Handmade Christmas

Now the day is done I can show them all!



I made art bags for some children relatives. And for Felix who carries a sketch pad and pencil EVERYWHERE, he loved the bag so much and wears it every single day. That makes me smile and feel all cosy since something I made makes him feel so good... what is that called anyway? A positive feedback loop? :) The bags were made from trousers of mine that I never wear (or rather am likely too anytime soon they are far far too small) - the bottom chunk of leg chopped off, turn upside down and inside out and sew where the upper calf/knee would be. Flip right side out and then sew on a strap/s. I made the straps on mine by cutting out the waist band strip and using that (I cut the loops off). I cut the back pockets off the trousers since they were pretty and embroidered and sewed them to the fronts of the bags. Inside I added artists sketch pads, I sewed little pencil cases with drawstring tops and put in sharpeners and pencils. Food colour fibre tipped pens, fancy stickers and in the front pockets I added the play dough we made.



We gave them already and they were well liked I think :)

More needle felted dolls



The fatal peppermint creams (fatal to me since I ate seven in one go and then suffered from sugar rush brain freeze and hyperactivity followed by huge headache) Great gift then hey! Parents everywhere will just adore us this year. Isaac really wanted to make them after reading in a new Christmas book about some pigs making 'peppermint candies' as gifts. We read up on how to make origami boxes to store the peppermints and then the two of us made LOADS. More than required. They were addictive and soothing to frazzled nerves (it also helped that the baby was asleep - otherwise it would have been fraught with a scissor and paper thief and many yells and screeches I am sure - probably from me rather than the baby). And the photo for these..... well I seem to have lost it, or maybe seeing the sweeties I put the camera down for another sample and then forgot to take one? Mmmmm probably that.



A gift arrived from Boho Mama - material! I knew just what to do with it and set straight to work (with the baby trying to step on the sewing machine pedal too) and ran up two new Christmas stockings for the boys on Christmas Eve. The cherished ones with embellished crocheted snowmen made by my mother have vanished this year and rather than use ugly rugby socks or carry on hunting (mice had laid waste to our Christmas decoration box and a little nest was found at the bottom along with chewed tree lights! So maybe they pilfered them for further nest making?) I decided I'd better whip up new ones. They were easy-peasy and well liked. Esmé has a stocking of her own that I think Santa will struggle to fill, I bought a pair of adult striped wool socks and sent one to my sister's baby girl so that she and Esmé could be partners with one each. I filled my nieces with goodies (wooden rattles and beads and felt blocks, jingle bell mice and bits that we all made here).

I made Esmé a new Christmasy pilot hat since the other was outgrown. The yarn is a Regia 6ply sock wool.



Finally - lots of felt broaches (birds for the boys) flower ones for women and girls I know and lots of lavender sachets from my bag of material scraps. I am loving making the broaches and have made a million more since the Christmas ones, I need more wool felt urgently so as to get on with them. I keep stealing away to my sewing machine which is crazy but there you go, it feels like a guilty pleasure, I grab five minutes and in that time I have ran back and forth to check on the super whizz fast crawler girl about seven times as she perilously lies on her belly and gazes down the un-gated stairwell at the deathly hard tiled floor below. Shudder. I so need a stair gate because the sewing distracts me. It seems the sort of thing I should get second hand, I mean what happened to ours from the boys? They get outgrown quick. I need to have a search before my nerves are torn to shreds as I am incapable of trapping her in any one room such are her squeals of disapproval in any of my attempts and she melts my already gooey heart so much so that she can literally walk all over any of us here, in fact we encourage her to. Will she become a demon child of multiple demands or a angel girl of love with these showers of attention from all sides? The grand experiment continues :) But she is so adorable I don't think any of us would care either way.