Happy Handmade Christmas (stockings)

A very happy Christmas to all my blog readers!  As yesterday was the first day of my holiday, Pete and I had a lovely relaxing day at home, generally putting our feet up before the Christmas rush.  I took the opportunity to do a bit of sewing, which was really nice.

For the first year, we've decided to do Christmas stockings for each other - I thought it would be nice to get this little tradition into play before baby comes along next year!  I've seen a few stockings about, but as my mantra often is these days, why buy it when I can make it myself!?

This free stocking template from Love Sewing magazine came in very handy.  It was intended for a Scandinavian paper piecing stocking, but I definitely didn't have time for that malarky today, and it was a great template for my needs as well.

I used A4 pieces of felt for the body of the stocking.  Obviously, I wanted the stockings to be bigger than one A4 piece of felt (assuming that my hubby has been out buying me lots of pressies!), so each stocking piece was made of 2 pieces of felt, which I attached with some lovely red spotty bias binding which I had lying about.  I thought the green, red and white was a lovely festive combination.

To differentiate between them, it seemed like the best idea was to put our initials on the stockings - I managed a slightly wonky R and P done in white, just to complete the effect!

Looking forward to waking up to these full on Christmas morning - I suppose I'd better get my wrapping finished or 'P' might be a bit disappointed...!

Happy Christmas, and every blessing for the New Year!

Christmas tree decoration

Less than a week until Christmas!  I love this time of year - it's so fun getting the house decorated, and I love the Christmas sights and smells!  I did manage a little bit of Christmas craft when I was sorting through some of my ribbons and bits and pieces in the sewing room.

This was such a simple little craft to do, and results in a lovely little handmade decoration for your tree.  Last year, someone got me these cute little metal Christmas trees.  I have lots of ribbons about - some of them which I've bought, and some have come from presents and wrapping on gifts.

All I did was wrap the Christmas tree in a length of festive ribbon.  When I was finished, I secured the base of the tree with a little stitch, and that kept it all together.  I also added a loop of thread to the top of the decoration, and it was ready for hanging on our tree!

Here's our tree, looking festive!  We're off to Wales to stay with the Townsend contingent on Christmas Eve - can't wait!

Christmas wishes

Merry Christmas!

I just thought I'd check in with a few festive 'selfies' - nothing like a Christmas jumper to get you in the festive spirit.  I've had a few ideas for handmade Christmas jumpers, but just didn't have time this year - maybe next year I'll be a bit more organised!  In the meantime, this one has received lots of compliments.

And here we are looking a little bit more tidy - all dressed up for my work Christmas do!

Lest you think I've abandoned crafting for the moment, I can assure you that's not the case - my recent crafting has been for Christmas presents though, which has meant that I've not been able to put much detail up here.  Hopefully after Christmas I'll get some pictures of handmade Christmas presents on here.

However, I did make this little hat the other weekend - it was actually intended to be a beanie for a Christmas present, but it was chunky wool and I used the wrong size of crochet hook.  It made up quite quickly, but instead of being soft, it actually was quite firm!  I popped it in my head, footered about with the brim, and suddenly realised I had created a cute little hat!

The photos are quite deceptive - it's actually brown, but it's quite an endearing little hat, and really cosy.  If only all crafting disasters turned out so well...!

Christmas crafts

We had a quiet night in on Saturday night, after a busy weekend visiting two Christmas markets (Cheddar and Bristol) and having Pete's brother, sister-in-law and lovely niece staying with us.  As well as watching Christmas music and generally feeling festive, I decided to do a few little Christmas crafts.  Here's all my goodies laid out on the kitchen table...

After the Christmas craft night, my latest purchase has been a glue gun.  A major time saver for things like brooches, I really think it's been such a worthwhile investment!

I now have a little gang of snowmen - using the cheapest rice in ASDA (40p a bag), some cheap sports socks, and my hand new glue gun, I created these little bods...

Snowmen

Somehow this rather exciting snow effect got added to this picture, so here's a very authentic looking snowman in the snow!

I also recently learnt how to make little roses out of felt, and this was such a simple little brooch to make. Two pieces of felt, a length of thread, a glue gun and a brooch back, and here we are with a cute little rosebud brooch. I think this will be a lovely little stocking filler Christmas present.

I'll post a little tutorial on how to make these brooches soon - they're so simple and effective.  Watch this space...!