'Tis the Season to be Crafting: November/December Links
Once Thanksgiving is over, we all get pretty serious about gift-making in our household. We did have such a lovely Thanksgiving, though, made all the more sweet with the addition of several international students. It was such a joy to be able to have Amanda's Purdue roommate from China spend the holiday week with us, too!
Still, all that cooking left me hankering to create something outside the kitchen, so the day after the big feast, I sewed to my heart's delight. Some of the things I'm working on are secrets, so I can't show those. But I do have some little gift ideas to share if you also are in the market for some easy-to-make Christmas gifts over the next few weeks! Tutorials and patterns for all but the first one are free.
This fabric basket was made for a baby shower. It's large enough to hold diapers and various baby paraphernalia or whatever else suits your fancy. This picture doesn't show, but there are two inner compartments plus the pocket on the outside. Great fun to sew, and it's quite sturdy. Downloadable pattern: $7.
Bibs for babies are a quick project. I like this pattern from Purl Soho and this one from Sew Mama Sew and this one from Sunny Vanilla.
Last December I traveled to D.C. with a couple of friends for a wedding, so I made luggage tags for each of our bags. Even when your luggage is just going in the overhead bin, having a colorful tag on it makes it easy to identify as your own, and in those cases a piece goes astray, your identification information on the inside of the tag will make retrieval easier.
I used this tutorial from Clover & Violet, but Connecting Threads also offers one.
Last year I made gazillion of these as stocking stuffers. I don't know if my kids are using theirs, but I sure have found the ones I kept back to be handy! No longer do all those charging cords form a tangled mess in our storage box. They also work to corral electric cords that are too long. Tutorial can be found at Leafy Treetop.
The fun thing about these is that you can use whatever you have on hand for the patchwork or try out some new design or color scheme. Once you have a 12 x 29.5" piece of fabric, it goes together in no time at all. Instructions can be found at Stitched in Color.
And here are a couple of other projects to sew which I think look promising:
Laptop (tablet) clutch envelope case
E-reader case: There are hundreds of patterns out there for making e-reader cases, but what I like about this one is that it protects the reader without being too bulky.
20 Minute Tote from Soho
And for tons of inspiration the Sew Mama Sew blog typically runs several posts with themed gift ideas such as Gifts For Busy Kids. Don't let the name of the blog discourage you if sewing isn't your cup of tea. Usually several non-sewing projects such as printables of food gifts are included.
Free Printable Paper Dolls from Little House Living
The Prudent Homemaker Printables
Still, all that cooking left me hankering to create something outside the kitchen, so the day after the big feast, I sewed to my heart's delight. Some of the things I'm working on are secrets, so I can't show those. But I do have some little gift ideas to share if you also are in the market for some easy-to-make Christmas gifts over the next few weeks! Tutorials and patterns for all but the first one are free.
Noodlehead Divided Basket
This fabric basket was made for a baby shower. It's large enough to hold diapers and various baby paraphernalia or whatever else suits your fancy. This picture doesn't show, but there are two inner compartments plus the pocket on the outside. Great fun to sew, and it's quite sturdy. Downloadable pattern: $7.
Bibs
Luggage Tags
Last December I traveled to D.C. with a couple of friends for a wedding, so I made luggage tags for each of our bags. Even when your luggage is just going in the overhead bin, having a colorful tag on it makes it easy to identify as your own, and in those cases a piece goes astray, your identification information on the inside of the tag will make retrieval easier.
I used this tutorial from Clover & Violet, but Connecting Threads also offers one.
Cord Keepers
Notebook Covers
Perhaps this one is a bit strange? But I've been using pieces from my orphan quilt block basket for notebook covers for standard composition books. Since I use this size book for our interactive notebooks, I'm thinking there might be all kinds of ways to go with this in the future.
The fun thing about these is that you can use whatever you have on hand for the patchwork or try out some new design or color scheme. Once you have a 12 x 29.5" piece of fabric, it goes together in no time at all. Instructions can be found at Stitched in Color.
And here are a couple of other projects to sew which I think look promising:
Laptop (tablet) clutch envelope case
E-reader case: There are hundreds of patterns out there for making e-reader cases, but what I like about this one is that it protects the reader without being too bulky.
20 Minute Tote from Soho
And for tons of inspiration the Sew Mama Sew blog typically runs several posts with themed gift ideas such as Gifts For Busy Kids. Don't let the name of the blog discourage you if sewing isn't your cup of tea. Usually several non-sewing projects such as printables of food gifts are included.
And finally, some fun printables
Free Printable Paper Dolls from Little House Living
The Prudent Homemaker Printables
Comments