Christmas sewing and crafting

I like to sew Christmas things to Christmas music but this year it’s all too early for that. It’s nice to be early don’t get me wrong but it seems odd.

Yes it has already begun! I’m sad that I can’t show you too much because there are gifts in there too.

I will show you this though, some Christmas decs on a kind of folky theme.

Cute folksy hanging hearts (so i’m told),

and stars to hang. I love stars. There is a tutorial to make these stars at Linaloo. They are soooo easy to make.

I don’t know how I did it, having started out with a five pointed star I ended up with six? I think when I drew it out I got the angle wrong. Oh well, it still worked! I’m not sure about that green ribbon loop. This is a piece of stash ribbon but I will have to buy darker for them to look right.

 Linaloo also has a great tutorial for decorating candles.

Thanks to my friend who sent me this cool kids tutorial for making facecloth reindeers. It’s too good not to share.

We made some for the Christmas fair on Friday. Well only two so far - have to buy more face cloths and soap!

A year on…18/11/2008

Happy birthday blog!

I have had a happy year and made many new friends with my blog. This was my first ever post and I didn’t know anything about blogging at all! The blog has changed a bit since then!

I have learnt a lot in the past year and the support here in blogland is tremendous. Thank you all so much. Of course, a big thanks to my readers too. If you weren’t watching there would be no need for me to warble on!

Heres to another happy year of my warbling!   xxx

A review of last year’s crafting;

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/30332033@N05/3085945347/in/set-72157609433532894/

ssssnake!

We have had lots of fun today. A picky, party tea. For what reason? Because we can!

It’s dull, rainy and windy outside but we are inside, in the warm, feeling cozy.

Little man found a bit of green fabric in my stash. He decided he wanted a rattle snake. I agreed to help him make one.

Little man pinned and cut the fabric. I didn’t have enough hands to take pics when the scissors were out! We sat together to sew it.

For the rattle we put two bottle tops together then filled them with rice. We taped them so they didn’t fall apart. Then Little man got at it with the stuffing! I didn’t know that stuff could go so far-it was everywhere!

I sewed a piece of felt for a forked tongue and some beady eyes. Hey presto! Here comes snakey!

The t-shirt lies, it was him! Ha ha!

The Toymaker

I have simply had to include The Toymaker on my “stuff for kids” list.

I can’t tell you how much I love the rabbit and mouse paper toys! These are a must make, just for a bit of fun. In fact they are printing as I type.

Little man and I will stick these together later and make up some games to play with them. I can hardly wait! Hurry home from school!…

(Later)…we had so much fun with these as you can imagine. Mice races and all sorts of games were invented!

 

“Mum! Come and see! The mice are eating my biscuits!”

Helen’s Fruit Cake

I have had this recipe for a long time. It has always been a really nice cake when it’s made. So good in fact, it doesn’t hang around for very long!

The recipe was given to me, by my Mum, by her friend, years ago. It was written into my book as Helen’s fruit cake and so the name has stayed. Its a boiled cake mix, call it whatever you wish! It’s freezable by the way.

Heat oven to gas 3/325 F/160 C. Grease and line 2 x 1lb loaf tins.

1/2 pint milk.
8oz brown sugar
1lb fruit, mixed or whatever you have to hand(or you could use a block of dates and 4oz walnuts)
10oz margarine/butter

Mix all the ingredients together. Bring it to the boil then turn it off. Let the mixture cool slightly. Add,

2 beaten eggs
1lb self-raising flour

We like a bit of mixed spice in ours so I put in about 2 teaspoons as well.
Mix all together well but don’t overmix. Put into 2 x 1lb loaf tins. Cook for about an hour. Test with a skewer.

Right i’m off for a cuppa and a slice of naughtiness! ;-D

Reindeers and Santa…

Last year I made these little reindeers and a santa for decorations. I also made a few as gifts. My Little man filled them with sweets and gingerbread

I had so much fun doing them that I wanted to remind you where I got the pattern idea for the reindeers. The Father Christmas was my own but along the same guide lines. My Little Mochi tells us about her reindeers here.

You could do the same if you wanted,  it’s really easy. Just cut out the bits in the shape that you want and sew them on!) I made lots and hung them all over the tree for my Little man to find!

I safely packed them away so that when I get the decorations out they can be hanging around again

Handmade Holidays 3!

It’s here!

They have already started so get on over to Sewmamasew for a gander at a huge list of things to make for Christmas gifts (that’s where I came across the chai tea recipe!).

Not to be missed, go take a look….

Chai tea…

I’m sitting here drinking this from Lucy Knisley.

Ooooohhhhh! I’ts a must try, believe me!

Cheers Lucy, here’s to your tea recipe!

There is more in the fridge for tomorrow Yummy!

 

Space curtain

A while ago I had been given a bag of fabric off-cuts. I’d opened it up to find small pieces of  cotton sheeting and this rather nice space fabric.

Some of the sheeting has been used for other things and I had thought about it before, but with the space theme going on it seems appropriate to make this into something.

There are flaws in the fabric. The lines run from side to side but that doesn’t bother me. I nipped out to get one of those tension rods to hang it at the window. I have some net wire but I didn’t want to screw it into the frame. A bargain at £2!

I trimmed it (so meant to be because I only took about 6” off the top and tidied up the sides), hemmed the sides with the hem foot on the machine.  (This foot is great. Look how neat and tidy it makes things, without even trying!)

Turned the top and bottom,threaded the rod through and hung it up. How easy was that? Done in less than 2 hours from buying the rod to hanging at the window. Cost of £2 – what a bargain! I really like it when that kind of thing happens ;-D

The 6” scrap from the top will be made into some little drawstring wash bags, for small hands that can’t keep hold of slippery soap in the bath! The open weave will make lots of lovely soapy bubbles!

Catching up…

You will surely have noticed that there have been hardly any pictures in my posts recently. I have had problems getting them onto the site. I have spent many hours puzzling it out but with no answer. Which is why I haven’t really updated very much of late.

Our older lad was here the night before last and asked me what I was muttering about?(I was actually sitting here feeling rather annoyed because I couldn’t get the photos where I needed them to be).
After 10 mins fiddling about he managed a solution.

So here we are pictures again, at last! Yey!

We really need to catch up a bit here…The kimono that I started ages ago is done. It started out life as a white cotton curtain, with two layers. The first was an open weave cotton with lovely white swirls printed on (from a distance they look like embroidery but they aren’t) and the second a tighter, slightly heavier cotton.

To begin with, I never wear white. It gets too grubby too quickly! I bought some lavender coloured dye a while ago. It ended up in a sale rack for around 10p.
Dumped in dye then onto the line to dry.

Each time I got this curtain out to cut up, something happened. Whether it be a phone call or whatever. Sometimes just put on the shelf while other jobs took over. This went on for a couple of weeks!

Eventually it was cut out and sewn together, now my new kimono.

 Photos taken by my 5yr old Little Man!

Also some hand embroidery for my hubby’s birthday, made into a coaster. This photo isn’t that great, it’s much nicer in real life.

For Fluffy Red’s birthday this rather nice (if I do say so myself!) jewellery roll.

A couple more sewing jobs to do then I can get stuck into some Christmas sewing!