Well, I promised you a blog post by the 20th…

I don’t know about you, but sewing for others really hits its peak pre-Christmas. Mostly because I’m too pushed to buy something in the shops/because I have some GREAT idea that I can make from my dizzyingly/damningly large stash…

The above quartet were made for Christmas 2018 .. and, uh, Christmas 2017, too (I did say that I had a backlog of stuff to blog about, y’all).

Clockwise from top left; a cute-ass t-shirt made from cute-as jersey which I couldn’t resist on Facebook.

I was going to make myself something, but the fact I’m a (very) grown woman made me think I should pass. So I made it for another (fractionally less) grown woman, from the so-out-of-print-it’s-technically-extinct Simplicity 5923. The receiver loved it but, despite adding a few inches for length, I swear I did NOT adequately accommodate for her height, and I suspect the hem barely touches her belly-button. OH WELL.

Top right is a stuffed heart made of purchased tweed off-cuts; Scottish feng shui, if you will. The recipient loves it, and has it hanging in pride of place near her front door (if it can draw romantic love in to cross her threshold, by the way, that’d be great, thanks Universe!)

Bottom right; who doesn’t love a home-made felt coaster, made to look like it fell off the back of a lorry at Oliver Bonas? I also made these little numbers; I was going to do more lightening bolts, but me and hand-sewing under pressure = nope.

And finally bottom left; a tweed sample snaffled at a craft sale (by the legend that is Linton!). A zippered purse/pencil case, lined AND with iron-on wadding to make it feel extra lush and stuff. No idea if it landed well, but I think so?

One gift that definitely landed well; a friend asked me to make a pair of cushions to match her curtains, from left-over fabric. While you can’t see it, I am especially pleased with how the invisible zippers turned out (with grey pulls because that’s the kinda classy, accidentally-coordinating dame I AM);

So there we have it. A little bit of a round-up of my exploits, sewing for Santa (could be worse; I could typo and say sewing for Satan).

Will I make more gifts for people in the Christmases to come? Almost certainly. Will I plan stuff before we reach December, so it’s not a harried rush to the Post Office to catch last posting dates?

Oh dear, you really DO know me too well…