Handmade for the Holidays

Hello everyone! We are still recovering from all of the Christmas activity! I thought you might enjoy a quick recap of some of the handmade gifts I did this year. I didn't get to do quite as many as I'd hoped!

Kindle cover for my Dad. This was probably the most difficult project . . . and it seemed so easy at first! It probably was pretty easy, but I manage to complicate everything. I used this tutorial from Chic and Jo.

The tutorial is for an older model Kindle, so I faithfully did all the math to fit it to the newer model. Literally a page of math. I haven't done this much math since college. At the very last minute I forgot to increase the fabric measurement and so the first "tube" of fabric I sewed was therefore too skinny for the cardboard to fit into. So I decided to go with a heavier weight more "guy" fabric, and got some khaki, but that presented problems too because it was so stiff it didn't give much when trying to push the cardboard in and so I bent the first piece of cardboard. Extreme frustration. In the end I finished it right before it needed to get wrapped and go into the mail package. I wasn't entirely thrilled with my pocket (it seems bigger on one side to me), or my slipshod slipstitching job, but it is functional. Yay.

Laptop sleeve for my Mom (yes, that is some of my hoarded Nicey Jane stash, I must really love my Mom). I used this tutorial from Crap I've Made for the basic measurements. I tried out a new kind of ruffle, it was pretty fun and easy, and I think it works.

I told my brother that he might have to clue my Mom into what it was when she opened it, but she figured it out right away.

Next up, new bathroom curtains for my Grammy. Grammy's previous bathroom curtains were washed a little overzealously in the washing machine, and so have been hanging in the bathroom complete with tears and rips for a few months. Grammy would just fluff them to hide the tears . . . new curtains were on her to-do list, so I went ahead and got some pretty blue eyelet and made curtains.

I may have been sewing them Christmas Eve while Ed assembled the play kitchen . . . and we may have watched A Christmas Story on TBS 3.5 times through and finally gone to bed at 6 am . . . maybe. The kitchen got assembled and the curtains got made, that is all that really matters. And Grammy loved them, that matters too.

This is Maddie's third Christmas, so I figured it was about time I stopped procrastinating and made her a stocking. I used a charm pack of Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas and made a red and green stocking for Maddie and a green and blue stocking for James.

I absolutely love this fabric line, it is so fun, but still has a classic Christmas feel to it.

I enlarged the stocking pattern I drew for the Nicey Jane stocking (in other words, I stuck it on a bigger piece of paper and drew about three inches around it. . . and made it longer, I love long stockings. I use some white fabric with a flowery pattern on it that I inherited from my Grandmother's fabric stash for the cuff and the lining. Then I made a pieced the cuff with some remaining 12 Days of Christmas pieces.

There are a few details I want to redo on the cuffs, but all in all I am really pleased with them.

I am thinking about doing a stocking tutorial - for the simple ones like the Nicey Jane stocking, and for ones with the piecing - thoughts?

I do still owe a few handmade Christmas gifts that haven't been completed yet, so there may yet be a secondary handmade holidays post in my future.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!