Christmas Decorations from a Stitcher's Perspective

This year, as in many other years, I have been busy making things in the run up to Christmas. Things that are far from essential but for some reason I feel I have to make before the 'big day' and here are two of the things I have been making.

This is my Christmas mannequin which was inspired by one I saw in John Lewis. I had every intention of making a simple red top to go on it but with no red fabric and little time I had to resort to something I already had and the beaded top fit the bill, after all when did I last wear it? I enjoyed decorating her and I think she could become  an annual fixture at Christmas.

And sticking with the sewing theme, here is this year's stitcher's wreath. I've used pretty much all my bright shiny threads in the wreath and I'm hoping they will remain intact and usable when it comes down in January. It may have benefited from additional reels, maybe next year I'll either paint some of the wooden reels in bright sparkly colours or perhaps wrap them with bright ribbon or fabric and use more of them. Next year? Now I'm getting ahead of myself!

I'm also trying to finish making a dress to wear over Christmas! This will be my first attempt at making a lined dress and although the main part of the dress is almost complete, I've yet to buy the lining! I'm not sure if I had a brain storm when I bought the fabric or whether they gave me too much but there was a lot left over and so I  cut out a funky top that I have been wanting to try for some time and am sewing that too. Madness! Obviously I'm sewing these without my dressmakers dummy - she's otherwise engaged. 

But before I go back to my sewing, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative new year. 

Merry Christmas

The final piece of Christmas stitching is complete. I already have lots of napkins but I just couldn't resist doing these. A simple design but quite effective I think.

And here are the other seven robins all lined up, ready for folding.

So before I go and install myself in the kitchen for the day, I would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative new year.

Christmas Deer Head

I'm really not sure how this came up in conversation but a couple of months ago Gill told me about this deer head pattern and from then on I wanted one on my wall this Christmas. I duly bought the pattern, bought some brown Christmasy fabric for the head and then afterwards I read the pattern. I should have read the pattern first! The pattern suggests using woollen or felt fabric and I had bought cotton fabric. 

The head is constructed by hand stitching on the outside of the head but I didn't think my cotton was well suited to this method, so I stitched right sides together and then turned it out. Another change I made was to move the ears in front of the antlers, not where they should be but I liked the ears being more prominent. I also decided to knit him a red scarf to give him some additional Christmas cheer, so to speed things up I got out my old knitting machine which probably hasn't seen the light of day for 20 years and at one point I wondered whether it would be quicker to knit it by hand but it did all eventually come flooding back to me.

I had grand plans of making another deer head with a cardigan I felted a while ago but this one took a bit longer to make than I expected and I ran out of time. Something else to add to next year's Christmas 'to-do' list. Perhaps next year I will follow the pattern?

I've got one more 'make' planned before Christmas....then I need to put my machine away, hoover up the threads and create some things in the kitchen.

Stitching with Sprouts

I couldn't resist making this Christmas wreath after seeing the instructions in the Waitrose Weekend paper. I made a hole in the sprouts with a screwdriver, threaded a needle with string and then strung the sprouts onto the string and wrapped them around a ring of willow.  I added a ribbon and it was ready to hang.

I was planning to hang the wreath on the front door but as now seems really obvious, it was just too heavy, so it's hanging on a large nail next to the front door. The first person who came to our house after the wreath was hung, declared it the 'weirdest thing she'd ever seen'....I was strangely pleased with that comment.

 

Creative gifts

I hope you all had a very happy Christmas. I was very lucky and received a number of books to inspire me....

....and things to use during the making phase...a very posh tape measure, a needle threader, some lovely variegated threads and a vintage cotton reel to use in my cotton reel themed work.

 

I also received pressies to encourage my creativity in the kitchen. I was very pleased to receive this book as I have fancied making a pizza for some time now. 

 

I was also given a baking stone and a dough cutter, so with no excuses left....

 

 

... I've made some pizza dough, which is (hopefully!) rising, as I type. I confess to being a little bit nervous about how it's going to turn out as the dough recipe has only 0.2g of yeast in it (yes, I did mean 0.2g) . I couldn't believe it was so little and so contacted the authors to check whether there had been a misprint but apparently not.  I'm very pleased that they came back to me so quickly, otherwise I might have been tempted to add some more yeast and a least upped the quantity to a whole 2g!

Well, if it doesn't turn out well I can always have a mozzarella sandwich and given what I've eaten during the Christmas festivities, it wouldn't do me any harm to miss a meal!

Merry Christmas Everyone

As I child I always had a red dress for Christmas and on the spur of the moment I decided that I would make a red dress for this Christmas. It helped that I had some red fabric in my stash.

As I only started on Saturday evening it had to be quick to make and I used Vogue pattern no 8786. I had bought this pattern to make the cap sleeve version in the summer but I never quite found the time to make it but given the time of year and the fact that I had enough fabric, I decided to make the long sleeved version.

This was a categorised as 'Very Easy' and not only was it easy but it was also quick to make, especially as the fabric I used didn't fray. As the fabric was stretchy, I made it into a slip-on dress and sewed up the back seam rather than leaving an opening at the neck and this made it even quicker to make. I also extended the sleeves to make them full length. Two pattern alterations, I'm almost a fashion designer, surely? I wish!

Whether your Christmas preparations include anything textiley, I hope they are going to plan, that if you are travelling you have a safe journey and that you have a very happy Christmas.

'Stamped' Christmas cards

I really enjoyed the Thomas Heatherwick exhibition at the V&A and I marvelled at the ingenious ideas he came up with. But there was one idea that I thought I could probably recreate and that was his Christmas cards made from stamps.

Like the card above, Thomas had made his from new stamps  and although it was OK I preferred the card I later made from last year's stamps  - even with curly and missing corners.

I only had enough stamps to make one card but I scanned the card....

 

....and printed it out in different sizes.

These were created after most of my cards have been posted but I have given some of them out to friends I have seen.  This could be a way to make use of your Christmas stamps and it's certainly a simple enough to do with children too.

 

Angels and Cakes

On Saturday, I enjoyed a Christmas Tea at the North Herts & Beds branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. The event was very well attended and we enjoyed a very entertaining, inspiring and informative talk by Lynda Monk and if that wasn't enough we were treated to a lovely tea prepared by the committee members.

 

After the talk, Lynda very generously let us try out her technique of printing with Xpandaprint through a thermofax screen. Being in the Christmas mood, I chose an angel design and printed it onto lutradur before blasting it with a heat gun to make her dress look a little more Lacy.

 

 

I used the excess paste on the screen to print onto paper and then painted over it and rubbed the raised bits with Treasure Gold.

 

 

This technique could be used to make some lovely Christmas cards but it's all a bit late for this year. I had plans for some stitched felt cards this year it just didn't happen.  

 

At the tea I also collected this lovely miniature Christmas cake, which I had ordered from Gina.

 

More than 20 years ago I went on a cake decorating course and this is the first year since then that I have not made my own Christmas cake. Partly due to lack of time but also because my Dad always tucked into it and would take a good chunk of it home. Without his help eating it, was it worth making it? So having decided not to make one, I have now succumbed and bought one, albeit smaller than I would normally make.

 

 

Gina always presents her work so beautifully too and as we ate it over the weekend (Tut tut, before Christmas) I can tell you it tasted very good too.  

 

 I'll be interested to see how the bought cake compares to home made ones. It's difficult to know what to wish for, how will I feel if after all these years of slaving over my cakes, the bought ones are better? I suspect I will go back to making one next year, perhaps just smaller than I used to make.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

In November I went on a day course at the V&A to make a 'Partridge in a (gilded) pear Tree'. The course was led by Linda Barker and I had a very enjoyable day. Linda and the staff at the V&A were very helpful and thought of everything, even down to how you took your tree home.

The twigs were dipped in plaster of paris before we gilded them. I chose some mottled foil to cover mine and I was pleased with the effect. The foil was difficult to apply as it didn't come on any backing paper, so it was sticking to me almost as much as the twig. Although I had a very enjoyable day, I wasn't in love with the final piece but had intended to add some additional things to hang from the tree but as my heart wasn't in it, it didn't happen and I only finished the tree yesterday, another sign I wasn't in love with it. 

Many years ago, before I got into textiles, I would spend hours and hours decorating my Christmas cake but now I look for designs that are simple and reasonably quick to achieve. Here's this year's cake. I always use the same recipe but some years it turns out better than others. Why? I have no idea but I have a feeling that this cake is going to be a good one. Fingers crossed.

Our study door insists on closing and my husband wedges it open with an old envelope. Every time I notice the envelope I promise myself that I will buy a nice wooden wedge for the door. That was until recently when I borrowed the Recraft book from the library. The book encourages you to recycle things into new objects and one of the suggestions is to use an old jacket sleeve to make an owl door stop. Well not quite recycling as I made it out of some fabric that I had printed on and wasn't sure what to do with it. Hopefully, the owl will be welcomed tomorrow and replace the old envelope.

The kitchen beckons me loudly, so all that's left is for me to wish you all a very happy Christmas. I am looking forward to some creative time between Christmas and the New Year and  have a couple of textile pieces that I hope to finish. I hope to show you those soon.