It's that time of year again. I have 2 children and a Husband to care for and just that is exhausting enough! But of course I added to it. I decided months ago that I would make all the decorations for our tree myself. Quite ambitious, I know. I also decided to make hanging yo yo Christmas trees to give away to friends, and of course Christmas dresses for my girls. Then I was inspired to also make a Christmas dress for myself too. Yes, it is a busy time of year!
Making handmade Christmas decorations to hang on the tree sounds beautiful. I really had high expectations for how it would turn out. Ignoring the amount of effort it will take, it sounds great, right? Well, ambition is a lot different to reality.
I went to Spotlight and bought Christmas fabric in the hopes of turning it into decorations. My idea was to cut out shapes and sew together with wadding. I made a whole heap of bells and baubles and I was not impressed.
My loving Husband said they were great and that we should use them, so I gave them to the kids to put on the tree. Gotta love the encouragement you get from someone who loves you.
Before kids, I always took pride in decorating the tree. I always had it decorated to perfection. Because of this, I would never have allowed those handmade decorations anywhere near my tree. My eldest baby is now 5 and I have finally completely relinquished control of decorating the tree. Doesn't sound like much, but I really was a little controlling in that regard.
Needless to say, I am over decorating the tree with only handmade decorations.
Every year I like to put together a little Christmas plate to give to friends. Well really, this is only the 3rd Christmas I have done it, but I would like to make it a regular thing. The first year I bought Maxwell Williams Christmas bowls and filled them with Lindt chocolates and European yums from Aldi (biscuits and chocolates). Last year I thought to cost save and just used paper plates with Lindt chocolates and Aldi yums. Apparently the family were not impressed with the paper plates, so I decided to get proper plates or bowls for this year. I ended up using Maxwell Williams star bowls and mugs, Christmas mugs, Santa bowls and little glass stars. I filled them with Lindt chocolates, lollies and candy canes. I love the Aldi yums, but I wanted everything packaged so I didn't have to make it up last minute. To put on the top, I made hanging yo yo Christmas trees.
I bought 2m of red and 2m of green Christmas fabric from Spotlight. I also ordered little star beads, bells and cord from AliExpress a couple of months ago. I was being prepared because postage takes so long. AliExpress is a great source of crafty things and trims that you can buy cheap - as long as you are prepared to wait the long postage time. Actually, they sell a lot of cheap things (stocking fillers included) and before you know it, you have spent a fortune on a lot of different little things!
I then searched all my cupboards until I found 4 different sized round objects - a plate, bowl, colander and a cup.
I cut out 2 rounds of each size, so I used 8 rounds to make each tree. Because I wanted to make 20 trees, which would be 160 yo yos, I was not prepared to do the stitching by hand. Instead I used the long stitch on my sewing machine. It was exhausting sewing all those rounds, let me tell you. I like to see results when I sew and sewing all those rounds really took it out of me. Once sewed, I pulled the threads to turn them into yo yos. I stacked them all atop each other to make the tree, then used a needle with the cord to attach the trees, bell and star. They actually took a lot longer to make than I initially anticipated.
The ones that I have given away so far have been really well received. I'll just ignore the fact that my brother was more excited about the chocolates.
I had fun making Miss 5's Christmas dress. I used the usual (Simplicity 2377) and added an elastic waist, a frilly red trim and 2 yo yos as flowers. I used fabric with Christmas dogs.
Miss 3's dress was Simplicity 2469. I never added extras on her dress because the fabric was fun and the pattern pretty. Christmas Kookaburras is so Australian - I love it.
I have never had success making dresses for myself. I have New Look 6095 and read endless reviews saying that it was easy for a beginner. It also had a zipper! I finally located my zipper foot (thanks to Google and YouTube) and decided that now was the time to learn. I measured myself and my measurements were all over the place. Size 16 bust, 20 waist and 12-14 hips. How on earth is anyone supposed to work that out? And a size 20 waist? Really? I know I have put weight on, but I usually wear (and fit into) a size 10. So I decided to make a size 12.
I found the most fabulous Christmas fabric. The making of the dress was pretty straight forward. I'm not one to read instructions and just 'get' them, so I was a little lost on the zipper bit. Thanks to internet searches, I knew how to sew on the zipper. And that was as far as I got before my 'misadventures' started. In all truthfulness, my misadventures started when I forgot what interfacing was and this happened:
Back to the zipper. I didn't know how far to sew up the back prior to attaching the zipper, so I did the zipper first. As you can imagine I had a time of completing the back seam.
Once the dress was completed it looked fantastic. I was so happy with it, I couldn't wait to try it on. Unfortunately, it was so tight across the chest that I could hardly breathe. Hips and waist were a little tight too. I'll put it in the wardrobe for next Christmas when I lose weight.
Undeterred, I decided to make another in a different Christmas snowman fabric. Again, it was pretty straight forward until I got to the zipper part. This time I realised that I needed to sew the back seam first. Then I decided to add the hem - because why not? Then I tackled the zipper. Of curse I didn't sew the back up far enough and one side ended up being longer than the other, which I had to fluff closed. In the end I zigzagged it because I couldn't work it out. Because of the fabric pattern, you really can't tell.
I got a lot of compliments on the girls' dresses and my own at the 2 Christmas parties we have been to so far.
Sorry for the long post, but I have been very busy in the lead up to Christmas. Already my mind is turning towards what I can make next for my girls. I'm thinking Simplicity 2265. It's so much fun creating. Until next time.
Jayne
Making handmade Christmas decorations to hang on the tree sounds beautiful. I really had high expectations for how it would turn out. Ignoring the amount of effort it will take, it sounds great, right? Well, ambition is a lot different to reality.
I went to Spotlight and bought Christmas fabric in the hopes of turning it into decorations. My idea was to cut out shapes and sew together with wadding. I made a whole heap of bells and baubles and I was not impressed.
 |
| Homemade Christmas decorations |
My loving Husband said they were great and that we should use them, so I gave them to the kids to put on the tree. Gotta love the encouragement you get from someone who loves you.
Before kids, I always took pride in decorating the tree. I always had it decorated to perfection. Because of this, I would never have allowed those handmade decorations anywhere near my tree. My eldest baby is now 5 and I have finally completely relinquished control of decorating the tree. Doesn't sound like much, but I really was a little controlling in that regard.
Needless to say, I am over decorating the tree with only handmade decorations.
Every year I like to put together a little Christmas plate to give to friends. Well really, this is only the 3rd Christmas I have done it, but I would like to make it a regular thing. The first year I bought Maxwell Williams Christmas bowls and filled them with Lindt chocolates and European yums from Aldi (biscuits and chocolates). Last year I thought to cost save and just used paper plates with Lindt chocolates and Aldi yums. Apparently the family were not impressed with the paper plates, so I decided to get proper plates or bowls for this year. I ended up using Maxwell Williams star bowls and mugs, Christmas mugs, Santa bowls and little glass stars. I filled them with Lindt chocolates, lollies and candy canes. I love the Aldi yums, but I wanted everything packaged so I didn't have to make it up last minute. To put on the top, I made hanging yo yo Christmas trees.
 |
| Wrapped Christmas gift plates |
I bought 2m of red and 2m of green Christmas fabric from Spotlight. I also ordered little star beads, bells and cord from AliExpress a couple of months ago. I was being prepared because postage takes so long. AliExpress is a great source of crafty things and trims that you can buy cheap - as long as you are prepared to wait the long postage time. Actually, they sell a lot of cheap things (stocking fillers included) and before you know it, you have spent a fortune on a lot of different little things!
I then searched all my cupboards until I found 4 different sized round objects - a plate, bowl, colander and a cup.
I cut out 2 rounds of each size, so I used 8 rounds to make each tree. Because I wanted to make 20 trees, which would be 160 yo yos, I was not prepared to do the stitching by hand. Instead I used the long stitch on my sewing machine. It was exhausting sewing all those rounds, let me tell you. I like to see results when I sew and sewing all those rounds really took it out of me. Once sewed, I pulled the threads to turn them into yo yos. I stacked them all atop each other to make the tree, then used a needle with the cord to attach the trees, bell and star. They actually took a lot longer to make than I initially anticipated.
 |
| Hanging yo yo Christmas tree decoration |
The ones that I have given away so far have been really well received. I'll just ignore the fact that my brother was more excited about the chocolates.
I had fun making Miss 5's Christmas dress. I used the usual (Simplicity 2377) and added an elastic waist, a frilly red trim and 2 yo yos as flowers. I used fabric with Christmas dogs.
Miss 3's dress was Simplicity 2469. I never added extras on her dress because the fabric was fun and the pattern pretty. Christmas Kookaburras is so Australian - I love it.
 |
| Christmas dresses |
I have never had success making dresses for myself. I have New Look 6095 and read endless reviews saying that it was easy for a beginner. It also had a zipper! I finally located my zipper foot (thanks to Google and YouTube) and decided that now was the time to learn. I measured myself and my measurements were all over the place. Size 16 bust, 20 waist and 12-14 hips. How on earth is anyone supposed to work that out? And a size 20 waist? Really? I know I have put weight on, but I usually wear (and fit into) a size 10. So I decided to make a size 12.
I found the most fabulous Christmas fabric. The making of the dress was pretty straight forward. I'm not one to read instructions and just 'get' them, so I was a little lost on the zipper bit. Thanks to internet searches, I knew how to sew on the zipper. And that was as far as I got before my 'misadventures' started. In all truthfulness, my misadventures started when I forgot what interfacing was and this happened:
 |
| Interfacing fail - yep, thats poplin |
Back to the zipper. I didn't know how far to sew up the back prior to attaching the zipper, so I did the zipper first. As you can imagine I had a time of completing the back seam.
Once the dress was completed it looked fantastic. I was so happy with it, I couldn't wait to try it on. Unfortunately, it was so tight across the chest that I could hardly breathe. Hips and waist were a little tight too. I'll put it in the wardrobe for next Christmas when I lose weight.
Undeterred, I decided to make another in a different Christmas snowman fabric. Again, it was pretty straight forward until I got to the zipper part. This time I realised that I needed to sew the back seam first. Then I decided to add the hem - because why not? Then I tackled the zipper. Of curse I didn't sew the back up far enough and one side ended up being longer than the other, which I had to fluff closed. In the end I zigzagged it because I couldn't work it out. Because of the fabric pattern, you really can't tell.
I got a lot of compliments on the girls' dresses and my own at the 2 Christmas parties we have been to so far.
 |
| My 2 fabulous Christmas dresses |
Sorry for the long post, but I have been very busy in the lead up to Christmas. Already my mind is turning towards what I can make next for my girls. I'm thinking Simplicity 2265. It's so much fun creating. Until next time.
Jayne
