My Favourite Christmas Decorations

As it's too cold for me to sit at my kitchen table and sew (don't ask - storage heaters & a door that doesn't fit properly!), I thought today I'd share my favourite Christmas decorations with you.  These have all been with me for about 10 years, and I love each and every one of them.

This one was made for me by my aunt.  The triangles are filled with stuffing and its edged with ribbon.  She also made this one for me too:

It's not a brilliant photo I'm afraid, but the bells are made up from panels of fabric.  Plastic bells and ribbons hang down from each one & the fabric bells get larger as they go down.

This next decoration is from a kit by Bucilla.  I bought it years ago, and started making it, but it was one of those things that never get finished.  Luckily my mum-in-law came to the rescue and spent many hours hand stitching every sequin and felt piece together. 

Don't you think she is very clever?

Finally this is the only decoration I can lay claim to making.  Again it's a kit from Bucilla, and again I bought it years ago when my eldest was tiny.  Only this time I did finish it.  Every sequin, every stitch was hand sewn by me, a complete labour of love and every year I get it out and am amazed I actually had the patience to make it.

Let me know if you've got favourite decorations, I'd love to see them and hear the stories behind them.

Sally
xxx

Snow

Thought I'd show you the scene we woke up to yesterday morning, very pretty don't you think.

The children loved it as you can imagine, and luckily this year I'd put by a sledge in the shop I work in, so I could pick it up and they could go out and play. Sadly I was working all day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to try it out myself, but they loved it.

I do like seeing an odd day of snow, but the cold does make me grumpy.  I'd rather curl up with a mug of hot chocolate and look out of the window at it.

No such luck tonight, I'd booked a stall at a local pub's craft fair, and so had to venture forth across Salisbury plain to get to it.  Due to the weather it was quite quiet, but luckily I managed to sell a few bits, and that coupled with the fact that I'd taken my mum with me for company meant that it was quite a fun evening.  I did feel sorry for the people selling Christmas trees though who were standing outside in the -2 degree weather!

My mum was actually organised and took her camera, so here is my stall.

Enjoy the snow if you have any.

Sally

xxx

More Christmas Decorations

I'm really really trying to get myself in the Christmas mood, so I made some more felt decorations today. 

Firstly I finished the snowman I started a few days back:

I used black seed beads for his eyes and buttons, and used clear ones on his hat.

I also found a fantastic tutorial for felt Christmas puddings over at the wonderful Crafty Helen @ Home blog(click here for the tutorial) and decided to make some small ones to hang on my tree. 

This tiny one is made from a circle the size of a candle votive, and I used seed beads to make the holly berries.  I've used a 10p piece so that you can get an idea of how tiny the pudding worked out!  I then made a slightly bigger one from the base of a candle holder, and this time used larger beads to make the holly berries.

They were really good fun to make, and so simple.  All I need now is some glittery thread to make hangers from and I think they'll really look good on my tree.

Finally I found a new use for the felt balls I made the other day:

A teeny tiny snowman.  A very colourful chap wouldn't you say!

Sally
xxx

Giveaway Winner

And the winner is:  Sarah@Pingsandneedles.  Who said:

ooh I'm first! Yay! I'm already a follower :) and I think your little scrappy purse is fab and I'd love to win it - how lovely to include a little 'kit' too - very kind!

Sarah, if you want to email me your address I'll pop your parcel in the post.  Thanks to everyone who entered, and welcome to my new followers.

Sally
xxx

Oops, nearly forgot, my email address is sally(at)DitzyandDotty.co.uk

Felt making & Oops!

Firstly the "Oops".

In one post I said I'd draw the winner of my giveaway on 25th & then in the next post I said I'd draw it on Wednesday (more evidence if any was needed of how my blog/shop name came about!) - so in the interests of fairness, I will draw it now on THURSDAY 25th November at 8pm!

(If you've missed it and want to enter, click here and leave a comment for me)

Now on to the exciting stuff, today I went on a felt making course and it was fab!  It was run by Elizabeth at Sewciety.  She runs course by appointment, all you need is a friend or two and she'll run a course just for you.  This is what I made:

My first attempt at wet felting with a sushi type mat.  I'm really looking forward to making something from it - am not sure what yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something to turn it into.

Next we had a try at making felt balls:

I just love the way the colours all blend together.  They're each about the size of a marble.  Again I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but they're so tactile I just want to roll them round in my hand all day!

Finally we had a try at needle felting.  I managed to make this flower:

and then I made this heart:

I sewed brooch backings & beads on when I got home and what a surprise, my daughter has already claimed the heart for her own!

Think I've found another new hobby!

Sally
xxx

Christmas Decorations and Don't Forget My Giveaway

Had a really fun day at the market on Saturday, it was very busy and I met lots of lovely people, but didn't sell as much as I'd hoped.  All of the stallholders said the same, lots of people looking but very few buying.  Sadly a sign of the times I think!  I did make a small profit after paying for the stall and petrol, so all was not lost, and as I say I met some lovely people so it was worth going just for that.

After all of the rushing about last week, I thought I'd reward myself today with a day to make something for myself.  I decided to hand-stitch some new decorations for my tree.  This is the angel I made:

I just printed out a colouring page that I found on the internet & cut out the pieces, before sewing it together and stuffing it with some toy stuffing.  I'm also part way through making a snowman, here he is all cut out but not yet sewn:

Will give me something to do tonight while watching I'm a Celebrity!

Don't forget there's still time to enter my giveaway just click here and leave a comment, I'll be drawing a winner on Wednesday evening.

Sally

PS did you notice the new banner for my shop at the top of this post?  Had several people stumble on my site while looking for lunch bags, but no new orders.  Hopefully this will help them get to where they want to be.

My First Giveaway

Yippee, Christmas is coming and I thought it was time to do my first giveaway.  You could win (fanfare please):

One of my Christmas purses, but as if that wasn't good enough (!) I will fill it with lots of scraps of cotton Christmas fabric, enough to make another crazy patchwork purse of your own.  I will also add 2 pieces of white cotton lining, two of interfacing and one zip, plus instructions on how to put it all together. 

Please note that the fabric scraps are only small bits, of weird and wonderful shapes, but there is plenty there to make at least one (and possibly two) crazy patchwork purses.

To win:

Just become a follower and comment below.  If you are already one of my lovely followers, then leave me a comment too. 

I will draw a winner in a weeks time - 25th November, a month before the big day, hopefully giving you time to make another purse and put it in somebody elses stocking.

Good Luck

Bunting

Had a busy few days getting things ready and organised for the Christmas market I'm selling at on Saturday.  I've decided to go for a plain white tablecloth as my bags are all pretty colourful in their own rights.  The only thing I didn't have was any way of showing who I was, so yesterday I started making some bunting with my company name on it.  I finished it this afternoon, and here it is:

and here is a close up of one of the flags

The letters are cut out of felt and bondawebbed to the flag, and then I stitched around the outside of the letters to make sure they stayed in place. A cheap and cheerful way to make sure any customers know who I am.

If anyone is in the Wimborne area on Saturday, then come and say hello, I'll be at Honeybrook Farm from 11am - 4pm.  Have a look at the website for The Anonymous Travelling Market for more details.

Saturday Night and time to Party!

Have had a busy couple of days making more stockings and then adding them to my shop.  I've only got a limited number of them as I've now run out of fabric, so I thought I'd try them online before taking them to the craft fair on Saturday.

I've also made a few more Christmas purses:

 So they will also be added to my shop tomorrow. 

I've also been to Fabricland again today (I know, I know, its an addiction!) and this time I bought some white fabric to cover my table at the craft fair. I also got some pink and red ginghams to make some bunting for the stall.  I may have a practice run of arranging the table and see what works.  I've never done a craft fair before so its going to be a learning experience, if anyone has any tips of things to do or take, then I'd love to know.

Right off for some birthday cake as it my husband's birthday today.  One of my children made it and another of them iced it, so am looking forward to a slice with a nice cup of tea.  Another exciting Saturday night in the country!!!

6 Degrees of Separation and Christmas Purses

Had quite a fun day today playing 6 degrees of separation with Emma over at It's all about The Fabric, small world that it is, we managed it in much less than 6 people - 1 to be precise!

Other than that I've finished the tutorial for Sew Hip, and emailed it off.  Then this afternoon I decided to make some crazy patchwork purses, but this time I thought that instead of making them flat, I'd give them each a bottom!

I made this one first:

Then I made this one:

and then because I cannot bear to waste even a scrap of fabric, no matter how small I made this one:

When does crazy patchwork tip over into insanity? I think I may be nearing that point now!

More for Sew Hip and Christmas Decorations

I've spent most of today making the second of my items for Sew Hip magazine.  So again I'm going to say you'll have to wait for the magazine to come out to find out what I've been making, but I think I may be able to give you a clue.  These are the leftovers!

I know as clues go, its not a very good one, but you can rest assured it is very colourful!  Obviously when the relevant issue comes out I'll let you know so you can all dash out and buy a copy!

While I was sitting at the table needle in hand, my daughter and her friend decided to do crafting too.  Luckily I'd been to Hobbycraft yesterday and bought a few Christmassy craft things so I could pull out the wooden decorations and let them loose with colouring pens.  Even my two sons came and joined us, so we spent a lovely hour chatting, crafting and singing along to the radio.  This is one of the wooden decorations my eldest son coloured:

I got each of them to write their names and the year on the back, so when they're married with a Christmas tree of their own, I can produce these ornaments for them to inherit! 

Christmas Stockings

Decided that today was the day I was going to cut into my beautiful Christmas fabric, and although it was hard to do as I love it so much, I'm pleased I did.  Here are the results:

I followed a pattern at Seamzine blog.  I printed it out at an A3 size and then added another 3" at the top as I wanted it to be slightly longer than their pattern.  The pattern itself was pretty easy to follow, although I do still have to unpick one seam on the blue one as I managed to stitch the lining in back to front, but that was just me having a ditzy moment, nothing to do with the pattern.  I've got enough fabric to make another 4 or 5 so it looks like my stall on 20th November may have a few stockings to sell.

The good news with doing festive crafts this early is that I'm getting into the holiday mood a bit earlier than usual - maybe this year will be the year I finally get organised and not have to dash around the shops on Christmas Eve, but then again maybe not!

A Monster Effort

Yippee, have finally finished making the monsters and bags I started weeks ago!

So, a family portrait of them all:



I'm hoping to sell them at the Christmas Craft Fair I'm doing in Wimborne on 20th November.  However I will probably take a couple up to the local country market on Saturday and see if anyone is interested. 

Am also turning my mind towards Christmas decorations and am wondering what I should make.  This year I'm at a bit of a loss.  I've bought some gorgeous fabrics from Fabricworm,

but they're so nice I really want to make something special with them.  Am leaning toward Christmas stockings, but just wondered what anyone else was planning on making this year?  Has anyone found any gorgeous patterns? 

Purses and Scarf Knitting

Quiet day on the crafts front today, because my youngest 2 children have been off school with a tummy bug.  Luckily the sickness part of the bug had finished by last night, so although I had to be on hand, I was not needed for any yucky stuff!

My 6 year old loves crafts so she was happy to sit at the table making cards for her friends and writing stories while I  made a couple more purses for the market on Saturday.

I saw crazy patchwork somewhere recently, (and can't for the life of me remember where I saw it) but I liked the look of it and thought I'd have a bash with the contents of my scrap bag.  I made both sides similar, here is the reverse:

I've lined them with white poly cotton, and added a bit of ribbon on the zip.  Quick and simple to do with children around.

The other thing I've been doing of an evening is knitting myself a scarf.  I saw this wool in a shop on Sunday and thought it would make an interesting scarf.

Its not very clear from the photo, but its quite lacy.  The reason being is I used larger needles than recommended  (I wish I could say because I'd aimed for a lacy look, but really it's because I get bored quickly & wanted to knit something quickly).  Its about half as long as I'd like, so hopefully a few more days & it should be done.

Just thought I'd leave you with an image of a card my daughter made me while we were sitting at the kitchen table together - its lovely & cheerful and was just what I needed.