WiP Wednesday – Christmas gifts

I’m in disbelief at how fast Christmas is approaching. And slightly in freak out mode that I still have so much to sew! When will I learn? I should start Christmas sewing in January! Then I might stand a chance of being organised!

I have managed to complete two projects, and start one so at least I feel like I’m making some kind of headway! The teachers’ gifts are done! Yay! 

I’ll admit – these didn’t turn out as planned. I saw an idea on Pinterest (yeah you know where this is going, don’t you!) and thought oh how fun! Apple prints on calico – my kids will love that! They did. I didn’t. Now I remember why I don’t particularly enjoy doing crafts with my kids involving paint. Anyways they had fun stamping with the apples (though Miss 2 was puzzled at using food in paint).



I had planned to make the bags completely out of calico. Until the kids got creative and finger painted the top of the square and it didn’t look so fab anymore. Cheapo fabric to the rescue (scored 5m of this dark green for less than $2 a metre – bargain!) and the bags were done.



So these are for my son’s preschool teachers as he’s now finished with preschool and off to big school next year. And all being lovely ladies, I’m sure they’ll pretend to like them.

I also had a minor panic I hadn’t sent anything to my sister in NZ for Christmas. With post being notoriously slow at this time of year, I figured I better whip something up and mail it asap. So again - inspired by something on Pinterest…



A phone charger pouch thingamajig (totally technical term) that hangs on the charger while plugged in to the power point.

Now the tutorial for this is completely in German. I don’t speak German (other than random words plus a few swearies thanks to some great German gals I met during a year as an au pair). So I just followed the pictures and kind of made up the rest as I went. It’s not perfect but it’ll do the trick. Obviously I didn’t use felt or visoflex (right word?!) in mine, but just fabric and batting. It really made that hole in the top a pain in the bum to sew  - ended up hand sewing it together then machine stitching to keep it in place. I also made the hole way too big. But live and learn. Maybe I’ll attempt it again some day!

So that leads me onto my current WiP! I’m making a paper pieced wallhanging for my Mum – this one features daffodils. (Mum, you better not be reading my blog after my stern instructions not to! You’ll spoil Christmas. Just sayin’. Love you!)



It’s another pattern by Eileen B Sullivan. I made the Iris version not that long ago and loved it. So here I am trying another fab pattern! We won’t mention how many times I had to unpick due to not paying close enough attention. The paper piecing mojo just wasn’t there today.

And that about sums up the state of sewing in my household at the moment. I hope you’re managing your Christmas sewing a little better than I am!