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Wednesday 30 December 2009

A handmade Christmas part 3

I've rounded up most of the photos of the rest of the presents I made for friends and family this year to share with you all.
So this is going to be a reasonably long post! Mainly because I'm dying to show you the new things I have been making from my Japanese book over the holidays, but I really feel I should get these Christmas presents featured first.
So here are a couple of sashiko/applique tea towels like the one I made for my parents and detailed here. The same design but in different colourways. One for my sister-in-law and one for my best friend, Liz.
I loved using the linens with the sashiko threads so much that I made a couple of needlecases with the same technique. One of them went off in the post before photographing (for my mother-in-law) and so is unrecorded (I do seem to be getting a bit obsessive about 'archiving ' everything I make!). Here is the one I made for Liz, I put quite a few needles inside as she is hoping to get started on patchwork and quilting this year and doesn't have a huge amount of haberdashery.

I then turned again to the excellent (and strongly recommended) 'Last minute Patchwork and Quilting Gifts' book mentioned in my last post, and their idea for a coloured pencil roll. This was lovely to make as you get to incorporate so many different fabrics and plan them to match the coloured pencils. I used a Cath Kidston fabric for the outer casing and pocket. It holds 24 pencils and is for my younger niece, Ana. Unfortunately, because of a long winded reason too boring to relate, I can't show you the photo of this at the moment (I'll sneak it into a future post). Instead I can show you this adapted version.
They suggest in the book that you could alter the roll slightly for knitting needles, but I thought it would work even better for crochet hooks. So here is one I made for my dear sister Jane, who is a keen crocheter and a staunch supporter of my blog! It is the same dimensions as the pencil one but with only 16 pockets.
I used fabric from an old blouse for the outer casing (I love a bit of recycling!).

Well it was very rewarding to make most of my presents this year, I just hope I have the energy next year as I suppose I have now set a precedent!

1 comment:

  1. Yes, you certainly have - and hopefully inspire me to get creative - not just doing crochet but some more inspirational beading work

    Love everything and still do not know how you found the time to do it all x

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