Handmade Christmas

First off, happy new year to everyone! I have some catch up to do, because I was mostly sewing and not thinking about much else and not reading many other blogs, either, so it seems I have quite a lot of catching up to do everywhere. I’ve been off work since the 19th and sewing like crazy. I love sewing vacations!

Now that is it well past Christmas, I can talk about the gifts I made this year. It was my goal to mostly make my gifts. I am hoping next year I will do more of that. I found it to be more economical for me and far more meaningful.

Here is what I made:

1. For my lovely friend, Selena, who owns the Sleepy Owl Co and creates amazing custom handmade party decorations, I made a card and a bird ornament:

2, 3, & 4. For my nieces and nephew, I made pajama pants:

I made a total of four pj pants for this (but I won’t count one of them in the gift list). The grey and blue argyle flannel was delayed in the mail and in a flurry I decided to make them out of blue fleece in my stash. But then I delayed sending the presents and the argyle flannel arrived and I made the final pair of pants and sent the package of presents to them. The package still got to them in time, along with some tasty chocolate. The blue fleece pj pants, though, ended up being big enough for me. Score!

5 & 6. My stepkids also got pj pants:

After six pairs of pj pants, I am now a pj pant expert.

I used the free Simplicity pj pant pattern. It’s an easy pattern to create. All the fabric, minus the Toronto Maple Leafs and the blue fleece came from Joann fabrics during their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Even after the shipping prices, it was a very good deal. The Toronto Maple Leafs flannel was picked up locally and was ridiculously over-priced, imho. Licensed fabric here is ridiculous! And every time I look at flannel the prices scare me. Why is it so expensive? It’s for pj pants and quilts! Rant done. The blue fleece was acquired at the thrift store for $5 and I am glad that I go pj pants out of all that sewing. I also have two more prints cut out for myself and ready to go. I love lounging around the house in pj pants. Comfy, womfy.

All of the flannel pants got french seams. The fleece ones were just zigzag stiched and left with raw edges.

7. A sweater for my fiance:

Horrible low quality image. Sorry about that. But I knit this with Lion Brand Wool-Ease using their free pattern for a raglan sleeve sweater.

That is all the gifts I made this year. I was hoping to make more, but the reality is that I should have started on them earlier than Dec. 10. I did a ton, though. 🙂

I made my usual rum balls this year, but refrained from all the usual Christmas baking I do. I think I might still make mincemeat tarts because my mom left me all sorts of jars of her delicious mincemeat and I should probably do the task of eating that. It’s such a difficult life…. (mmmm, mincemeat tarts).

If you didn’t notice, I make huge rum balls at the request of my fiance and they are rummmmmmm laden. Not for kids.

I hope that you had a lovely Holiday and a wonderful New Year.

I have lots more to share with you in the next few days, including my new handmade coat and more!

Here’s to 2015!

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