Category: Monthly Review

Monthly Review · Sewing

Sewing Round Up- 2021

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Sew how did your year go? Was it a creative year, or did you get creativity slumps like me? It was really hard to maintain my sewing habit this year, due to several basement heavy house renos. We’re grateful to have the means with which to fix our house and looking forward to the new windows in March so we have less drafts, but it was a lot to have done all at once. I did still manage to do a lot of sewing this year. I kept up mostly with the 52 Week Sewing Challenge, although I had to utilize the make up threads a little bit.

Here are some of my favorite patterns or makes from the year.

This purse is one of the things I am most proud of making. I always feel that my bags don’t look as professional as they could, even when I do the ironing and all the extra steps. But this bag turned out really well. The pattern is from Linds Handmade on Etsy and is called the H2O to Go Sling. the rose part that you can see with the water bottle is actually a waterproof fabric, I think a thinner oil cloth or PUL fabric. The front pocket has a little pocket and a bunch of card slots. I sewed a little too close to the zipper, so it is a little hard to zip occasionally, but it’s the perfect size for outings and every day. I made it specifically to take on my Wine Hike Trip with the girls and it worked really well. I need to make one with just plain fabric on the inside too for my every day purse. It fits my inhaler, phone, large battery power back and cord, a water bottle, chapstick, a pen… The list goes on, despite it looking very compact.

These are the Briar Shorties from Petite Stitchery and are my favorite sleep and lounge shorts in the summer. I made 4 pairs because I would get sad if I had to wear anything else. My favorite part is that the pattern itself says you don’t need to hem them.

I adore this dress so much that I needed to use a whole collage to show it off. The fabric is a slinky, drapey ITY (Intertwist yarn, I think it what that stands for.) It’s cool to the touch and flows like a dream, as you can see by the perfect drape of the skirt. It looks gathered, but it’s in fact, just a straight full circle skirt. The pattern is a modified Sweetheart Dress from Patterns for Pirates and it has a lined bodice. I dropped the neckline slightly lower as the original one often makes me feel a little choked and made it a slight hi-low hem, so it lines up across my booty and doesn’t look like it’s two inches higher at the back. You can see the hi-low in the side picture of it on Betsy. (Also, the wall which we removed to fit the new furnace in. )

This dress is the Gala from Patterns for Pirates and was part of my capsule collection. I wore it for work pictures and everyone was very impressed. It’s super sparkly! The gala looks flattering on literally everyone who posts pictures of it and although it has a lot of pieces, isn’t overly complicated. I just finished a tank dress version of it too, but don’t have a picture yet. You can definitely dress it up or down.

I made this little sign for my office, but haven’t managed to get a hanger on it or bring it in yet, so I should do that after I finish writing this post. K2 made me the vinyl. I also have it on a shirt, but the shirt shrank in the wash, so I need to iron it again.

I made this shirt for Valentine’s day! Isn’t it just the most perfect shirt for the office? I didn’t have enough to do both sides so I made the back black. This is the Sun Kissed Tee from Peekaboo Patterns. I really like this pattern and made four or five in different fabrics.

I made this quilt with my Accuquilt on a whim and ended up giving it to another K friend and I adore it. I’ve wanted to make a snail’s trail for a while, but it’s a hard pattern to cut out the pieces for and I was excited to not have to do that here. The rainbows make it so bright and happy! It’s really fun to give someone a completely unexpected quilt. (Look, Dad, you’ve gotten three quilts already! You don’t neeeeed another right now! 😉 )

I’m also proud of making swimwear, but definitely need some work on execution. Both suits had their issues. I just bought another pattern that is a swim dress, so I think that will be super cute!

I did learn to make nice pants this year! Pictured below are the Patterns for Pirates SOS Pants. (I swear, this isn’t a sponsored post, they just have really nice patterns!) I think I need to got up half a size, as my seams are straining a little when I wear these, but they don’t make me feel like a sausage stuffed into too small of a casing. I’ve been very intimidated by the pattern for a long time. I did not add pockets on this first pair but probably will add them on other pairs. I used a nice heavy ponte fabric and they look like professional pants and feel like pjs, which is one of my favorite things.

Now that I’ve showed you some of my favorite makes, want to see some of my problematic ones? Of course you do! Where’s the fun in just seeing the good ones? Take this shirt for example. Idea was good, excecution is way off. The neckband doesn’t work, the color is way too pink. The lettering is on my stomach. *headdesk* I can’t even wear it because it’s also clingy in the wrong places and feels awful. I have no idea how to fix it either.

I was rushing for this one and it shows. I’m sad that I essentially ended up wasting this fabric because it’s not very wearable. I made this for my capsule collection for a challenge and it was the last piece I made right before the deadline. I don’t know if I can salvage it, but it’s been banished to the closet where I can’t see it and be annoyed.

This dress, I do want to save! I adore the pop of yellow I used and it has snails on it. The skirt part fits well. The bodice is all jacked up. I can’t raise my arms in it, it has those big wrinkles in the front, and it was so disappointing. I think I jus need to actually make a muslin for the bodice and try again. It is a big 4 pattern- McAlls, I think, so it’s not always reliable or customizable. I graded the bodice up as I have a pattern that stops one size under where I need, but it didn’t work. I’m debating cutting the bodice off, and just putting a waistband on the skirt.

I’m sure there are more, but these were the most egregious errors that I can remember.

It was a fun year of sewing and I’m excited to see what I can do this year. The 52 week challenge changed the format this year and you can up to 4 projects and 4 bonuses per month. It’s been a lot less stressful to sew for knowing I could have done them all at once instead of waiting a week to start a new project and only have a week to get it done. The challenge of course, continues to be not waiting until the last minute to finish!

I hope your year is off to a creative start!

Monthly Review · Wordless Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday- 2021 Year in Pictures Review

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January

Frosty’s Getaway from the Charcuterie Chalet Challenge

February

Digital Art

March

Portrait of a Piggy Denied Companionship

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

My Year Of Sewing- 2020
Monthly Review · Sewing

My Year Of Sewing- 2020

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How has it been a year already? I sometimes feel like I’m still stuck in March when the world shut down and then all of a sudden, it’s 2021! I have had my blog for four years! There’s been a lot of changes. (My auto correct tried to change that the chocolate, btw. It’s not wrong.) Some of them were not my favorite, but a lot of them were for the better.

Looking over my completed projects this year, I was very pleased to see that I had completed around 110 projects. That’s not counting the tea wallets, masks, doll clothes, and bowl cozies separately! Little thing like that are much too annoying to count individually, since I tend to make them in batches.

Shark Week Masks!

I’m very proud that I was able to make so many things, especially with all the current stressors going on in the world. A lot of my clothes projects this year were very practical too. I filled some wardrobe gaps, faced a couple fears, and made some pretty cool things. Of course, there were things that didn’t go so well and some that have ended up in the naughty bin or even got tossed in the scrap pile. I’ll start with the positive projects.

My most used patterns for the year were the RAD Patterns Solar Flares, the Itch to Stitch Lago tank, the Panel Undies. Here’s a collage of most of my Solar Flares.

I think there are a couple other pairs around that I don’t have pictures of.

Here’s the Lagos- again, not all, I’ve lost track of how many I actually made.

Runners up were the Be Creative Hoodie (A very recent pattern!) and the Shenanigans Skort. Here’s my three Be Creatives- two work appropriate cowl, one casual hoodie.

The Shenanigans Skorts were lovely, but I’m going to have to take two of them apart and add some other shorts in a different material. They tend to slip down a bit. My first one was by far the best. I wore it every chance I got in the summer.

The Solar Flares, the Shenanigans and the Be Creative were three of the new patterns I tried this year. Overall, I tried 30 new patterns! That’s quite a lot for me. A lot of them were intimidating at first, but when I finished them, most of them turned to be easy!

I completed all the weeks for the 52 Week Sewing Challenge and will be participating again this year. It was a very good motivator to keep sewing. I didn’t follow all the challenges, but did choose some new patterns because of the challenge. I found a few new pattern and fabric companies too. I plan to try to get bonus entries when I can bynusing a sponsor’s pattern. Here are my quarterly collages for 2020. Mostly clothes, but there are some other things scattered in there.

The things I’ve learned this year are:

-To keep my pattern cutting table clean

– Getting my patterns printed in large format is definitely worth the money

– Wardrobe basics don’t have to be boring or uncomfortable.

– Elastic isn’t scary

– Sewing for other people can be fun too!

– Tendinitis hurts and is super annoying. If I wear my brace when cutting fabric, like I’m supposed to, it doesn’t hurt as much.

The skills I want to work on this year are learning how to do flat locked stitches on my serger, button holes on my sewing machine, using the Accuquilt (this is a pretty darn cool quilting machine, so there’s going to be a post on it once I can play a bit,) darts, and grading patterns.

Patterns I want to make this year are the SOS pants and the Penelope Dress from Patterns for Pirates, the Valley Skater Dress and Lotte hoodie from Sinclair Patterns, a couple of tshirt patterns to compare, boxers for the Husband, tshirts for the Husband, and the Mix It Up by George and Ginger. There are more, of course, but I’ll start with those.

I’d also like to restart my monthly reviews. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of everything if I do that. It also might help keep me motivated to continue to try new things. I really do think my sewing confidence has grown and I’m proud of myself for being able to continue to blog and sew during what has been a really rough year, both physically and mentally. Hopefully this year will bring more determination and drive, as well as a positive outlook.

I hope this year you’re inspired by whatever makes you feel brave and creative! I’m looking forward to finding new projects and favorites!

Crafty · Life Posts · Monthly Review · Sewing

Christmas Gifts And Review

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Well, hello there! Glad to see you’re still around. I went through a bit of a busy time and got a little out of practice from blogging. I did just pay for three more years of the blog though, so you’re stuck with me for at least that long. 🙂

It has been a whirlwind and I did learn a few things over the past year in terms of sewing. I love my serger! My MIL was right when she said it would be a game changer. I’m sewing things I never would have dared to sew before, including hoodies!

I’ve experimented with more fancy stitches, new patterns, and traveled with my serger! I started making A wardrobe for my office dolls, which has been surprisingly fun and stress relieving. Here are my latest creations. The top two are the Riley tank dress from Made for Mermaids and the bottom right are Kelli Kimono Robes, also from M4M. The bubble dresses are the Vada’s Bubble Dress from CKC patterns. I’ve been enjoying using them to try new techniques in a less stressful way.

Of course, there were some negatives. I developed tendinitis from scissor use, had quilt fails, and added some more projects to the WIP and naughty bin. Oh, and I trashed my iron very well. Tripped over the cord and whipped it point down into the floor. Apparently irons aren’t meant to show their insides like that…

Overall, the positives outweighed the negatives though, so that’s always good.

I have a couple of goals this year. Making pants is one of them, as is figuring out undergarment patterns (don’t worry Dad, I won’t put pictures of the finished products on the blog.)

I joined the 52 Week Sewing Challenge on Facebook, which gives you a different theme or idea to sew each week. Each week is sponsored by a couple of different sewing related shops and when you post what you’ve sewn, you’re entered to win the giveaway from the sponsor that week. The cool thing is as long as you post something finished, you’re entered to win, so if you desperately need to finish a specific project, you have that option. The Week 1 challenge was to organize your sewing space and it was fun to see all the different ideas people had. Here is my before and after of my sewing table. The rest of the space is still a work in progress.

If you’re interested and on Facebook, you can look it up by that name and join the group. You have to answer some questions to join, but they’re all basic. It’s been fun so far. This week was UFO/WIP finishing week and I finished the owl quilt I was working on starting at New Year’s Eve.

It is from the book Rainbow Quilts For Scrap Lovers by Judy Gautier and is called “Owls Well That Ends Well.” Isn’t it cute? These are all from scraps, except the white, which needed to be from yardage. I used up a whole bunch of fabrics in it though. It’s backed with a purple and blue tye dye batik and gave me a bit of trouble. My sewing machine tension is off somewhere and the thread is misbehaving severely. The quilt looks cute though, just don’t look at the back seam…

I made a lot of our Christmas presents this year and it has been ridiculously hard to keep them a secret. Since the summer, I had been working on a traditional Finnish Costume for my Mom and will share that in another post as it was very interesting to do. It was my dad’s idea, but the whole family was in on it. 🙂

Another present I made for my Mom was this quilt, which I have been working on since last Christmas. I have enough fabric to make one for myself as well.

Here’s some pictures.

It’s a modified Shining Star pattern from one of my scrap quilts books. I added sashing too it, as I thought it needed a little something extra. It’s tied with buttons and the background of the squares is music fabric. The backing is a plain red and the binding is a glittery white and gold plaid fabric. I got super fancy and made my own bias binding.

Here’s some more closeups of my favorite stars.

I have heard that she likes it! 🙂

My friend K used the fish leather from the Quilt Expo last year to make a wallet for her dad. She said it was pretty easy to work with, so I decided to be brave and got some to play with this year. The end result were two little belt bags for my younger brother and his girlfriend! They are both salmon leather and from Fiskur Leather. The owners were super helpful in helping me figure out what would work best to sew it- polyester thread and a leather needle. I’m pretty proud of them. They’re meant to look a little rustic to match their characters. I used frog clasps to close them.

Their unit colors are purple and black, so I thought that this combo would be cool. I have also heard that they liked their things as well. The fish leather was pretty easy to sew with. It was more complicated to figure out the pouches with no pattern and with limited amounts of the leather. Sewed together fine though.

One of my goals for this year is to use up some more fabric. To that end, I used up my smaller fleece scraps by sewing up mittens and ear warmers for an organization called Night Angels. They work with victims of human trafficking and have a community outreach program. My work was making some Christmas bags for this program, so these were added to the presents. Here’s the prettiest ones:

I did buy some fleece remnants to make sure I would have enough, but they have all been used up. I used the last bits to make sleeping bags for the office dolls. Someone requested beds for them, but I don’t have room for furniture.

I painted these ornaments for my boss and the administrative staff at work. They each got a little set of three ornaments. I don’t have the best picture of them, but here is one of them.

I was gifted this lovely set by my MIL, who made it in one of her embroidery classes. It includes an apron, a pot holder, and a kitchen towel.

I’m sure to be sewing a bunch more things this year and am going to be taking on a few of my sewing fears, so it would be an interesting time. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to learn about!

Have a creative year!

Life Posts · Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Monthly Review

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I’ve got something up my sleeve for Monday or Tuesday (heh, heh, sewing pun) but wanted to get back on track with my reviews. It helps me keep accountable and on track with my goals. February has been kind of a slower month. I have had a bit of trouble with some motivation and some of the ever present scheduling concerns. Also, sudden dental issues, which always complicate things. Fancy hasn’t been helping either. She’s been very snuggly.

Overall, I have been pretty good at trying to really think through my sewing projects. I have put a 6 month fabric buying ban on myself until June. Gifts obviously don’t count. 😉 The other caveat is that if I need a specific fabric to finish a specific project, I can buy the fabric for that project. Otherwise some things would just pile up more until June.

My organization adventures for the month have made me aware of just how much fabric I have. Most of it has a plan for it, but there is no reason I need that much! It was quite a sobering thing. I’ve been re-evaluating my wardrobe too and have decided to repurpose or remake some of the things that really don’t fit quite how I want them to. I have already taken apart a couple of skirts that don’t fit well and added the fabric back to my stash. I have also started a list of all the things in my project box, with notes about what is needed to finish them.

So far for sewing this month, I have mended a long sleeved sweater and added buttons to a bag and a 3/4 sleeved sweater. All of these have been in my UFO or mending box for quite some time. I also learned that my sewing machine will gather fabric for my if my bobbin and top thread are at different tensions. This made sewing some gathered doll clothes a bit easier.

There have been a lot of doll clothes made in the last two months, but as I have recently acquired two more dolls from a friend’s daughter, I will need to make some more.

Can’t have naked dolls sitting around my office! Speaking of my office, I switched offices with a colleague into a bit of a bigger office and it was amazing how much stuff I had ended up squeezing in my littler one. It took me about 4-5 hours to reorganize and I need a couple of small things, like a game storage unit and a little table for next to my chair. It will be fun to see the kid client reactions to it. The adults will take it in stride, I’m sure. So the next time I take a picture of doll wardrobe at work, it will be on a different chair. 🙂

I have made some more leggings for myself this month, because you can never have enough comfy pants! One of them, the polar bears didn’t quite work, due to the stretch, but I can fix the waistband and it should be fine.

I don’t remember if I mentioned this amazing cutting mat that the Husband got me for Christmas, but it’s making cutting things out so much easier when I’m upstairs. I love it!

I have also made a pair of black pants, but apparently this month, have a tendency to want to write about the pants I currently have on! These ones are soft, black, French Terry, and will pass for work pants, even though I feel like I’m wearing pjs. Instead, how about a picture of my bright pink joggers? I was wearing them the last time I wanted to write about them. They are quite obnoxious, but I love them. The Husband won’t give me his opinion, as he is a smart man.

They are made from my beloved Linen Lounger pattern for Patterns for Pirates and are cotton blend french terry from Girl Charlee. I’m not really enthused about trying new pants patterns, when I like the fit of this one so well. Since my blue jean leggings need to be mended though, I have plans to make a skinnier, actual pant pattern to replace them if needed. I also do need a couple of different pairs of nicer work type pants.

One other thing I needed was a couple of nicer sweaters to wear with my pants and pretty skirts. I went through my sweaters and gave a bunch away, but now needed replacements. I like to dress up a little for intakes and not wear the dino leggings until a couple sessions in. 🙂 Enter this pattern; the Fall In Love Sweater by Ellie and Mac.

I quite enjoy it and it makes me feel super pretty and polished. For future versions, I may size up about a half, as it occasionally feels a little tight. It doesn’t accentuate all my bumps and lumps too much though, so I may not if the fabric is stretchy.

I made this second version as a short sleeved version. It needs bands, as the fabric likes to misbehave and the bottom hem is a little short, but it looks lovely on me. At least I think it does. This pattern fits me better than my normal go to short sleeve pattern, so I will definitely be making more. It has set in sleeves, not raglan or baseball style, so it looks a little more professional.

I’ve also made a very long and cozy fleece sweater to work in the basement in, but it’s come in very handy for our recent cold snap. I think my sewing was more intentional this month. I tried to focus on the gaps in my wardrobe. My drawer is still very full, so I need to do another clear out soon. I have a horror of giving away the “perfect” shirt, but there are a bunch that I just don’t wear!

My Sewing goals for this month include a neutral grey Cocoon Cardigan to fill that gap and to try the fancier pants pattern. I also want to continue to organize and purge my stash, as well as work on some quilts and UFO’s. I have a pattern for a “Fairy Sweater” which is a cascade type sweater that I have a lighter watercolor print to try to use up, but that may wait until closer to summer.

Now to switch gears to food. We had a lot of new food this month, due to the party. I think that I missed a bunch of pictures of meals that were not party food. We did have a lot of Chinese food this month, so you may not see it for a little while. Not that we don’t like it, but there’s only so much stir fry type things I can eat. Here were some of our favorites:

Lion’s Head meatballs

West Lake Beef Soup

Chicken Marsala

Wonton Soup

Fried Dessert Wontons! They were from this website: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/03/cinnamon-sugar-cream-cheese-wonton-nutella-dulce-de-leche.html

They were so good! I didn’t make a dipping sauce for them. We never have Nutella in the house and I have both spoons and no will power.

The Husband had the play auditions and production meetings this week, so we had leftovers from last week, including a new recipe from The Wooden Spoon cookbook. It was not our favorite. Basically hamburger, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning with shell noodles. The Husband added a lot of cheese, but I still think it was a little bland.

One thing we did like this week was Nancy Fuller’s Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese from this month’s Food Network. I was hungry after work on Thursday and ended up making it at 10 pm. It was good late night snacking food though. I used a little of the dragon pepper hot sauce in it. Mmmm!

Misses for the month were the fried pork ribs and the clementine cakes. The ribs were just super annoying to fry and frustrating as I couldn’t taste them to adjust any seasoning. The cakes were a little dense for me, even remembering they were supposed to be a pound cake recipe. I need to practice cupcakes more. I’m sure no one will object to trying them. 🙂

Food goals this month are to use my spiralizer attachment and the Instant Pot at least once. Also, be more creative with lunches and get the Husband more involved in planning. His choices were very good ones this month.

Mental health related, I also want to get back to reading before bed this month. I’m having a lot of trouble shutting my brain down to sleep and I know that will help. I went through a rough patch of not wanting to actually do anything and I am working on not getting to that point again.

Of course, taking Fancy to interesting places is another goal. We went to an informational meeting on therapy dog training today and the information is good, but she definitely needs more training first. I’m sure she won’t mind.

These goals should be pretty manageable, I think. Hopefully once the play starts getting going, we can get somewhat of a schedule going. Wish us luck!

Monthly Review- November
Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review- November

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Here I am! With puppers in tow, of course. She’s stealing my blankets and giving me sad eyes when I stop petting to type. Silly dog. 

I have been a busy girl this month, but some of it, I can’t show you yet, as it’s super secret Christmas business. You’ll see it next month though. I have been focusing on presents and sewing warm things for our Christmas trip to the snowy North. Which, by the way, is next week already! Crazy talk! 

This sweater was one that I was originally going to make for a gift, however, it turned out to be meant for someone who doesn’t lift (so not my brother’s lovely girlfriend,) so I kept it. Oh darn… I had to keep this lovely cardigan… The Husband claims I planned it that way, but don’t listen to him!

French Terry for the main body with lace lined front panels.

It’s a Cocoon Cardigan from Patterns from Pirates. I love this pattern and it looks pretty flattering on everyone, I think. 

I made another one this month.

To be fair, this grey one only needed the band, but I was undecided on that and it got put away until it got cold out and I suddenly needed ALL THE SWEATERS! Don’t worry, I have some additional ones now, but I think I’m destined to be cold all winter again. It does seem to happen.  Dad will say my blood thinned when I moved downstate, but I distinctly remember being super cold when I lived in the snowy North as well.  

Speaking of warm clothes, I made a sweat suit, which is currently in the wash, as I wear it as much as possible. It’s not terribly glamorous and I don’t have pictures, but it’s a lovely warm blue sweatshirt material. The pants have grey flannel pockets and the top is made from the grey ribbed material of one of my other new sleep shirts. 

These are the flannel pants that lead to using scraps for the sweatpants. 

I used the Linen Lounger pattern and accidentally flared them. 🙂 I think they are cute though and the flannel is so soft! 

I have two more flannel pants planned. I think they will have slimmed down cuffs with cotton lycra to make them stay on my ankles. My blue and grey ones slide up my legs and then I have terribly cold ankles. Fancy doesn’t always sleep on them like she should. 🙂

One of my pretty consistent goals is to use new patterns and I have made three dresses from the CKC Amy pattern, which is a knit dress with a v neck and a gathered skirt. I use pleats because gathering and I are not friends. 

I love them! It’s nice to have dresses that I can count on not to wrinkle and look adorable, if I do say so myself. This dress is made from Liverpool Fabric, which is textured on one side with a pebbly feel and is very smooth on the other. I think technically it’s a double knit, meaning two sides are knit together. It’s a very stable knit and makes excellent pencil skirts and lovely dresses. I bought the last three yards of this fabric because it needed to be a dress and I still have enough for at least one shirt too. 🙂

This Cotton Lycra version has pockets! It also makes me feel a bit gothy, especially when I wear black jewelry, a black cardi, leggings, and boots.

I wore it with my owl cardigan to work and every time I went into the lobby, someone new would compliment me on it. I must have not been wearing my hair up for people to see the owl, because I have worn it lots of times before and it hasn’t been that big of a thing. I was very careful with my pattern placement and think I lined things up pretty well. Both of these were heavier fabrics, but I have some planned with lighter weight fabrics too. I’m interested to see the differences between them. 

This raglan was made out of some of the scraps from the red and a grey french terry material. The french terry isn’t as soft as some other of the same fabrics I have, but it’s still a cozy sweatshirt. Here’s a detail shot of the pattern and the cuffs.

Besides the grey cardigan, my UFO bin also got some love. I finished my tree skirt! My MIL finished her tree skirt too, but I don’t have a picture of it, as there were presents all over it! It is, of course, displayed with the flamingo side up. 🙂 

My other UFO is a wall hanging that’s been sitting in the box for several years. I attempted to do some hand embroidery, but it looked terrible. I finally pulled the stitching and machine stitched around the middle. 

It has watch gears on it, for a slightly steampunk vibe. The squares are the tiniest scraps from my box. I enjoy it a lot and might have to make some more tiny squares. 

Another recent scrap buster project I discovered was these little gnomes or tomte that were presented in one of my sewing groups- So Sew English Craftalong on Facebook. These little guys (and the one beardless lady gnome) are made from only stash materials. They are made with scrap fabrics, stuffed with scrap fabrics, and I used stash yarn. 

This one is a wizard!
This is the lady gnome!

Aren’t they cute? I want to make some specifically Christmas ones for decor. Tomte are good luck, according to Scandinavian folklore, as long as you keep them supplied with porridge. 

These ornaments are also made with stash things. I bought these glass balls last year, I think, or the year before on clearance and have started to love the mercury glass look. Since I now know how to make them, I kind of want to mercury glass everything! 

Two of the Christmas presents I’ve made so far can be shared, as they were for the Husband’s sister and she has already seen them. She was happily wearing them today after making sure they fit. 🙂 

The leggings are Peg Legs from Patterns for Pirates and the shirt is the Relaxed Raglan. Be warned, the shirt has some rude language on it, so don’t look too close if you might be offended. 

The white fabric was originally intended to be leggings as well, but it wasn’t going to look good. She loved it as a shirt, so I’m happy with it too. I might actually make clothes for other people soon! 

My goals for the month include making my own snow pants, assuming tje fabric comes in on time, a few more warm shirts, including some layering ones, and finishing my warm pants as well.

Obviously, in the next week, finishing my Christmas presents is a priority and making Fancy a nice sweater.

This post got super long, so I’ll post the food review in a few days. For now, I’ll leave you with this silly meme about buying fabric. 

Have a wonderful night!