Well, now that Frogs and Snails has enlightened you all to our children's Christmas gifts and our little plan to encourage their sense of giving rather than receiving I thought I'd give you a run down on how I made some of their handmade gifts.
First off, let's get the girly dress out of the way. This was the easy one. A plain pink long sleeve top from Best and Less for $4 and a beautiful Fat Quarter I got off Etsy for $3. So excluding my time this dress was made for the bargain price of $7. All I did was hem two thirds of the fat quarter, stitch the sides together and then gather the top hem before sewing it to the shirt.
Lastly, I cut a strip from the remaining fabric, doubled it over and hemmed it before sewing a loose stitch straight down the middle. I then carefully pulled the cotton so the material gathered and then sewed it on the neckline to make a lovely ruffle. Easy peasy!
I was rather pleased with the end result. What do you think? It looks even better on and although a little big on our petite Miss Two it is a dress she will most likely fit into for a few years to come.
Little Miss Two has a name beginning with E and although she is very little she has a tendency to be rather clumsy and heavy handed. Despite her tiny frame she seems to bump into everything as if she were a huge elephant so we call her E... the Elephant. I was looking through some blogs one day and came upon a photo of an elephant cushion which I thought was very clever. I saved a copy of the picture but didn't think at the time to save a copy of the instructions so when the idea of hand made Christmas gifts came up and I wanted to make this cushion I had to come up with a method myself based on one photo.
I took a trip to the local Salvation Army Store and found myself a $6 woollen jumper. It was perfect, beautiful colours and oh so soft. I couldn't wait to get to work on it. I started by cutting off the neck and removing the sleeves. I stitched the top together and then hand stitched on one side and gathered the cotton to create the ear. I stuffed it with some cushion stuffing I had left over from another project (below) hand stitched again to create the other ear and finally sewed the bottom of the jumper together. It looked more like a lolly in a wrapper at this point but I could see it's potential for being an elephant so I continued on. Taking one of the sleeves I sewed one end together, filled it with stuffing and then sewed it to the lolly wrapper shaped cushion and TA-DA, my elephant had a trunk. I added a couple of buttons as eyes and she was done.
The stripes of the jumper were horizontal so you can see that it was made by turning the jumper on it's side.
I can't express enough how happy I was with the end product. My elephant was so soft and comfy to lean against, I kept finding my boys cuddling up with it on the sofa and had to wrap it up ready for Christmas just to stop them from taking it.
Next up I moved onto matching travel mats for Little D and Little F. I found this fantastic fabric from a Japanese supplier on Etsy. Half a yard of this gem of a find delivered to my door from Japan for the bargain price of $8. Another trip to the Salvo's produced two lovely, green, as new cushion covers for just $2 each. So, doing the maths that makes two travel mats for only $5 each.
I cut the fabric in half, retaining a small strip off the side for some ties and sewed in onto the cushion cover, tucking in the hemmed tie as I sewed over the final edge. The beauty of using a cushion cover as a base meant it has in built storage. Master 8 rummaged through his collection of Matchbox cars to find a couple of cars to zip up into the cushions and the whole thing rolled up, sides folded in and secured with the ties would only take up a small amount of room in Mumma's bag when needing to keep the boys entertained whilst out. Perfect!
Love it! On the back I used some fabric markers to write each boys names so there would be no arguments over whose was whose.
The last one I'll show you for today is Little F's fire engine. This was the most time consuming gift of all. Mostly because I started it before I bought my sewing machine so it was all hand stitched. It started it's life as a red, square cushion, probably taking pride of place on somebodies sofa before being tossed into a Salvo's bin. One man's trash is another man's treasure! It was absolutely perfect for my little project at at only $3 for the cushion, 20 cents for a half a metre of yellow fabric (crazy, I know) and 50 cents for a metre of blue fabric with a few buttons I already had I created this!
Yes! You read right! One cuddly, soft fire engine for only $3.70 - say it with me. BARGAIN!!!!
I love the SALVO's!!!!
I took the cushion and drew the basic shape on it, cut it out and then hand stitched it all together. I stitched and stitched and stitched some more. I then cut out the head lights and ladder, applied some heat and bond and then applique stitched around the edges (it's a kids toy, heat and bond alone just wouldn't cut it.) I did the same for the light blue window. The tyres were just a square of fabric with a bit a stuffing placed on top. I gathered up the sides and shaped it in a sphere and secured to the engine with the button and a few stitches around the edges to ensure those blue tyres weren't going anywhere.
Little F better look after his fire engine or my poor fingers will never forgive him. Hours and hours of sewing this took but I think it was worth it. But in hindsight, I really should have invested in a thimble!
He looooves it! Finger injuries worth it!
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