It’s a cozy cozy christmas.  I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it turns out my christmas gifts have a theme this year. I guess we all have too much stuff, so now we need stuff to put our stuff in.

Crayon cozies:

A knitting needle cozy:

and a tissue cozy  (that is going to my nana who is 104!)

All the patterns were from online tutorials (this christmas season I am thankful for the internet). They can be found here, here, and here respectively.  I can see the end of my christmas list now and I am very excited.  I really didn’t know what I was getting into with the whole handmade pledge thing.  Now that I think about it I haven’t bought anything–except for some thread and notions and a couple “just in case I forgot someone gift.”  But somehow the money still gets spent: pounds and pounds of butter for cookies, wrapping paper, tape, more tape, shipping.  It was a lot of time spent sewing, which I couldn’t have done without a very supportive husband to watch the babies (and vacuum!), but I am pretty satisfied with myself.  Let’s just hope the recipients like them too.

I am halfway through this handmade holiday thing–making everyone’s gift is a lot of work.  Thankfully I have a fantastic husband who lets me hide in my studio and sew for hours.  I even got myself to the post office Monday morning before it opened (there was already a line!) and a bunch of presents are on their way! The apron above is from Denyse Schmidt’s book and has an oven mitt to match. I made a few of these set for a few sets of people–aprons for the girls and oven mitts for the boys.  I think an oven mitt makes a fine man gift. I only have a few boys on my christmas list, but I have some crafty man gifts up my sleeve, which really I should be making now that I think about it…

These are a couple of placemats I made for one of my sisters (and if my mom can hold off telling everyone she know about this blog–hi mom–she won’t know she’s getting them for christmas).   You would think placemats would be easy, hell even my husband said so, but you really do have to pay attention.  You can’t watch crappy tv while cutting them out with your dull ass rotary cutter on your cutting mat that is way to small, or none will be the same size.  This set is saved by the pretty fabric, but I made another set (for another sister) and everything went wrong: they are too big,  I used plaid fabric so you can see every flub,  I tried to make them pretty with a decorative stitch, but it make them look old fashioned, so I made some matching napkins (I never want to hem anything again) and they look ridiculously small next to the huge placemats, oh and I had to patch some fabric together because I didn’t have enough. There is always at least one project that goes like this, where everything goes wrong no matter what you try. My mom used to call these days “E.I triple T. S.” days: everything I touch turns to shit.  So here’s something nobody can screw up:

pomanders.  I did this with my daughter and her friend last week: just push cloves into oranges or clementines; for small people cut a tiny slit in the orange so the clove goes in more easily. You can tie a pretty ribbon around them and hang them on your tree or in your closet–they smell lovely.  I was going to make letters with the cloves and spell out something festive (noel was the shortest christmas sentiment I could think of) but we started eating the oranges…

Here is something you can do if you want to eat them and another if you don’t have any cloves.

a little pair of baby shoes for a new little boy.  These are quick to make, which is good because I had to make four in order for two to be the same size.  It would be sweet to make a pair and fill them with treats for St. Nicholas day (december 6th–does anyone celebrate this anymore?), or tie them together and hang on the tree, or just make them for all the babies on your list–which is what I am going to do.  I followed the tutorial for Heather Bailey’s bitty booties and you can too.

holiday birthdays always get the shaft. I don’t have one, but have sisters and friends that do and I’ve heard many lectures on the topic (all riviting). The lesson always is never ever say, “this present counts for christmas and your birthday!” So go back to your christmas list, make a new column for birthdays and do these poor, suffering people a favor and make them a birthday present (you get extra points for wrapping it with actual birthday paper).

I made this train bag for a little boy, whose birthday is before thanksgiving (so it doesn’t quite count as a holiday birthday). I used this very clever tutorial and did some freezer paper stencils on the inside.  The stencils were not planned and really should have been, but oh well it’s not bad.  He didn’t seem to mind, but he is only 2.