Handmade Holidays 2010

One of these years, I hope to not be frantically sewing on Christmas Eve day.  2010 was not that year.  There's hope for 2011, I guess...


The first things finished were these reversible tote bags for a friend's sister-in-law's toddler. I had planned to use a lightweight iron-on interfacing, but was out and it was blizzarding that day, so I used the sew-in heavyweight I had on hand. I really like how sturdy they turned out.

A friend got married the week before Christmas (coincidentally, she's also related to the purse orderer), so I made a gift bag and tied on this cute ornament that I thought was fitting for a December wedding.  I usually make gift bags with a drawstring, but tacked the ribbon on the back of this one.  I like how it turned out, and will use that method for younger kids from now on, since it's easier for them to open.

If you're following the time-line here, it's now a week before Christmas, and I haven't yet made a thing for my own kids.  But there are therapist and teacher gifts to make first.... E. has a team of three therapists and an early childhood teacher who each come to our house twice a month. They used to come weekly, so they're a big part of our lives.  I made them granola, using a tweaked version of this recipe.  I found printable labels and then made gift bags.

Next up was O's teacher. I asked him if he had any ideas, and he said she likes dragonflies and tacos.  Helpful.  We spent some time looking at beaded dragonfly tutes to make an ornament and settled on this one.  I changed some things to use beads from my stash and added beads to the wings to make them stand out more on the tree.  I also made some note cards and a chocolate cobbler mix from printables here and added a gift tag from here.  Hooray for blogs!

The cards have her first initial on them, which is hidden a bit by the ribbon.

O. had originally picked out the following fabric for his teacher's bag, but I thought it might be inappropriate to give to a woman, so I strongly encouraged him to choose a more colorful print.  I don't know how I didn't notice it before -- maybe because I'd used it for kids before?  LOL  I thought my aunt would think it was funny, so I made a bag for her from it.

Isn't the spacing weird?  I think it would have less insult potential if the words were grouped together like "ho-ho-ho" or something!

O. needed Christmas jammies too.  The kids usually get them from St. Nick, but of course I hadn't made his by the 6th (E's still a blanket sleeper girl, so I bought hers), so he looked at the fabrics I had and chose "candy cane" jammies.  Both pieces are from Ottobre 06/09, the "Night Owl" top and "Stripy Legs" pants.  He's a 6 in RTW, and the 110 fit perfectly.  I sewed these on Christmas Eve day.  *sigh*

He swore he needed a candy cane hat to go with it, so I showed him this, and while it wasn't exactly what he wanted -- which was something that looked just like the top of a candy cane! -- he thought it would work.  The he refused to have anything to do with it, so I wore it on Christmas Day.

E's only handmade gift this year -- other than some of the playsilks from my last post -- was a fleece hoodie from this print I found at Hobby Lobby.  The poor girl takes after her mother, who is always cold.  This is a T3 from Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers (or KSFT) which has horribly dated photos, but is great for basics.  I added two inches to make it more of a tunic length. 

O. requested two things: a lion knight shield and a hat that looked like a police helmet.  One of the coolest things about being a sewing mama is that your kids think you can make anything, but it's a bit of a double-edged sword.  Hee.


The boy already has a dragon shield, but wanted a lion shield (a la LEGO Kingdoms) for battles.  I used the same basic pattern as the other one, from Ottobre 04/04, but changed the shape and used an applique pattern from McCall 5500.  I had planned to make it color-blocked like the LEGO one, but I didn't have any white pleather, just red, and since I was, of course, doing this pretty much at the last minute, I didn't want to run to the store for some.  He seems okay with the lack of authenticity.  ;)

The police helmet was a little tricky.  He suggested that I make it like E's fleece hat, from the Rainshed Convertible Bomber Hat pattern, but I wasn't sure how to get the word on it and have it look nice.  I'd had my fill of applique from the lion.  My next thought was to try the freezer paper stencil technique, but was afraid that ironing it on would melt the fleece, so I decided to try using printable sticker paper.  It worked pretty well.  The edges aren't as clean and crisp as I'd like, but it looks pretty good from a distance.

The lettering really is straight and even, it's just not flat in the photo.

In retrospect, there weren't even that many projects -- although I sewed up several gift bags that aren't pictured and there were cookies to bake, etc. -- but considering most of them were crammed into one week, it was pretty hectic.  Next year's my year!  Yeah, right.  Check back and I'm sure I'll be saying, "2012 is my year.  I mean it this time!"