Christmas crafting

 This year Father Christmas is going with a tried and tested winner.  Felt food.

Some chocolate chip cookies.  For time and effort, these are definitely a winner.  Quick to make and large enough to seem like some proper presents.

And some blueberries (unfortunately garishly blue since I didn't have any really dark blue felt in my stash).  I'm still pretty happy with them.

Admittedly I would be much happier about my Christmas efforts if this wasn't the only thing I had made and its already November, but its a start.

What Christmas gifts are you making this year? And have you started?

Advent Calendar

That's my project this week.  I know, I know, its February, why am I doing my Advent Calendar this week? Because every year I think, I must do an Advent Calendar, and every year it gets abandoned in favour of other Christmasy related things.  So I'm doing it now to make sure it gets done.

I think I'll do a variation on this tutorial from Nest Full of Eggs

Baby's bonnet

One of my Christmas presents this year was a bonnet for my sister in law's daughter.  It was a simple (and I think awesome) gift.  I used another bonnet I already had as the pattern (although I may create a pdf pattern and tutorial, because I really like them).  You can see from the above picture the shape of the bonnet.  I cut out two pieces of material, and overlocked them together, with the straps sandwiched between them.  Leave a gap and turn the bonnet right side out, and then topstitch around it.

Place buttons on the bottom corners (the bottom part of the wonky t shape), and button holes on the curved edge.  Then simply button the sides together, and bonnet!

 Modelled by the accommodating Kiki.  The one I made fits about 3-6 mo up.

The bits of wool around Kiki's legs are 'undies'.

Undies for P

One of the Christmas presents for P were some more undies.  I didn't really have enough stretch cotton material at home, so off to the Hospice Shop I went.  I got all of the above for $4, and in the end I didn't use the striped t shirt at all and still got 4 pairs of undies out of the material.  I was specifically looking for some that had some cool logos or patterns on them, and the pink trike just jumped out at me.

I used my underwear tutorial,

And I love the way they turned out.

And P was pleased with the results.  I love that she was still happy to receive undies from Father Christmas.

Felt food swap

 Here are the lovely felt food that I received in the swap I took part in in December.  We got some very cool pizza slices with cheese and felt bits to make our own pizzas with.

 Very cool sushi.  This also came with a pair of chopsticks, and a little fish soy sauce bottle.  I couldn't find all the other cool bits that came with this because P and J were too busy playing with them.  I did catch J frying the fish on her toy oven the other day.

 A family of gingerbread people,

And the cheese, tomato and lettuce to go with the bread.  Check out A softer footprint for other photos of the swap (plus fabulous sentiment that I entirely agree with).

The girls loved all the felt food that they got from Father Christmas, it was the (happy) surprise hit of their Christmas presents.  I got such a kick out of how much fun they had with all their food.  It really does show that kids don't need fancy, or expensive toys, or ones that 'do' heaps of things.  The joy of making their own food from these simply crafted toys was wonderful to watch.

AWOL

So I've been a bit missing in December, but in my defence, it is December, and things are crazy busy.  However, I will blog about all the things we've been making and doing in January.

Some things to look forward to:

 More undies

 Felt food round up

Summer quenchers

Baby bonnet


Pipitea Shrug pattern
Bleach Tee top tutorial

Merry Christmas to all, and I'll see you again in the new year.

December projects

3/12 -   Toy sorting
10/12 - Christmas presents
17/12 - Christmas baking

Present progress

Some peas to go with the felt food.  I just winged this pattern, and stuffed them with balls of roving.  I started out by whip stitching the pods, but I didn't like the way the edges got all crinkly, (those are the two at the back).  So I switched to a running stitch, which I really like.

More snakes.  This time I cast on 6 stitches rather than 8 as called for in the pattern, knit two rounds, increased to 8 stitches and knit another 4 rounds.  I then decreased and continued as per the pattern.

When I sewed the end in, I also ran it back and forth behind the head to create a more pronounced diamond shape as well.  I really like them this way, and they are such a quick, easy knit that C may end up with a whole family of them in her pillow case.

 You can find the pattern here

Joining in with Creative Friday tonight.

This week

Its time to make some Christmas presents for P.  She has cut out some pictures and stuck them on a piece of paper to post to Father Christmas, so he knows what she wants.  Already at 4 she wants those 'branded' things she sees on TV and in magazines.  While I don't have a problem with the kinds of  toys she wants - dolls, pillows etc, it does make me sad that homemade things are no longer enough for her.  It makes me wonder if home made presents are slipping away.

However, there are still some things she needs that I can make, and underwear will once again feature prominently this week.  Check out my $2 haul from the Hospice shop, cute undies coming up.

J's Christmas presents

 I had big plans this week to finish off a few crafty Christmas presents this week for J.  However, my best laid plans have failed to come to fruition.  I did manage to make a couple of pairs of undies - using my tutorial.

How cute is that?

However I also wanted to make a notebook for J, and a few clothes for her dolls.  Unfortunately, she has taken her dolls to bed, so I will need to do some surreptitious measuring while she's otherwise occupied.  J is probably the easiest to make presents for though.  She is old enough to have definite likes, but young enough that she doesn't yet register 'branded' presents.  Long may that continue.

A small selection

 Well, I have made a couple of presents for C, so that is a good start.  A little knitted snake, using Julia Stanfield's free pattern Snakes and Adders.  Its really cute and easy.

 Instead of a pipecleaner, I stuffed it with fleece.  If you're interested in how to stuff toys, Linda at Natural Suburbia has a great post about it as well.

Fun fact: I have known Julia and her family since I was a very small child, but we only reconnected a couple of years ago via mutual interests in cloth nappies and knitting.

 I also whipped up a couple of headbands for C as well, since you can't have too many.

I also thought of a present she would need - a high chair.  But I'm not sure about Father Christmas giving her a high chair - it seems a little grinchy, what do you think?

C's christmas presents

So what do you make for a 6 month old baby with two older sisters? I'm a bit stumped to be honest
Any suggestions welcome

November Projects

5/11 -  C's Christmas presents
12/11 - P's Christmas presents
19/11 - J's Christmas presents
26/11 - Birthday prep

Aiming to get Christmas presents done in a week is crazy talk obviously, but I'll be doing my level best to churn them out.

Bread in progress

 I've cut out my felt, now to sew it all together.  I have 14 slices of bread to make.

I hope every one likes brown bread.

Felt food

Image credit

A little while ago, a swap came up on the Nappy Network for felt food that I jumped headfirst into.  I want to make the girls some more food for their kitchen play bucket, so this was perfect timing.  So my project this week is to make some felt bread for my part of the swap.  But the possibilities are endless.  Check out some of the ideas here, and here, and here.

Christmas animals

I have finished knitting P's animals for Christmas, and I hope she really likes them.

 The pig is Oink by Susan B Anderson.  Its a pretty easy knit, and she is so cute!

 Check out the little curly tail

 And I have a partner for P's stegosaurus.  I ran out of time to knit any more of the family, but I'm sure she'll still enjoy the couple of them.

More creativity over at Natural Suburbia.

O Christmas Tree, o Christmas Tree

Although I haven't posted lately, we have certainly been doing things.  I can feel Christmas coming.

Finished project!

I'm so excited to finish one of the two projects that have been languishing in my home for far too long.  Some time ago (actually quite a long time ago) Marie from Softearth posted about her lovely needle felted nativity set.  She asked if someone wanted to swap for it.  I have been on the lookout for a nativity set for many years.  My parents have one that is about as old as I am, its just a little plastic figurine set, but they bring it out every Christmas and set it up.  I've been looking for something similar - not in terms of plasticyness, but in terms of something that I can treasure and that the girls will remember as fondly as I remember my parents set.  So when I saw Marie's beautiful set, I said I'd love it. 

She asked for some of the baby dolls that I made in my Steiner toys post.  Well she sent off the beautiful nativity set, and I got to work on the dolls.  And then I didn't finish them, and they sat nearly finished for ages.  Until last week - when I pulled them out of my sewing basket and completed them!

So they will be winging their way to Marie.  Who I have to say has been incredibly patient, and has not hassled me about when she is going to get these, even though she would have been perfectly entitled to, given my embarrassing delay in getting these finished.

Summery Christmas presents

 Check out the sunhat! Isn't it awesome?*

Well, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I am pleased.  The pattern comes from the Australian Woman's weekly craft book.  You have to upscale the pattern, and I think my version is not quite right.  The instructions also left a little to be desired, so I had to improvise when it came to piecing the lining and crown together - which is probably why it doesn't sit quite right.  Next time I will also add some interfacing to the crown section as well.

 The pattern called for there to be two brim pieces with two pieces of interfacing.  I only had enough interfacing to do one piece, so I cut another piece of heavy fabric, interfaced that and then sandwiched it in between the two brim pieces.  I really like that it is a bit sturdier that way.

 The most time consuming bit was sewing the lines around the brim.  Fortunately I completed most of this while taking a rugby sewing break.  For those of you who aren't from around here, the Rugby World Cup final was on this weekend just gone.  NZ has hosted the tournament, and the All Blacks (our team) were in the final against France.

It was an incredibly nerve wracking game, so I had to take a break during the second half and go and sew in the kitchen because I just couldn't bear to watch.  In the end we won! It was worth all the stress to win the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1987.  And New Zealand went wild for our win.  So all I accomplished this week was the sunhat.  I was a little pre occupied otherwise.

Check out more creativity at Natural Suburbia

*Modelled by the very accommodating Kiki.