Well, I was going to try to have another year of handmade for everyone, but being pregnant has stomped out most of my motivation. I did make a couple of things for gifts but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. And, um, I took pictures of none of it. But here are some links if you want ideas for next year, or just stuff to do.
Adam made hammocks for the girls. Out of pink and purple nylon canvas. Heh. His hammocks are both green - a super dark olive, and a more regular green that is frequently used in camping gear. But he bit the bullet and made the girls' hammocks out of their favorite colors, instead of camping colors.
We had the girls make these felt star ornaments for my parents - SM sewed the whole thing herself, RG helped pull the needle, JE chose the color of edging floss and the button for the middle and I sewed it, and TA - well, she's still a baby so I did it in her behalf.
I found this fabric pumpkin tutorial just before Halloween and made a couple out of scrap fabric I had kicking around. I really liked them, so I ordered a charm pack (pre-cut 5 inch squares) of specific Halloween fabric from fabric.com to make more pumpkins for my sibling gift exchange - the theme was holiday decorations. When it arrived, I'd just seen this post for a mini-quilt ... and since I've been wanting to try out some quilting anyway ... it just went better. So I made a Halloween mini-quilt and sent it off to my brother and his family. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of it since it was my first one. But I have the makings from the charm pack for 3 more of them, so I'll take pictures of them when they're done. I got them started but nothing was finished before Christmas so their intended recipients will be surprised later.
And that was it for my homemade Christmas. Sigh. I started on a group present for the girls but it didn't get finished. I intended to make Christmas Eve pajamas but ended up buying them (about 3 hours before we gave them to the girls - talk about last minute shopping). Hopefully next year goes better.
Oh, and as a sidenote - 2 posts ago, I said the bobbin case was missing from the sewing machine. The next day after posting that, we cornered JE (age 2) and got her to tell us it was "hiding." She had poked it with her finger into the innards of the machine. Fortunately, Adam was able to shake it back out, but I was still ready with a screwdriver to take the machine apart if necessary.
3 comments:
I also made less homemade stuff than last year, and I also took no pictures. Of course, I'm not pregnant and have one fewer child than you, anyway, so if you'd managed it, I would have felt like an underachiever. (And didn't you mention a few posts ago that you wanted to stop reading blogs that made you feel like an underachiever? ;) I dabbled in freezer paper fabric painting, which turned out well but was significantly more labor-intensive than I would have guessed. I also made banana bread in cute pans for school gifts, and a homemade bottle of peppermint syrup with a cute tag. I planned on doing appliqued shirts for all the kids, but that didn't happen. :(
We did a completely homemade Christmas (accept for Santa - which I know you don't do and that's great but we do and that's great too).
It took all year. It really did. It was hard and time consuming but ultimately wonderful.
Good luck in the future. I don't know how you can even consider doing it, let alone keeping things a surprise in the space you have. But, as always, you are awesome!
Oh yes, I meant to ask, how hard was that mini quilt thing? Could a kid do it? I know my girls would love to try. What a great idea.
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