased one yard of red > and black plaid flannel. My aim was to sew some type of garment for Dylan, > our Mountain Feist dog. He’s a short hair dog and in the winter gets cold > (he does have a few sweaters). But mainly, I though h” >

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    1. Thanks-this was so much fun because after the two shirts I never knew where I was going to go-things just kept popping into my head as I went along. I really enjoy this piece sewing and want to figure out how to do more.

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    1. Thank you-That could have been another title for this post, “Down to the Last Scraps!”. Also, I’ve started making dog clothes after I adopted my Sophia (who has now passed away). Until she came into my life, making clothes for my pups never entered my mind but I do get sheer enjoyment from it, that’s for sure.

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  10. ‘Sew’ clever, sorry just had to say that. Wow, you are very clever and all your pieces are very sweet. Thank you for sharing on the #linkup Jacqui x

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  12. Terri, I am in awe of how creative and talented you are! I love the black and red flannel and it looks so great on all of your adorable fur babies! And that bow that you made for yourself is super fun! Love the way you have styled it, too. Thanks for linking with us! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

    Shelbee
    http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com

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