A Tie-Sleeve Top to Cheer Up My Mom

Our family have had a rough 2020, and my mom especially. We've had three family members die this year, and the enforced separation during these times makes the distance between us feel even greater. I feel thankful that I was able to fly over in February when my dad was in hospital (which actually feels like a lifetime ago), but it's been impossible for a multitude of reasons to visit since then. So I wanted to do what I can to both give her a boost, and to make the distance between us feel a little less severe. I'd sent over a few care packages full of face masks but as practical as they are, they're not particularly cheery. Back in February I'd I made her (and myself) this tie-sleeved top from the June 2019 Burda magazine, and she really loved that we had "twin shirts". You can see more about the shape of the sleeve pieces and the general construction notes in this post, so I won't repeat it here. She really loved that one so much that she picked out some fabric at JoAnn for another version and I brought it home in my suitcase to sew up at some point.

Our family have had a rough 2020, and my mom especially. We’ve had three family members die this year, and the enforced separation during these times makes the distance between us feel even greater. I feel thankful that I was able to fly over in February when my dad was in hospital (which actually feels like a lifetime ago), but it’s been impossible for a multitude of reasons to visit since then.

So I wanted to do what I can to both give her a boost, and to make the distance between us feel a little less severe. I’d sent over a few care packages full of face masks but as practical as they are, they’re not particularly cheery. Back in February I’d I made her (and myself) this tie-sleeved top from the June 2019 Burda magazine, and she really loved that we had “twin shirts”. You can see more about the shape of the sleeve pieces and the general construction notes in this post, so I won’t repeat it here. She really loved that one so much that she picked out some fabric at JoAnn for another version and I brought it home in my suitcase to sew up at some point.

Side note: If you haven’t got this edition of Burda magazine you can buy the individual pdf from English BurdaStyle.com though the site is soooooo slow and so broken, you might be better off buying it in German.

But I digress. As I detailed last week, I was suffering from low sewing mojo. But then I saw the fabric mom had picked out sitting in my stash so I thought “why not sew up that top for her?”, and reader, that gave me the boost I needed!

Since it was my third time sewing this pattern, I didn’t even look at the instructions, and sewed it on autopilot. I still love the tie sleeves so much – they’re so nicely finished!

I managed to finish it in plenty of time for her birthday in early Novemver, so I posted it off with some tea from my favourite company and hoped for the best. Luckily the US postal service seems to be functioning again – this arrived in one week(!) instead of the six weeks my parcels were taking in the spring/summer.

I added one of these special “With love from a sewcial distance” labels from Modista sewing, and my own vinyl emoji transfer (I cut out tons of these on my Silhouette machine around bigger designs to not waste space) to make it even more special.

It was a great surprise for her (she didn’t remember choosing the fabric!), is something new to wear around her retirement community, and it reminds her of me. I like to think of it as a sewn hug every time she wears it!

Doesn’t she look great?? And note the mask on her wrist, from a set I sewed for her and posted over in the summer!

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  1. 1
    Sandy Fehr

    Thanks, Sweetheart! It cheered me up a lot and I think of you (and shed a tear for what was) every time I wear it. I especially love the fabric and color. FehrTrade helped pick out the fabric, I just chose the color. It arrived just in time for wearing orange and black every day for a week prior to Halloween, and I love it!

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