Daily Improvisations

  • Inside the Homestead
    • Sewing
    • crochet and knit
    • Playing House
    • In the Workshop
    • Cooking and Food
    • Helpless Female
  • Out in the Garden
    • In My Greenhouse
    • Gardening in Southwest Idaho
    • Straw Bale Garden Project
  • Out with Animals
    • Chickens
    • Goats
    • Horses
  • Around the Globe
    • Adventures with Wild Greg
    • Chocolate Shops Around the World
    • Life in Taipei
    • About Town
  • My Books & Blogs
    • My Books
    • My Blogs
  • Dream House
    • Dream House Eyewitness Login
    • Your Account
    • Dream House Project
  • Become a Dream House Eyewitness!

Cute 3-D Polar Fleece Patch

December 11, 2017 by Laura Blodgett Leave a Comment

Sewing mistakes happen

It was a sewing mistake turned into something beautiful! I have been making these toddler size polar fleece tunics from scraps left over from sewing ponchos for a couple of years, so I should have remembered:

Top stitch the front opening facing down BEFORE sewing the side seams, because it is much easier when it can all be kept flat.

But I didn’t. And I ended up with a very disappointing line of stitching.

I thought about undoing the top stitching, but it was going to risk messing up the polar fleece. Overall, polar fleece is VERY easy to sew with, but removing stitches almost always pulls at the fluffy parts and leaves it looking ragged. With the issue being right on the front of the shirt, I wanted to avoid that.

So, I set the project aside for a while and did some intermittent, low-key brainstorming. Then, one day, I thought of using another piece of polar fleece to make a patch. It wasn’t until I actually sat down an contemplated exactly how to cut that it occurred to me to just use one of the shapes in the design.

The patch had to do 2 things

  • The patch needed to camouflage the awkward top stitching
  • The patch needed to leave the neck space free

With this in mind, I positioned my flower-shaped patch part way up the opening slit, but decided that I would be careful about how much I attached it. It is very helpful that polar fleece doesn’t need any hemming or edge finishing.

In the video, you can get a good look and verbal explanation of the process.

In short,

  1. I pinned the patch in place
  2. I pull the opening open some to see where I wanted to end the sewing for the main patch.
  3. I hand sewed the outer edge of the first layer of the patch with a double stranded thread using a running stitch.
  4. I positioned the second layer of the patch over the first and hand stitched a center portion of it.

Voila! I had a wonderful 3-D patch that made the tunic look better than it would have with a plain front.

The first layer of my 3-D polar fleece patch.
The first layer of my 3-D polar fleece patch.

Could I do it with a different design?

When I realized how cute it was, I knew I might be creating trouble giving my twin granddaughters one tunic with a flower and one without. However, the other tunic had a more abstract snowflake pattern on it.

With some serious prompting from my husband and graphic arts’ major daughter, I experimented with cutting the snowflakes. Finally, I came up with shapes and combinations that I was happy with. Soon the second tunic had its own “flower.”

The possibilities are endless

I have seen fabric flowers made before, but mostly with fabrics that fray. Now I can see myself adding 3-D polar fleece designs to everything from ponchos to purses. I think it might even work to make a faux baby quilt that way. Just sew a bunch of the shapes onto a piece of polar fleece and it would be a wonder of 3-D warmth. What can you think of to put a 3-D polar fleece patch on?

3-D polar fleece patch snowflake
3-D polar fleece patch snowflake

 

Filed Under: Inside the Homestead, Sewing Tagged With: sewing

If you want to read a heartwarming story about how a mother deals with a daughter's death, read this book.

If you have ever wanted to cook pizza in a brick oven in your own backyard, this book is for you!

Basic Facts Guides to Gardening in Southwest Idaho

a list of blog articles covering the basics to help you with your garden in southwest Idaho

My Other Blogs

  • Fun Fitness After 50
  • Fun Learning Chinese
  • LauraBlodgett.com
  • The Happy Homeschool

Blogroll

  • Anemone Flynn
  • Fine Gardening
  • Gourmet In The Field
  • Sew 4 Home
  • The D&B Supply blog
  • The Garden Professors

Past Improvisations

Improvised Categories

Contact Me
First

Making sure you know that:

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, including affiliate links to amazon.com. See disclosures here.

About me

If you want to know more about what I’m up to and where to read about it, here is a summary! You can email me at laura@dailyimprovisations.com

All pictures and content including the name and logo “Daily Improvisations” are Copyright (c) 2019 by Laura Blodgett, unless otherwise noted. Please contact the author with any questions or comments.

Tags

animals Backyard Oven backyard weeds book reviews Chef Betharoni chickens Cori Lou Costa Rica crochet and knit decorating even I can do dehydrating fabric stores around the world flowers flowers from seed Gardens Around the Globe helpless female homestead injuries insects interview Maui music organizing poems PVC Pipe Projects questioning the establishment recipes restaurant reviews sew sewing southwest Idaho gardening sprinklers stock market diaries Taipei Taiwan technology know-how The Best Little Chocolate Shops tools and equipment underground house unimpeded parenting Wild Greg Adventure

Copyright © 2022 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in