Fete Making: Christmas Stockings

My Cami is coming along, but I'm bookending days at the moment with crafting for this fete on 26 October. (I'm running the Craft and Handmade Stall at this fete) and then for the school fete the week after.

Do you ever make for fetes? What sorts of things do you make?

I never know what to make..  This time I'm making all sorts of different things.  Most recently I've made these Christmas stockings using this tutorial.

The fabric is from Robert Kaufman 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' which I had in my stash.

They are really fun to make. So simple! Hopefully someone will buy them - otherwise my niece and nephews will get them for Christmas!

Christmas chores contd

Sorry, no proper sewing post today.  I did try and do 15 minutes this morning but it just wasn't working out for me. I am like a wound up doll.  A doll that is wound up too tight. Today, I've been frantically worrying about what I'm going to give my team members for Christmas and sorting out the boys' teacher presents.  But now I'm done.  Just.  And I think if I finish the Christmas cards tonight that I have left to send within Australia, I might be a lot nicer to be around.  Funny isn't how we (meaning me) run around trying to make it look like we are really nice people by giving gifts at Christmas,  but in the meantime, those around us have to bare the brunt of the Christmas cyclone.  Mmm. I'd like to say next Christmas will be different....

So as part of the little presents I've done for my team members I decided to make a Christmas decoration as part of the wrapping.  Some will be getting these  but I also made a couple of the ones above.  I love these and think they look great.  They are based loosely on the concept of these headbands I made for the fete.  If only I could work out how to sew plastic without it sticking all the time, I think I'd make 1000 of these!  But I can't work out how to sew plastic without alot of cursing as the plastic sticks, so a few for work and one for my tree is all I could manage. Oh and one of them I did with only brown and yellow pompons to match the football team for one of my workmates!  

One of the guys claims he is a Christmas Grinch so he gets this one!

For a few of the others I work with but not in my team I made up these little bags with nuts and things in them. I attached these great bon bon cards with a 'scratch it' joke.  

And the many teacher presents I did (the teacher, the librarian, the music teacher, the Director, the Assistant Director.....etc etc the list goes on)  were wrapped in brown paper bags.  Yes, I'm very lo fi.  With a little card I made using a scanned Christmas tree, Oliver drew under severe duress.  The two favourite teachers got a note book and a tissue pocket... and the rest just got a notebook.  I should have photographed all the beautiful little notebooks I bought but by the end was truly over it.  

Now, onto my French homework and those Christmas cards!

Christmas chores

I'm making progress on my Christmas chores and have now sent off the cards to the Frenchies and to the relatives here in Australia. I've got the teacher and work presents to go but am in a creative block about those and just can't seem to get started. Oh and there are a few other 'to be made' things, but they might drop off the list...

I did make some sponge painting tree wrapping paper with the kids on Tuesday (well me mainly because after about 2 trees they were bored of it).  Very lo fi - the blue ones are probably the pick of the bunch! But now after reading all the articles on people wrapping their presents in fabric, I kind of wished I'd done that, so I popped down to the fabric store (where I knew they were having 50% off)and grabbed a couple of metres of Robert Kaufmann's 'How the Grinch stole Christmas'.  I got some of this, but I think I might need some of the other patterns in the series. They are fun.  Ben will get his presents wrapped in fabric and my lo-fi trees will be savoured by the presents for family.  I love how Megan Nielsen talks about then just folding up the material and putting it away for another year. So much nicer than the bags and bags of paper that we end up with at Christmas - which we then sort through again looking for lost presents.

So, in sewing related news, I have cut out the Drape Drape 2 (no 4) t shirt pattern and would have sewn part of it last night but realised that I didn't have the right colour thread. Oh no, another trip to the fabric store....

 

Lo-fi Christmas trees using Liberty scraps

Ok, so I didn't have the heart to cut into my liberty squares, but today I did whip up a few Christmas tree ornaments based on this tutorial. from the Liberty Scrap Challenge 2012.  I used scraps from my Liberty stash and also some left over gold leatherette from the bird wings. (I corrected the guy at the shop who called it vinyl.  Pleease.)

It was only after I finished them that I even read the tutorial which says to stuff the trees with a little bit of stuffing. Woops.  Maybe next time.  Anna's are better I admit and she even put a trunk on her trees but I feel there is a certain lo fi charm to mine.  These might end up as little gifts or they might just stay on the tree.