Tutorial: Santa Sack

I wanted to revisit a tutorial that I made back in November 2011 for home made Santa Sacks.

I don't know what your Christmas was like as a child - but one of my highlights was the stocking. The arrival of Santa (Father Christmas) and the stocking was huge. The stocking was one of my father's thread bare socks (it was not at all attractive.) So when we had children I knew that the stocking was going to be one of my little Christmas obsessions.

Nativity Pageant: Shepherds Costumes

Not much crafting is going on here - with too many small children under foot and not enough time (or energy!) But I have been able to squeeze in a bit of sewing for our local Nativity Pageant that happens every year. They needed some new shepherd costumes so I set to work using this very simple pattern. (Please e-mail me if you would like this file - it shows how to cut a length of fabric into simple shapes that then make the tunics and cloaks.)

I managed to make 4 complete costumes. 

 With frayed edges ...

 ... grommets and cord to make fancy shepherd necklines ...

 ... simple gathered slings ...

 ... and some attention to corner detail.

 I can't wait to see them being worn this year!

Happy Holidays everyone.

Recycle Old Holiday Cards into Quick Gift Tags

Its not to late to add those cute finishing touches to the presents all wrapped up under the tree. I like to keep all bows and cards from any occasion and recycle them. This year I have recycled the ribbons and cards from holidays gone by. It really takes no time at all to make your own gift cards and it is great to recycle. Use normal scissors or pinking shears, a hole punch and a bit of ribbon. Some of them are so cute they could pass as brand new gift tags!

My Favorite Gingerbread Receipe

Taken from the Good Housekeeping Cook Book (Reprint 1996). I think the UK version of gingerbread is a little more crisp than the US version - but we just love this recipe!

Gingerbread
Note: Double this recipe if you want enough for a gingerbread house.

12oz plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
4oz butter
6oz light brown sugar
4tsp golden syrup
1 egg, beaten

Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like find breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Beat the syrup into the egg and stir mixture into the bowl. Roll out onto a floured surface to about 1/4inch thick. Cut out cookie cutter or house shapes. (I like to then chill the shapes in the fridge for at least 30mins before baking - it helps keep the cookies from spreading into unrecognizable shapes!) Bake in oven at 375F for 12-15 mins, until golden. Cool on a wire rack and decorate.

We made this gingerbread house this year.Little hands could not stay off it for long!
And the winner of the Santa Sack Giveaway was Nancy! Congratulations Nancy and thank you to everyone who joined in.

Candy Cane Mice

Ever since I got Martha Stewarts Handmade Holiday Crafts I've been dying to make these guys. I made a couple of adjustments. I used bobbly wobbly eyes and folded the ears ... ... while hooking the candy cane through the ear loop at the back - which made them perk up a little. The mice are in browns and greys, with little red rudolph noses and colored ear inserts which match the color of their tails.They are just as cute as I dreamed they would be.
UPDATE & TIP: If giving these guys as a gift to children - put them in a cellophane bag - little fingers rip these apart quicker than you can say quick. They also make cute Christmas tree decorations.

Giveaway & Tutorial: Santa Gift Sack

Reading A Spoonful of Sugar's Christmas Fabric Gift Pouches made me remember I too had holiday gift bags to make. No precise sewing or much time is needed to make these cute Santa Sacks. Perfect to use as a gift bag, holiday decoration or substitute for a stocking (the girls will be getting these instead of stockings this year.)

Materials:
- a square of hemp, quilt batting and a holiday cotton print - all the same size (I have used 36" squares - but smaller or large squares would also work)
- elastic
- ribbon

• Layer the three squares - batting, hessian and cotton print wrong side up.

• Pin layers together and sew around the edge leaving enough of a gap on one side for turning. I used a 1/4" seam. (Tip: A walking foot makes it easy to sew multiple layers together.)
  
• Trim seams and turn - sew remaining hole shut.

• Pin layers together and sew a circle (approx 2.5" from edges) and then another circle 1/2 “ inside first circle.

• On the cotton print side make small incision between the two sewn circles. Thread elastic through. Pull the elastic as tight as possible. Secure elastic and close incision.

• Tie bow on front. Add gift tag and any other decorative items as desired.

AND because I have made too many for my needs this year - I am giving away one of these Santa sacks. I'll pick a number at random on 6th of December. Just leave a comment telling me what was the best holiday present you ever received as a child!

Pompom Christmas Tree Tutorial

I have very early memories of making pompoms. We would cut out wonky circles of cardboard - make wonky holes in them and then awkwardly ... for what seemed like the longest time ... thread yarn through the hole around the wonky cardboard until we could thread no longer. I had this idea for a Pompom Christmas Tree and I thought that there should be some gadget out there that would make pompoms easier to make. The Clover pompom makers gets good reviews - and I liked them a lot too.

Materials
- green yarn
- wooden skewer
- hemp or Christmas wrapping paper
- pot of old Playdoh
- glue
- cling film/saran wrap
- decorative buttons
- ribbon

Equipment
- pompom makers or previously mentioned wonky circles of cardboard in ascending size
- scissors

• Make your pompoms in ascending size. For my trees I used anywhere between 2-5 pompoms.
• Put pompoms in ascending size onto a skewer - squish them tightly together and trim. Remember to leave some skewer empty on the base and on the top of the tree.

• Put glue on to the top of the skewer and shape pom pom at the top.

• Add any tree topping decoration - I used plastic star shaped buttons.

• Wrap a lump of old Playdoh in cling film/saran wrap (you can use anything that has weight to it and can be speared with a skewer), then again in hemp or wrapping paper. Secure with a bow.
  

• Trim skewer to desired size and put the remaining skewer into the Playdoh. Trim hemp/wrapping paper.

Homemade Christmas Cards

Draw some shapes on some heavyweight paper.Carefully paint the shapes.
Carefully cut out the shapes and add some glitter in a delicate fashion.
Stick the shapes onto a folded piece of card.
Grandma will love these!

A look back on 2009

Where has 2009 gone?

Here are a few little highlights of my year.
I haven't achieved as much as I would like crafting wise - but the year been SO fulfilling in many other ways. I was so scared of becoming a mother - but now I can't imagine life without (what I consider to be - although I might be biased) the most lovely, peachy cheeked little girl ever (no no - I'm not biased at all!)

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for what I hope will be an exciting 2010 for all of us.

Heavenly Hemp

My resolution not to use plastic bags is going quite well and recently I've been thinking about Christmas (I know I know it is far far too early) .... but my thought was that wrapping paper is kind of a waste too and why not just make beautiful gift bags to present your presents in that they can be reused and reused and reused. After all - Santa just uses one big sack no? And it was Santa's sack that made me think of making reusable gift bags for this years pressies.

So on a recent trip to JoAnn's (have you seen the price of fabric at that place? choose carefully and you can save SO much cash while adding to your material stash ... perhaps that is bad advice to all you material addicts!) I purchased some hemp (cream and brown) and here are my first attempts at reusable gift sacks. (These are just the first version of the wine bottle sacks - I'm working on much bigger sacks too.)
Each little sack as a felt applique image and embroidered message ...
It was so bright and sunny outside that I thought myself crazy for making Christmas goodies and the sun and the texture of the hemp made me think of straw beach bags ... and straw made me think of bunnies and then I was off and made this ... my rabbit hutch bag ... I know it doesn't look like a rabbit or a hutch but it was named after my thoughts of sunny straw and bouncy bunnies ...
... and I'm really not a big bag person so I'm not sure why I keep making bags but there was something about this one that made me feel happy and smiley. Perhaps it was the polka dots? or the little felt flower with sparkles ...
... or perhaps it was just the love I have of making things that got to me.