December Crochet-Along

I’m taking part in the monthly Crochet-Along hosted at the The Curious Pug!

This month it’s the slouchie beanie from Little Things Blogged. I didn’t get started right at the beginning of the month, partly because making wooly hats when it’s midsummer and 38 degrees celsius outside just feels wrong, but mainly because I only just finished making all he crafty bits for Christmas on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day arrived, and with it grey skies, lots of rain and a need for jumpers, socks and wellies (obviously to stop us missing the UK climate!) Perfect time to make a hat then!

I struggled to decide on a colour to use, so decided to use all of them instead – stripes 🙂

I was impressed at how quick it was to make, by lunchtime on boxing day it was done!

If I had time before the end of the month I would make one of these crochet mannequins like Alycia has on her shop – such a cool idea, then I wouldn’t have to model it myself for photos!!

Here is my finished stripey hat 🙂

Slouchie Beanie Pretty stripes

 

Superhero Doll

Finished just in timeNothing like leaving things til the last minute to make you get them done! This little fella was made start to finish on Christmas Eve. He’s made from the Dolls and Daydreams Superhero sewing pattern.

The pattern was pretty easy to follow, although wrestling the arms and legs inside to sew around the body was a bit tricky.

He can be just an ordinary boy …Just a boy…or you can add his reversible mask and cape …Reversible side 2 Reversible side 1…and he becomes a Superhero! He has yet to be named, but he was well received on Christmas Day 🙂Superhero side view Superhero

 

Christmas Elves

Father Christmas sent his elves to check we were being good! I made the Christmas Elves from the Funky Friends Factory.

They were quite a long time in the making. They started off way back near the start of December as piles of Christmas fabric and paper pattern pieces, and I hunted out the Christmas music to get in the mood for making them.Ready to startThere were surprisingly more pieces than I expected and it took most of the day to cut out the pieces (in duplicate to make two elves).All cut outIt was another couple of weeks before I got round to doing all the sewing and stuffing them, finishing them just in time for Christmas Eve.

Edward Elf:Edward Elf

 

Edwina Elf:Edwina Elf

Keeping an eye on us for Father Christmas 🙂Christmas Elves

Bags Bags Bags 5 – Pink Owls Show-Off Bag

The second of my scheduled posts (because I’m not really on the computer on Christmas Day)!

This is another bag  (like the one I made my Mum for her birthday) from the show-off bag pattern from Made by Rae, this time for my (soon-to-be) sister-in-law.

I made it the same as the last one, this time with owls cotton at the bottom and pink cord at the top, with one pocket inside and boxed bottom corners.

I must be improving – my seams are much more in line on this one! 🙂Bag from side Inside bag Pink Owls Show-Off Bag

Coasters

This post is a bit of an experiment, I am attempting to write it at the beginning of December and tell the computer to publish it on Christmas Day (once presents have been opened). We shall have to wait and see when it appears. So if it’s Christmas Day and it’s now online – woohoo I did it!!

 

Anyway, I made sets of coasters for 3 people this Christmas, and parcelled them up in sets of 6 to send:Coaster stacks I tried lots of different patterns before I settled on this one – there are several coasters around the house from patterns I attempted and discarded! Finally I decided on this pattern I found on ravelry. Each one is shaped a bit like a flower, and they are made from cotton yarn.Crochet coaster I like looking at them all laid out. Don’t they make a pretty rainbow 🙂A rainbow of coasters

12 Days of Christmas Charity Challenge

I was looking to join a crochet-along (CAL) and then several came along at once!

The 12 Days of Christmas Charity Challenge was run on Facebook by Sunset Crochet. The idea was to make one little hat each day for twelve days and donate them to your local hospital for the premature babies born and staying in NICU over Christmas. Around the world over 1,500 people signed up to make hats, enough for over 18,000 babies. We were given a set of patterns that had been donated by various designers to choose from to make the hats.

I managed to keep up with making one a day, and at the end of twelve days these were my hats:Preemie Hats

I don’t know much about the hospitals here so I searched online and came across the charity Miracle Babies who work with families of premature babies all around the country. They accept donations on behalf of hospitals of knitted/crocheted/sewn items which they pass on to whichever hospital needs them. So I parcelled them up on Monday and posted them.

Then today (Thursday) I received this:Certificate of appreciationThey sent me a certificate for sending them a donation! I wasn’t expecting that, but that’s really nice. I’m going to make them some more things next year 🙂

 

Hats for Christmas!

I need to get a move on to finish all the handmade Christmas presents.

Twice this week I’ve wrapped things up and then remembered I hadn’t taken photos of the things first – doh!

It is soo not the weather to be making hats at the moment, but I’ve finished all three of them – yay!! The patterns are all from etsy (here and here).

First we have another Hootabelle hat…

Second we have a Patchy Puppy hat …

And lastly we have a Hello Kitty hat …

I’ve been making them in between other bits and pieces so they seem to have taken ages to finish. Here they are all together ready to be wrapped and labelled and posted for Christmas 🙂

Geeky Tablet Sleeve

Woo, I started and finished something all in one afternoon!

I got this fabric from Spoonflower – just perfect for my Mathematician husband!

I’ve been wondering what to make with it since it arrived last month. It was originally going to be a cushion to put in his office, but then when he got a new tablet a cover for it was the perfect thing to make with it.

I didn’t use a pattern (it’s not a big name brand like all the patterns online are for) so I just put the tablet in the middle of the fabric and guessed!

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It’s lined with black fleece to give the tablet a bit of protection when we go out and about, and has a pocket on the front to keep headphones or a stylus in.

Nice and easy, and it looks pretty cool too 🙂

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Fancy Dress Tutu

Last week I had to go to a fancy dress party, and needed a tutu to wear to it!

I searched online and found lots of tutorials for how to make a tutu, so after a trip to the fabric shop to pick up pink tutu fabric off I went!

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I found the rotary cutter the quickest way to cut up the fabric into lots of strips. Lots and lots of strips (9 metres cut into 6 inch strips!), until I had a huge pile of them:

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And it didn’t even require any sewing – you just fold each strip in half and knot around a piece of ribbon that will fit your waist.

It’s very hard to take a photo of the finished thing because it’s so big, but here is the finished tutu!

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P.S. I won the fancy dress competition 🙂