September is National Sewing Month, and it seemed a good time to do a round up of the sewing projects I have on the blog. I’ve been so busy with the fair that it has taken until now to get to it. I can’t show you what I am sewing right now, but you’ll see those projects next month during Autumn Jubilee. In the meantime, let’s talk about sewing for a bit. I still sew practical items for household and travel use, and along the way I am still making some of my clothes. When I cannot find what I want, I head for the fabric stash and my pattern library, and can usually come up with something that will work.

First up a quick project, my travel pillow is wonderful for spending nights in hotels. The handle makes it easy to carry, the pocket keeps what I need handy in a hotel like my sleep mask and a few other things, plus the pretty color stands out against the white sheets on a hotel bed so I don’t leave it behind. Tutorial – Road Trip Pillow.

Have a sweatshirt you love but pullovers not your thing? I would rather have a cardigan style, and show you how to do this in Turning A Sweatshirt into a Jacket.

Ready for a bigger challenge that will yield great results? My post on Sewing Rayon Pants with Perfect Fit will show you the secret on how to achieve great fitting pants. This is an easy enough project to complete in a day. I am going to be using this pattern to sew up the rayon challis I showed before into fall pants for wearing out.

Then I did a post on sewing a nightshirt style top that can be worn with the pants on cool nights, or alone on a hot summer night. The post Rayon Challis Nightshirt contains instructions on how to make a pattern from a well fitting piece of clothing you may already own, along with adjustments to fit you as you like and embellishments to make it your own. A beautiful lace applique and tiny ribbon rose makes the nightshirt designer special.

Use a commercial pattern to make a pretty print top to wear to work or with jeans and a sweater. I am always looking for pretty prints, but the stores have less and less to my taste. So I find what I like in the fabric department, and then a pattern to make something I can and will actually wear. This cowl neck blouse was a perfect tutorial on sewing, and fixing the fitting problems that sometimes happen with those of us not a standard size. See the post Rayon Challis Top.

Maybe you just need to shorten the sleeves on a great top. Once again, easy to do, and solves a problem. For me, I want woven fabric tops with short sleeves for summer. I don’t like to wear sleeveless without a jacket, which defeats the goal of having it be cool to wear. But most short sleeve tops are knits. My solution, find some long sleeve woven tops and alter the sleeves myself. I detail the way to do this on How To Shorten Sleeves on Ready To Wear.

Perhaps you have a high quality wool coat that the lining is wearing out like I did. Replacing the lining isn’t hard, just a bit time consuming, and much more economical to do it yourself. See my two part tutorial starting on this post – How to Re-Line a Winter Coat. Part two is linked at the bottom of part one.

This skirt was such a great project, and I wore it many times and many seasons when I was working. I called it a three season skirt as I could style it several ways with the print. It is a simple elastic waist skirt, but the rayon challis makes the drape lovely. Plus I show you how to use your blind hem stitch so there is no handwork. Then I show you how I pull colors from the print to find tops to wear with it for three completely different looks for the seasons. See the post Rayon Challis Three Season Skirt.

Often what I am sewing involves altering something I already have, or maybe something I found in a thrift shop. When you can sew, there are more possibilities. You can buy a piece with the pants or skirt a bit too long, or a size too big, and alter it to fit. Such was the case with this lovely lace hem skirt that was given to me by a friend. I needed it shorter, but altering the hem in the usual way would not work. See how I made the fit perfect for me in Lace Edged Skirt Re-Fashion.

And since I have to shorten every pair of pants I buy, here’s a tutorial on how to do that using a serger to finish the cut edge, and a blind hem stitch to complete the alteration without hand work. Quick Method Pants Hemming.

Now that we are in transition to the next season, it is an ideal time to go through your closet to see what you might want to sew for fall. Or shop for if you do not sew. I have a system for that in my What’s In Your Closet? post.

You can find a lot more sewing projects on the blog, as well as quilting, by using the category lists on my sidebar to pull up only those posts you are interested in. You can also use the search box for specific things, like purses, or charity sewing. Have fun exploring!