Another round: Christmas gift ideas/tutorials

Reusable sandwich bag by Betz White

I want to make some of these. I was thinking of layering the Capri

Sun drink bags inside instead of using the fancy fabric

that I can't find. Any thoughts?

Cereal Box Storage Bins by Urban Nest

Fabric gift wrap by La vida compartida
found this one while signing up for her giveaway, which
sadly... i lost.


Eddie cap by Mushroom Villagers

The weekender by weekend designer
This one is a little complicated for a Christmas present.

But I want to make one of these ...

some day.

Even more Christmas ideas/tutorials

Everything on today's list, I want to make a lot of for Christmas. We will see.

First one up : the game of 5 stones from Zakka Zakka

wristlet by JC Handmade
Kidlet by JC Handmade
(I really love her blog. If you don't read her, you should!)

Pyramid Purse from Living Creatively

Reversible Headbands by thelongthread

Christmas idea tutorials

As we all know, Christmas is coming. And we, being the crafty people that we are, want to make things for the people that we love.

I was looking over my bookmarks and I have a ton of tutorials saved. So I figured that over the next month I would share with you some of my favorites and maybe you will find something cool to make someone that you love. I know that I will be.

Here is the first installation:

messenger bag from //between the lines//

door organizer from Design*Sponge

moleskine cover from Keyka Lou

scrap savvy bookmark from 7 LAYER STUDIO

shrinky dink trinkets from How about orange...

Ok. I just looked up shrinky dinks. Expensive!!!

So I found a cool how to on how to make them! Go here.

snow days

what do you do when you are out of school/work for 3 days due to snow? you knit like a mad person on your Mrs. Darcy cardigan. all of this effort takes a toll on my finger because of the wonky way i hold my yarn while knitting. observe the weird line on my finger, that began to hurt, get dry and crack. so i had an idea. use some fabric left overs to make a wide ring for the yarn to pass over instead of rubbing the crap out of my finger.


so i cut two fabric strips a little wider than my tape measure and about 5.5 cm long. iron on some fleece iron stuff that i had laying around the house to one of the pieces of fabric.

get out the dark brown thread. sew up the long sides of the material with right sides facing each other. turn inside out and then stitch the ends closed using mattress stitch.

violá. a reversible ring the sits just perfectly for the yarn to pass over.

no more line on my finger!

P.S. sorry for the crappy photos. i swear i thought they looked better when i took them!

fixing the tudoras

towards the end of 2007 i made two tudoras from this lovely pattern by cheryl marling. they were supposed to be knit from heavy yarn on smaller needles. i used two strands of sock yarn held together with size 4 needles, which i thought made a firmer fabric. it didn't. the neckwarmer was all floppy after just a couple of wearings. so i planned to add some material to it. i finally did just that this past weekend. with the above materials in hand i set to work. i traced out the shape on some muslin and then i traced the shape on a piece of material that match. next, i traced two more of the shapes on some fusible fleece. then i cut the fleece about a 1/4 inch smaller than the tracing. i fused it to the material and muslin per intructions with the fleece.

then with some heavy duty thread i hand stitched the material to one tudora and the muslin to the other. found some buttons and put them in place. now i thought that i would keep the pretty material one for me and give the other away next christmas for a gift.

but really, i like this plain one so much better. plus the button is funny. it is from an old shower curtain but it is a cool wood button.

they fit wonderfully. the handstitching adds a nice touch. you can leave it open a bit to see the material or wear it so that the material is hidden away.

they are extremely warm (i tested run one today in 6 degree temperatures). ok so one christmas gift down, many more to come. i hope!