The Last Piece

A Handmade Christmas

We're on the downhill run now!

Things are a little tight in the Fielke household for Christms this year one way and another, and so I've decided that where possible I'm making everyone's gifts. (Pause here to laugh hysterically and tear my hair out in clumps.) This is a relatively easy task in terms of materials - after all I have a vast stash of fabric, a cupboard full of baking materials and a festish for ribbons and stationery. It's been fun figuring out how to make a budget Christmas just as beautiful as a lavish one!

First up I wanted to make some little gifts for some of my students, and for the wonderful ladies in the beautiful patchwork shops I work in regularly in Sydney. I tootled around the internet until I found these:

What are they? Does this help?

Cute huh? Can't you see those with a little summer dress? I found the tutorial here, along with a couple of other great Christmas gift ideas I'm going to try. I particularly love the balloon wax candles, and I've already made some labels for the jars and pots of things I'm baking and cooking using Wordle as they suggest. What fun!

The tutorial suggests using cut up knit or jersey for the bracelets, but lucky me already had about 6 cones of Hoooked Zpaghetti that I was given.

This fabulous yarn is made from offcuts from the fashion industry - making it re-purposed as well as fantastic! You will need at least two colours to make a set, I have two reds, an ecru, a pink and a purple so I can make different colour sets for different people. I think they look lovely all stacked together.

Next I thought about the littlies in our family - there are a few and I also have several god-daughters and friends kids to think about. Instead of getting them all one thing this year, I thought I would make them all up a little Santa-sack with their initials on.

Inside is chocolates, hair ribbons and nail polish and pretty stuff for the girls, and chocolates, little notepads and bouncy balls etc for the boys. I think they'll have fun unpacking the bags to see whats inside, it was much less expensive for me to fill the bags than buy them all something seperate, and plus it was fun thinking little things to go in each bag for each child!

You might notice my gift tags and wrapping paper - plain brown paper at $2 for 10 metres is a load cheaper than shiny gift wrap, and I think the tree looks lovely with all the presents wrapped in brown, with green and red ribbons and luggage tags for the gift tags. Again, very inexpensive and I made them Christmassy either with bit of fabric stuck on and decorated:

Or with these little paper shapes stuck on. $2 for 100 little Christmas trees! I either drew details in or let them be cute on their own:

Don't worry I'm not done yet - there are tons more gifts to make and some great tutorials too, so hang in there and I'll share in case you too want to make some pretty things for Christmas. In the mean time I have to finish quilting this:

On a severe deadline for Quilter's Companion for next year, hand quilted and four more borders to go! Phew...

You Sew Girl!

I was lucky enough recently to have Nicole Mallaieu send me a copy of her beautiful new book, You Sew Girl! just for me! And let me tell you, if you're looking for something lovely to put on your Christmas list, this book is it.

Nicole has always wanted to write a book about sewing. Having sewn since she was a small child, she then studied fashion and learned how to make a proper pattern and to sew quickly and professionally. She also learned all manner of short cuts, tips and tricks along the way, which she shares in the book.

The first third of the book is taken up with sewing tips, presented with great step by step photos. This section runs you through some fantastic quick tips like using a lint roller to pick up the remains of your unpicking from your sewing, how to use bias makers, how to make an accurate pattern, making handles and straps, inserting a zipper... the list goes on, and let me tell you there are PLENTY of things in there that made me think - aha! I am not a dressmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but I think even I could put a zipper in with this tutorial. :)

The book contains all kinds of sewing projects from large to small, starting with this fantastic rose made from half a zipper. Hello, awesome Christmas present anyone??

WAY too cute! The book moves through other simple sewing ideas like belts and baby hats before going to the bags chapter, of course what Nicole has made herself known for. 

Up until recently Nicole has sold all the bag frames and kits for making her purses online - however she is closing the retail shop at the end of 2011 so if you want one of her purse kits get in QUICK!! She is going totally wholesale (shops, take note) so you will still be able to buy her products.

Chapter 3 in the book is entitles, "Pattern Free Clothing". As previously mentioned my dressmaking skill are woeful, so this made me sit right up.

There are fantastic patterns here for both childrens and ladies clothes, skirts, tops, you name it - AND with no pattern! Hip hip hooray. Now all I have to do is get my sewing machine a jersey needle and start sewing some of that stretch fabric I've been buying with good intentions for years. I do recall a rather lovely navy and white stripe jersey, now where did I put that...

You can buy You Sew Girl from Nicole's webshop and from other online bookstores, or your local bookstore of course. Thanks so much for the book Nicole - considering that everyone in my family (except the boys) is getting handmade gifts this Christmas, it is my next port of call for prezzies! More about that and what I'm getting up to Christmas-craft-wise tomorrow.

A few housekeeping announcements:

** Thank you to everyone who has purchased from my newly renovated webshop in the last few days! Due to children's Christmas concerts and end of Year 6 I will be posting everything everyone has ordered on Wednesday. Thank you for your patience.**

**I had an order for a PDf pattern from a lady in the USA last week. Your email address is incorrect and keeps bouncing back! If you have ordered a pattern and not recieved it from me please email me asap so I can get it to you.**

** Thank you to everyone who has emailed me about the quilts for Amy and Annabel. Due to Houston and a few scary deadlines, I haven't sewn the blocks up yet but they are all trimmed to size and ready to go and they are next on my sewing list at the end of this week. If anyone has any ideas for sourcing backing fabrics for the two quilts (one is king single, one Queen sized) or for having the machine quilting done reasonably in Australia, please let me know. Thanks, and thanks SO VERY MUCH to the hundreds and hundreds of you who sent blocks, fabric, and most especially kind notes and lovely words for both Amy and myself. Quilters are just awesome. **

 

Just in Time for Christmas

Hooray! Blog tour down and we are on the slope to Christmas. I thought this week I would share with you some great gifts, Christmas recipes and more Christmas craft since you all liked the origami so much! First though, a Christmas present to the winners of the St Ives competition:

Cathy of Cathy's Sewing Room

Leah from Puggle Logic and

Dorothy Ramage!

Three Aussies, and all done by random drawing! I love that :) Ladies please send me an email to sarah@sarahfielke.com with your street addresses and I will send yu out some St Ives of your very own. Yay!

If you missed out on the St Ives giveaway, then I have my first Christmas gift recommendation for you... mind you I'm a little biased. For a limited time I have some kits of the Made In Cherry, Made in Watermelon, Made in Blue Vanilla and Made in Polar Purple Shiver quilt kits up on my website. There are only a few of each so get in quick. You will also find that my applique kits, templates and DVD are up for sale a well - although I have just noticed that Hubby has a couple of the prices too high, he only put them up last night, bless him. If you want to buy today I will adjust those for you!

If you are going to make the quilt, Chelsea at Pins and Bobbins is holding a quiltalong for it, which I'm really excited about! So hop over and you can find out all about it and get a cute button for your blog too. If you're in the quiltalong make sure and post your pics of the quilts on my Flickr page for all to see!

Back to the sewing room.