10 Embellishment & Creative Sewing Ideas

At Friday, we love adding new life to old garments, and embellishing our me-made clothing to make them unique. In this blog post we have curated a list of 10 Embellishment and Creative Sewing Ideas that are perfect for enhancing to your garments. Whether you're breathing new life into pre-loved items or planning a new creation using our Friday Patterns, we believe this list will spark your creativity and provide a lot of inspiration to get stuck into.

1. Crochet Trim:

First up is crochet trim. Chelsea recently put together a post all about her Ilford Jacket with crochet stitch detailing. It's a gorgeous way of adding details to garments, and what a beautiful way to make something more unique. This would work well on collars, pockets, sleeves, and any other detail on a garment. 

Above are some inspirational photos from Pinterest, showing some more crochet detail ideas. 

2. Embroidery

A really popular way of adding to clothing is embroidery, either hand stitching or machine embroidery. This top above is the Patina blouse hacked to have a larger collar, and a patch pocket. The pocket has some hand stitched flower embroidery on it. 

3. Patchwork:

Patchwork is one of those crafty trends that comes in and out of fashion, and at the moment it's having another moment in the spotlight. We are seeing a lot of patchwork garments in the form of boxy shirts, relaxed loungewear pants like the Saguaro Pants, and also tops, and jackets. It's a great way to use up scrap fabrics, and create your own fun textiles. Above are makes Chelsea created with patchwork fabric, and scrap denim, so you can see patchwork can work smaller or in larger pieces. 

4. Ribbons & Bows:

The bow trend is huge this year, and we are seeing lots of embellishments using ribbon to make bows, on things like jeans, blouses, and more. Tying ribbon into bows and sewing onto the sleeves of a jacket, or just 1 big pow on a blouse would look so cute. Above is a Sagebrush Top made in a blush pink velvet, with bows added to the sleeves which is easy to add and looks super cute.

How cool are these bow embellishment ideas, a Heather Blazer, or Patina Blouse would be perfect for adding bows too. 

5. Visible Mending, stitches, & Sashiko:

If you're knuckling down on making do, and mending garments then visible mending and sashiko is a fabulous way of renewing old garments and refashioning them into something beautiful. Intricate stitch details can look like art work, and tells a story about the garment that has been well loved, and looked after.

6. Ricrac:

Ricrac ribbon feels very wholesome handmade feel of this trim, it has a nostalgic feel to it! We love seeing it on collars, and sleeves etc. Paige shows how to use it inserted into the collar of a Donny dress, it looks like pretty scallop edging! 

You can have a lot of fun with ricrac details, and the above projects are fabulous examples of how creative you can get with the placement and colors of ricrac.

7. Quilting:

This isn't going to work with every garment, but we have seen lots of beautiful quilting embellishments recently. You could use light layers together and free-motion quilt them together for an arty vibe. Jackets with quilted fabric look great too, or our Pogonip Pullover! We have a blog post by Brittani showing how to quilt together fabrics, you can read that here.

8. Labels:

Woven labels are another great way of adding details to a garment, and look super cute on a pocket, pocket flap, or on a bag like the photo above. We added a woven label to the Bernadette bag for a finishing touch. That label is available on Paige's shop (paigejoanna.co.uk). 

9. Bias Binding:

Bias binding is a subtle embellishment that can really elevate a garment. Whether it's on the inside of a jacket peeking out, or on the edge of pockets and seams, bias binding is an easy way of adding stand out embellishment details. Go for a contrasting print or colour for stand out impact. 

10. Cut Outs

We have this wonderful guest post by Elodie (@elodieBlueberry) showing how to add lace cutouts to the Elysian Bodysuit, as well as another post by Ele (@sewnbyele), showing lace details in the Wilder Gown.