Christmas has come and gone once again and now we are well into the new year. I hope 2014 will be full of craftiness and cakes. But for now I want to reflect on Christmas crafting of the year that has just past.
I love Christmas for the family time, food and decorations. Cosy nights in playing Monopoly by the fire or snuggled up crocheting watching a Christmas film – is what I live for. I particularly love the build up to the big day and personally selecting or making gifts for all my family and friends.
Making my list at least a month in advance, I plan and craft in anticipation for the big day. This year I made plushie Christmas houses, crochet snowflakes and button Christmas trees. I was inspired to make my gifts by simple decorations I saw, when shopping in a local little interiors shops.
My little Christmas houses are very simple to make and could be adapted to be a house for all year round.
Simply draw two rectangles and two triangles in to different fabrics of your choice. Then cut out a curved door from a patterned fabric, cut out two holly leaves from contrasting felt and select buttons to act as a berry and a door knob. Appliqué on the door, holly leaves and buttons. Then machine sew or hand sew together one triangle and rectangle until both sides are complete. Then sew together both sides before turning it inside out. Stuff and sew up the bottom and Tah Da there you have it a cute little Christmas house decoration.
For the crochet snowflakes I used Attic 24‘s fantastic and easy-to-follow crochet snowflake tutorial. What makes this tutorial so good is it’s the step-by-step guide which is accompanied by pictures so you can’t go wrong. This great little tutorial works up really well in glittery yarn and makes perfect tags on carefully wrapped presents.
As for my button trees these were simply created by drawing a simple fir tree design and then cutting it out of felt. Sew on chosen buttons which compliment each over, stuff and sew up. These are so easy to make and as a lover of buttons I think they look really great, especially once they have been attached with thread and hung up on the tree.
Christmas is a prefect reason just to sit down and get your needles and threads out. Making gifts for my loved ones is something I get the most pleasure in doing and giving.
I often look to Christmas craft books for inspiration. In particularly I love Cath Kidston’s Make Your Own Christmas Decorations and Mollie Makes: Christmas. These books are full of festive ideas and makes. Cath Kidston book also comes with all the felt and threads you need to sew one of each of the decorations in the book. Here are two I made last year:
So next Christmas before you get out your purse and log in to your Amazon account to purchase all your Christmas gifts, stop and consider making your own.
Happy crafting!
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