Now that Christmas part 1 is over, I can post a few of the things that I have been making which is fantastic because I have been dying to put them on the blog!

Firstly, we had a gift giving type thing at work where we had to spend £1.50 on something for each person in the office – we did it with £1 last year and it was lots of fun.  This year, I stumbled across a bargain on eBay, where I got 6 or 7 fat quarters of fabric for £4 including postage so took my gifts from that.  Being the utter novice seamstress that I am, I needed to make easy stuff!

I work with a bunch of beading addicts, and two of them in particular often bring in their work in little plastic bags and boxes so I wanted to make them something to transport their makes in.  I did a bit of research and found bead mats, which hold the tiny beads without them rolling around everywhere but they are pretty big so I thought maybe I could make a smaller version with a carry handle and Velcro or buttons and after more Google searching I saw a few things that I thought would suit.  I would love to link them but I cant for the life of me find them again so if you have already made something like I have made here, please feel free to tell me so I can link you!

Anyway, what a nightmare!  I set up the machine, prepared my practice, sewed it to perfection – tension and everything was all set, put the real thing in and the bleeding tension went to pot!  The fabric was exactly the same thickness, same thread, same everything! Bah!  So I got my scraps out again and got it all sorted, put the real thing back in (after unpicking the crap attempt) and off I went.  Half way through one side, the bloody needle snapped!  Changed the needle, sorted the tensions again ( I wasn’t sure if the needles were the same or not as Ive lost the cover and the accessory bag!) got halfway through again and the needle snapped again.  So in a fit of anger I gave up on the machine and used good old craft glue and hand stitched it, so it looks a bit cack and not at all as fantastic as I had imagined.

I also made 2 of the ladies fabric brooches, I’ve seen them in our local craft market on sale for almost £14!

Scary Fat Cat

Fudge, made with condensed milk.

A neck warmer – knitted in Herringbone stitch with Manos Del Uruguay Wool Classica on 8mm needles.

It looks a lot brighter than it actually is.

The neck warmer pattern came from Loop Knits.

And finally (for now!) some Jerk Sauce in nice jars.. trust me, its a nice gift!

A friend of mine gave birth to a little girl a few days ago and I wanted to make a little gift, something that will differ from the clothes, bibs and flowers that usually come with a new baby – not that they aren’t great gifts!  It was a toss up between a knitted toy and felted toy, I figured the knitted would suit a smaller baby better.

Alan Dart has some fantastic patterns, including Sackboy (I’ll post my version of Sackboy at some point).  What was I saying?  Oh yes, Alan Dart made a set called Farmyard Frolics and I thought that the duck might be a nice gift for a baby, its quite small so will fit nicely into her hand as she grows, but for now I will suspend it on ribbon so that her Mummy can hang it in her pram or somewhere.

Here’s my first attempt – this took me maybe an hour and a half from start to finish.