More Handmade Felt Christmas Stocking

I finally finished our full set of wool felt Christmas stockings, late Christmas Eve. I originally posted the first two, with a little bit about how I constructed them, here.

Holiday Bow Tie

To match his big sister's snowflake Sunki dress, Leo got a bow tie for his Christmas outfit.

Since I was using a Figgy's pattern for Louisa, I decided to try the little boy bow tie tutorial from the Figgy's blog. It is a slightly bigger bow (verging on clownish?) than the one I made for him this summer, but it did keep it shape a little better.

The fabric again is Let it Snow in Eggnog Green from the Dear Mr. Claus collection by Cosmo Cricket with Kona Cotton in Holly for the neck band.

Simple Burlap Tree Skirt

Finished in under two hours, this basic tree skirt is all I wanted to cover my tree stand and give our gifts a simple back drop. Instructions for sewing a skirt this style are on Design*Sponge.

I had one yard of burlap to work with, so my skirt has 35" diameter after the 1/2" seam allowance. The underside is a bit of an old thermal curtain from Target (the same fabric I used inside my Showoff Bag.) I had to unpick the curtain hems to have enough yardage, but it worked out. I wanted to complete the project with things I had on-hand, so the ribbon is actually some black hem tape from my stash.

Holiday Sunki Dress

For Louisa's Christmas dress, I made my first (finally!) Figgy's Pattern... a Sunki dress. I managed to finish it in time for her last day of school before winter break, which is also the day of her school's annual performance of St. George and the Dragon, which celebrates the winter solstice and the holiday season.

I made size 4/5 with Let it Snow in Eggnog Green from the Dear Mr Claus collection designed by Cosmo Cricket for Moda Fabric, which I got from Sew Mama Sew. The green side panels are Kona Cotton in Holly.

Popcorn and Cranberries Garland

Shiny Ball Ornament Wreath DIY

Last night a couple local mama friends and I had a glittery craft night to make Christmas ball ornament wreaths.

There are lots of different techniques for this kind of wreath online, but this is how we did it. We worked loosely from this tutorial, but didn't take the caps off our balls.

A Preschooler's First Valentines

This year was Louisa's first time having Valentine's Day at school, which is something I always looked forward to as a young student.

Decorating mailboxes and giving and getting valentines from all your classmates is just so exciting.

There are so many great ideas out there in blogland, but we went the classic homemade doily-construction paper-stickers-sequins route this year.

It was a lot of good practice writing each child's (and teacher's) name on the back of their valentine. She mastered R and N, both of which she used to avoid, thanks to Dorothy, Nora, Ethan, and others.

She and her classmates gave us an impromptu performance of a couple "love" songs at pick-up time, including "Love Is Something If You Give It Away," which is absolutely adorable (you can watch them sing here).

Here she is with her "mailbox," eager to go read all her valentines at home!

Glitter

Martha Stewart knows glitter. This year we made these stars out of mat board (from the December 2011 Martha Stewart Living). 

Princess Halloween Costume (Simplicity 2463)

Louisa picked her own pattern and her own fabric for her specially-requested princess costume.

Who can resist a pink and purple ombre organza with star sequins?!

I made view A of Simplicity 2463.

We got all the fabric from Jo-Ann, except the lining, which is a pink acetate from fabric.com that I had purchased for my Lonsdale dress lining, before I realized I wanted to stick with cotton. Acetate is kind of sickly smooth and slippery in its 100% synthetic-ness, but perfect for a princess costume.

The pattern was easy to follow. I'd say it ran a little big, even though I cut it according to her measurements. I made the size 3 and it will definitely still fit her next year.

I cut it a little longer than the 3 because she is tall (and her number-one request was that it go "all the way to my toes!") but it ended up being way too long even after I tacked up the hem and she was tripping on it some while we trick-or-treated.

My other change was to line the yoke (not just the bodice pieces) and skip the neck binding, as someone else had done on patternreview.com.

I think it would have looked nice with a contrast binding, however, because the pale pink disappeared a bit against her skin. But I am happy with it fully lined (I even under stitched the neck edge!) and I don't do a great job stitching in the ditch like the binding had called for.

I also left out the net ruffles. I had bought a bunch of purple netting and tulle, but it was a mess to work with, and since the skirt fabric was sheer, it wasn't going to look right. It's not as poofy as it could be, but she still loves it.

Some of these photos are from her Halloween Parade at school and some are from Halloween night. I hadn't finished sewing the jewels on the bodice for her preschool celebration.

I finished all the exposed seam with bias binding because acetate and organza just frays like crazy. Plus the binding looks nice around the sleeves since they are sheer. The skirt and skirt lining seams I did as french seams for the same reasons.

And just in case you were wondering, Leo was a doctor. His scrubs were a gift, and we had the requisite black clogs and fleece jacket already.

Halloween sure is a exhausting! Up late on a school night, candy for dinner, all her friends over here... phew! But the memories are fantastic.

Fourth of July Parade

I usually love the tutorials on made, but when I saw the one for Ruffled Streamers... with all the projects on my to do list, I did't see myself sitting behind my machine and sewing together yards and yards of crepe paper. 

But when she posted it again with a patriotic twist, I was suddenly inspired. We were decorating my dad's iconic 1971 GMC truck for the Crozet Gazette float in the Crozet Fourth of July parade, and ruffling my red and blue streamers together suddenly seemed like a must-do. 

I used the trick of keeping the rolls turning on a dowel and it was really quick work. She says she used the tightest tension on her machine, and even held the spool of thread to boost the tension more, but I only had to set my machine's tension at 7 (out of 10). At 10 the ruffles were too tight. I wish it was so simple to ruffle fabric.

My other day-of craft project for the parade was the bunting for the truck's grill. I made the CROZET flags in Illustrator to add to Martha Stewart's "festive pennants" download from the July issue. Printed them on my own printer. I punched holes in the corners and strung it on kitchen twine. 

The truck didn't win any parade awards but it was still my favorite float. Plus they threw some nice candy.

Gold Roses

I made my most recent Weekend Away Bag (again from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing) for my other sister, Isabelle. I sent it to her at Mary Washington for Valentine's Day. It is made with Far Far Away II roses in gold (also by Heather Ross!). I lined it with an orange polka dot I found in Waynesboro.

It, of course, coordinates with the camera strap cover/pad I made her for the new camera she got for Christmas. 

The tutorial is from Skip to My Lou via Sew Mama Sew's Handmade Holidays back in December. I made one for my camera first, a Canon DSLR, and followed her measurements (mine actually matches my yoga mat bag). 

For Isabelle's, since it is the smaller Nikon with a thin strap, I measured the strap first and cut the cover a little narrower.  

I still have so many projects still on my list from the Handmade Holidays posts. Maybe I'll get to them by next year!

Happy Valentine's Day

Wool Felt Christmas Stocking

My big Christmas project this year was to make Louisa and Leo stockings. It's taken me a while to find the time to write about, but here goes!

AJ's and my childhood stockings are still at our parent's houses. Mine is needlepoint and his is knitted. I can knit a little bit, but certainly can't do an elaborate reindeer pattern like his, and I don't do needlepoint at all, so I turned to another source of inspiration for our little ones' stockings.

This is my dad's stocking from when he was a boy. They lived in Germany a few years and that is where this stocking is from. It is hand stitched with felt and yarn and sequins and beads.

The angel is my aunt's.

Happy New Year

[Sunday Brunch Jacket]