Jessica’s Stocking

For Jessica’s first Christmas I completed my first ever crochet project, which was inspired by the Hobbycraft blog. It required 19 4 granny squares, a cuff of treble crochet and a crocheted loop that I didn’t follow the instructions for as it was late on Christmas eve, I still had Jess asleep on me as she was refusing to be put down and I didn’t have the instructions to hand! During my 10 or so hours making this I have discovered that you can crochet holding a baby quite easily (if Jess still counts as a baby). It’s all a bit mad really and if I had my time over I would stick to three or four colours and make sure that each granny square had some pattern to it but I didn’t even know how to change colours at the beginning and was using up odd bits of wool that I had by me. Anyway, here’s a couple of photos of the front and back of the stocking along with a couple of close-ups…

  

  

Pompom Skirt Mark 2

Having seen the pompom skirt that I made for Jessica, Katryn requested that I make one for her too. This gave me the opportunity to hone the design and incorporate a different waistband. I found it so difficult to stretch the elastic through the sewing machine so I opted for threading it through a folded and stitched casing at the waist. It gave a much cleaner finish and has made me determined to make more skirts in the spring. Even with the two layers of fabric and pompoms it only took me about an hour from start to finish.

I just wish my model would let me take a normal photograph of her. These were the most sensible shots I managed and it only got worse when Archie and Jessica got involved too!

    

Merry Mario

I absolutely love our Christmas card from the Haighs this year. A brilliant use of Hama beads!

Hanging Wire Stars

Just a few more handmade decorations for my tree. These ones are quite rustic and take a lot of wire but I like how they look on the tree…

  

  

Small Wedding Gift

When stitching wedding gifts, I love it when I can steal the design from the bride and groom’s wedding stationery, which is exactly what I did with this piece. I enlarged the image from the wedding invitation then pricked and stitched for a couple of hours (or so). I have put the finished item in a silver plated frame from John Lewis.

Needle Felted Tree Ornament

I will post a picture of all these things on my tree once it’s up but for now here’s another Christmas item I’ve crafted…

I’m using styrofoam eggs because the Hobbycraft in Harlow had run out of balls believe it or not. Sarah thinks this looks like an egg crossed with a tennis ball. She might be right but I’m keeping this one for myself so she can please herself! Love you little sister.

  

Needle Felted Penguin

To save the reindeer from the previous post being lonely on Sarah’s mantelpiece I have made him a friend in the form of a penguin. It’s inspired by a kit that Hobbycraft had out for Christmas (but quickly sold out of). I couldn’t get hold of the kit, which included everything you needed to make a family of three penguins, including the needles, for just £3 so I just bought their styrofoam eggs and used my own equipment. My dark wool is probably a bit coarse for this really but fluffy penguins are cute, right?! Anyway, I chopped the bottom off the egg to give a nice flat surface and then pricked away doing the belly then the black and finally the eyes and nose. I was impressed with how easily the wool fused to the styrofoam and will definitely be using the technique again.

Here he is, what do you reckon?!

Woolly Reindeer

As requested, I have made a Christmas woolly reindeer for Sarah’s mantelpiece. This is inspired by Hobbycraft and I followed their instructions in order to create this colourful creature…

 

 

     

The mache reindeer is just £3 from Hobbycraft and the multi-coloured wool was sourced from Dunelm Mill.

Candy Cane Reindeer

Here’s a nice simple one to have a go at. These candy cane reindeer are so quick and easy to make and I’m hoping they’re going to look amazing on the Christmas tree. You don’t need any instructions, you can see what to do!

  

Pompom Skirt

This is my first attempt at making clothing. I have upcycled some curtain lining and net curtain to create this pompom skirt for my little lady. I found it quite challenging to machine stitch the elastic whilst stretched but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it with practice. I created six pockets to enclose the pompoms in but had to cut it down to five once I’d tried Jess in it. I think it’s a cute little piece and Jess seems to be able to move around in it pretty well. It’ll make a nice Christmas day outfit if she hasn’t grown out of it by then!

     

     

Fillable Baubles

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! I have bought fillable baubles from both Hobbycraft and Baker Ross this year. I have to say, not only are the Baker Ross ones cheaper but they also lock together much better so I won’t be using Hobbycraft ones again. I’ve filled 18 baubles with pompoms, bells and various Christmas sprinkles to share between our tree and my sister’s. Hope she likes them!

   

   

 

Comforter for Baby Girl

I’m really beginning to love making things for little people. Here is a comforter that I whizzed up for a little girl a couple of weeks ago. It’s fleece backed but the best thing about this item is definitely the elephant fabric. I absolutely adore it, as does Jess. I had to wrestle it off her in order to post it to the intended recipient!

David chose the fabric!

We finally bought some new fabric (from IKEA) for a new set of curtains in our bedroom. I lined them with the lining from an old pair of curtains from the lounge and knocked the pair up in about 3 hours. They’re a bit masculine for me to be honest but I do like them and they’re infinitely better than the full length, incredibly heavy pair that had been up since the flat was built 10 years ago. All in all they’ve cost us about £23. Can’t be bad.

Children in Need

Jess and I showed our spots by baking enough cakes for 70 people to support Children in Need this year. No posh piping but they were made with love and care. We made a fruit tea loaf, treacle and ginger loaf and cupcakes with lemon icing, vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and a hint of orange, maple cupcakes with maple buttercream and coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream and a hint of maple syrup.

 

Please make sure you donate to Children in Need and do so generously.

 

 

 

Socktopus

Jess loves playing with socks so I thought I’d make her a socktopus. I followed the tutorial on Cut Out and Keep. David claims it needs a more elaborate face but I’d got bored by that point. I suppose I might break the felt out another day but here’s the socktopus at the moment. Most importantly, Jess loves it.