Wednesday, December 29, 2010

holiday handmades :: part 2

Here are the rest of my holiday handmades. This year, I resolved to make fewer home sewn gifts (because my sewing time is so limited and honestly, I'm not sure if everyone is really into the homesewn creations as much as I am). These are the items I made a priority. First up: mama-made pajama pants for the boys to wear on Christmas eve night. This probably won't become a tradition (I basically have to beg my boys to wear pajamas of any kind), but they graciously wore these on Christmas eve.
And how cute they looked. These are made from a thrifted sheet that I thought looked Christmasy. Rainer ended up wearing his as daytime pants. The t-shirts are stamped with a tree and "Merry Christmas," using regular rubber stamps.
I had "make fabric gift bags" on my crafting wishlist anyway, but when Soulemama posted her tutorial for fabric gift bags, I was inspired to move the project from my "crafting wishlist" to the "I'm making time to do this" list. The fabric gift bag concept solves a lot of problems for me: I hate wrapping, it's wasteful and expensive, time consuming, and I really hate storing several rolls of wrapping paper from year to year. I'm looking forward to building up a whole stash of these so that wrapping paper will be a thing of the past for me, eventually.
And on Christmas eve day, the boys and I had fun making this button wreath. (We used this tutorial). The boys had fun helping me pick out green and white buttons and arranging them on the wreath. I hot glued them to the wreath form. The project definitely made me think about getting a low-temp glue gun so the kids can be in on the gluing fun as well.
This little wreath decorated my studio for a few days before being stored away for next year.

It's cold here! The low tonight is going to be near-freezing and for tomorrow they're predicting a high of 49! That is a super low high for us. I'll believe it when I see it!

11 comments:

Andrea said...

Very cute jammie pants. Hope they wear them more! I made tons of fabric bags this year too--they were great for shipping packages (no bulk and they don't rip like paper) and I wrapped everything from "me" in them, but the "Santa" stuff was trickier--would they notice that something from Santa was in a mama-made bag (turns out they had no clue who anything was from five seconds after opening). Also my husband didn't really get the bag thing and wrapped everything in paper anyway (maybe he just likes the crackle). I was going to make one of those button wreaths this week, but I felt funny using up so many buttons, so I wrapped fabric scraps around the cardboard form instead. Maybe I'll make an effort to collect thrifted buttons over the next year and try again next Christmas. I love how yours turned out.

Anonymous said...

˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ *| Merry *. • ˚ ˚ •. ★ ★ Christmas. *. °. ° * * ★ ★ Joyeux. • ˚ ˚ ★ ★ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•. Noël ★ ˛ ˚ _Π_____. * ˚ ★ ★ ★˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚
˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ */______/~ \. ˚ ˚ ˛ ★ ★ ★
˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ *| 田田 | 门| *. • ˚ ˚ •. ★ ★ ˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ ˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ ˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚ ˚ ˛ • ˛ • ˚

Louisa said...

I love the button wreath! I love using fabric bags to wrap gifts as well. I try to make a few new ones every year.

Sarah said...

We made a lot of bags this year. The wrapping process often included running to the sewing machine to make the right size bag. I didn't sew on ribbons as Amanda did. Couldn't quite figure out ow that would work. Love how much less trash we had. How nice that your nous craft with you. My girls are entering an age when they don't enjoy it so much.

Jen said...

I love everything you have made! I am a big advocate for handmade christmas and have long used fabric gift bags. I do have one question, do you have a tip for stamping clothing with it remaining after washing? Mine washes away. :(

nicole said...

This is the first year I did not make pj's for the kids to wear. The button wreath is so sweet. happy new Year!

coloring in my life said...

such great handmades! I usually purchase my girls matching pj's to wear on Christmas Eve-but this year was so hectic!
The fabric gift bags are such a good idea.

Its_Lily said...

For Jen - there is a fabric paint medium sold right with the Acrylic Paints. It makes the paint flexible and waterproof. Deco and Americana both sell it.

Mary Beth - I've wondered the same thing about some of the handmade items, but the recipients were talking with each other about what they might get this year as soon as they arrived. Sounds like the handmades are more popular than I thought. I'm hoping that's the case with yours as well.

Jen said...

Wonderful! Thank you!

Mary Beth said...

Sarah--I had to go back and check those ribbon sewing instructions too. Once I got it, it made perfect sense and I love the way the attached ribbon elevates the "packages."

Jen--I just used regular stamp pads, so suspect they will wash out. But that's okay, since they are seasonal.

Mary Beth said...

Lily--thank you. I have struggled with weather or not to continue to make handmade gifts. My sewing time is just so limited. I'm happy with the compromise of giving things from the kitchen--the lip balms and nuts and so forth.