Saturday, January 05, 2008

Homemade Gifts

I really would like to make an extra effort this year to make more gifts throughout the year, not just at Christmas time. Well, not really an effort as these projects are things I like to do and I want to make things I have to do and things I want to do coincide more. Make sense?

My first opportunity came with an unexpected birthday invitation for my daughter. Her friend is turning 7 and here's what we put together for her party today:



A crafty, drawing tote! This little girl is not very frilly, but she likes art, so I thought that a pencil roll would fit the bill.



To personalize the tote, I sketched a letter "j" and fused it on with Wonder Under and a bit of zig zag stitching.



For the roll, I used a yard piece of crazy, tie-dye fabric (a favorite of the recipient), quilted the fabric with flat, cotton batting and crazy-colored thread, and turned up the edge for a self-made pocket. I left the batting out of the pocket area to make it less bulky and we tucked in a set a colored pencils.



Erin added a custom label on the sketch pad and a fun picture of the birthday girl (or is it Abraham Lincoln?) and we're ready to go!

5 comments:

  1. what a fun gift--and a fun mom! what's next, a needle roll? I was thinking the same thing about handmade gifts through the year--except I was thinking I'd hand make Christmas gifts waaaay early--then I'd actually have more to give at Christmas. I seriously slacked off this year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It turned out lovely! What fun! I didn't think of the batting for the needle rolls - very clever.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is brilliant! She will totally love it. My crew would.

    I have so got to learn to sew--it was even one of my New Year's/end of school resolutions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excuse me, do you sleep? I am soooo envious of your time management abilities.......

    ReplyDelete
  5. i really do not knit that fast--I just knit all the time. A couple of hours of yarn a day (well, most days) will do great things for your projects. And these are on kinda big needles--they are 1s, I usually do socks on 0s.

    ReplyDelete