Category: Gifts

Winter Hats For All!

Most of the adults in the family got hats as their Christmas present this year. I made nine hats in total, including the rainbow hat I made for my youngest niece.

The second hat I made was another rainbow hat, but this time in adult rather than baby size:

This one is a bright rainbow, a bit more manly than the pastels: 

This one is green and browns –  another manly one:

This one is in purples and white. I tried out thicker stripes for this one; they worked well:

And finally for this pattern I made two matching in blue and white stripes – Ipswich Town football colours:

The last two hats I made were novelty hats.

One was a minion:

And the other a red monster:

Everyone’ll be ready for a cold winter 🙂

Children’s Pencil Cases

For Christmas I made my nieces and nephew pencil cases for their presents.

Two of them I made the same as the one that went wrong, but these ones turned out well!

The first was made with pink and purple zips with pink cotton for the back:

The second I made with a rainbow of zips:

I used this pretty multi-coloured chevron cotton for the back of it:

I filled each one with some stationery items I thought the girls would like:

My nephew is a superhero fan, so for him I made this superhero pencil case:

I hope they like them!

Christmas Table Runner

This is one of my Christmas present makes, which I can show now because it has arrived (posted in Australia Monday, arrived in England Friday – post is doing well this year!) and I gave instructions to open on arrival so it would get more use.

I made a Christmas table runner! It is made from 4.5 inch squares using a variety of Christmassy fabrics, including some Christmas koalas and kangaroos! I quilted it using a wiggly stippling pattern.

It’s the first time I have used free motion quilting on something I have made. I watched some of this Craftsy course to learn how to work systematically and try to get the stitches of even length. I learnt some basic stippling designs that I repeated over and over.

Online Quilting Class

You can see the pattern more clearly on the back. It’s not completely even all the way across – I started at the end where it’s closer together, but for a first try I think it’s pretty good! I bound it using red cotton and hand stitched the binding onto the back. The tutorials that say that is quick and easy lie! But is does look good once it’s finished.

I’m really pleased with my finished table runner, and it’s now sitting on my Mum’s dining table 🙂
I’m linking this project up for Sew Cute Tuesday on Blossom Heart Quilts.
Sew Cute Tuesday

 

 

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Digger Bag

My nephew has the last birthday in the family before Christmas, and this year I made him a bag.

I asked my sister what kind of things he was into, and one of the things on the list that came back was diggers!This bag is made from the Fun-to-Go Tote Kids Bag pattern by Fishsticks Designs.

The digger on the front under the zip is paper pieced, and I then used yellow cotton around it to make the pieces the right side. I had some leftover digger fabric to do the band above the zip.

When it came to the back I was originally going to use the digger fabric, but when I measured it there wasn’t enough left, so I made a band across the top to match the front like this: The handles and the lining are yellow cotton, and there is a layer of yellow fleece inside to give the bag some structure. (It didn’t need to be yellow fleece, but there was a piece the right size and it matched the lining so I thought why not!) The zip pocket runs the entire length of the bag. The pocket is lined in grey cotton (see how all the colours from the digger are used somewhere else as well!)I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I think it looks great 🙂

 

 

I’m linking this project up for Sew Cute Tuesday on Blossom Heart Quilts.
Sew Cute Tuesday

The Christmas present that wasn’t to be!

I have two weeks to get all the Christmas presents made/bought and into the post!

So I made a start trying to make a zippy pencil case.

This photo makes it look really good, like it was easy! Ha! Well it wasn’t!

The first sewing machine needle hit a metal bit and snapped.

The second sewing machine needle hit another metal zip bit and bent.

And when I’d finally sewn all the zips together and onto the backing fabric (some black cotton with multicoloured stars), I trimmed all the threads, trimmed the seams, turned it right side out, and admired my nicely lined up zips… … and then I turned it over: Oh bum! I’ve sewn the fabric on wrong side out 🙁

I sat and thought about how this could be saved. Having trimmed all the seams, unpicking and resewing would be just too hard. I considered sewing something over the back to cover it up, but that would just look odd.

So in the end I decided it would have to be scrapped and something else would have to take its place.

“W, I have a present for you!” – poor child gets all the cast offs not good enough for gifts and all the practice items!

He says “I love it!” – he’s easily pleased!

He likes it because it has lots of zips, and when you open it up there’s stars!

Baby Rainbow Hat

 I can cross one present off my Christmas list!

This rainbow hat will be for my youngest niece. The pattern is one I found on Etsy. It’s called Tutti Frutti designed by The Hat And I. I made the 6-12 month size.

It is a striped corkscrew hat – it is topped with a corkscrew of each colour stripe, giving it a pom pom effect. I hope she likes it 🙂

 

 

I’m linking up with Sew Cute on Blossom Heart Quilts:

Sew Cute Tuesday

Fancy Pants Leggings

I have been trying out some of the patterns from the Sew Fab Sale.

First on the list were two pairs of Fancy Pants Leggings by Titchy Threads. I did one pair in blue, and the other in purple, both with black ribbing for the waistband and sewn completely on my sewing machine using my twin needle. They are both in the size 6-12 months, which at Christmas will be just the right size to fit my niece! They are ‘fancy pants’ as they have a separate bum panel pattern piece so the bottom on your leggings can be a different colour or have a fancy pattern on it. For these leggings I switched the colours for the bottom pieces. The pattern has been updated and now goes all the way from newborn up to size 10, and has instructions for making shorts as well as leggings.

I think I shall try some shorts next 🙂

 

It is one of the 26 patterns for sale as part of the Sew Fab pattern bundle, which means that it costs just $1.15 when bought as part of the bundle!

Wedding Hearts Blanket

We’ve been away for almost a month, travelling to the other side of the world to my brother’s wedding. Now we’re back I can share the wedding present I made.

 

About 18 months ago I trawled Ravelry and bought the pattern.

I took a trip to Spotlight and picked out a whole range of colours in their 8-ply pure wool.

And then (very) slowly I made square after square until I had 63 of them.

And then the joining began, until finally, with 3 days to spare before the wedding, it was finished! I don’t really do random, so the colours run in diagonal stripes! On the square in the bottom right I sewed their names and the wedding date.

One finished blanket 🙂