Wordless Wednesday- Embroidery Projects: Christmas
Tag: presents
An Embroidered Christmas
Hello! I’ve been having fun and getting more confident with my embroidery machine. Oh yeah, did I say I bought one? We’re going to blame my Mother in Law as usual for most of my expensive sewing purchases. 🙂 I have wanted an embroidery machine for a while. Since my vintage green sewing machine is named Shirley, I named embroidery machine Florence. It makes me smile!
So this year, I embroidered a bunch of Christmas gifts for people. Please excuse some of them being still in the hoop. I forgot to take pictures of the final product, as between being sick, switching jobs, and the normal holiday rush, it was just not something I focused on.
This one was for the Husband. It suits him perfectly and I just need to find a good frame for it. It’s supposed to look like one of those embroidery samplers, but snarky. He has assured me not everything is for spite… but I know a few things have been. Mostly on my behalf lately, which I’m okay with. *bwhahaha
A Scandinavian deer for my parents. Isn’t it pretty! It was so fascinating to see how the machine sewed everything and I love how it turned out. The pattern is a set of Scandinavian animals, so I’m excited to use more of them in the future.
This one is from the same pack as the deer and really was one of the main reasons I bought that set of embroidery patterns. I had a grand vision of making everyone tiny little embroidered ornaments this year, but only managed a few of them. I do like them though, so maybe everyone will get them next year instead. So you know… forget I said anything if I’m in the habit of sending you presents. 😉 I did have a lot of fun trying out different color combinations with them. I do need to iron that wrinkle out and reframe it, but they came out super cute!
This mint chip ornament went to K2 because she said she liked it. Sometimes when I’m unsure of something it will go to the person who actually does like it. I did too, but I wasn’t sure if anyone else would get the mint chip theme.
Look! A bookmark! Something that I almost never use for its intended purpose. This is made of only thread and water soluble stabilizer to make free standing lace. It was one of three? four? attempts. I did not throw my very expensive embroidery machine off the house for how annoying it was to make, as it wasn’t the machine’s fault. The stabilizer was like thicker plastic cling film and it just kept shredding itself, as you put it in the hoop by itself with no fabric. It also got shoved into the needle plate at one point by the needle, causing me to have to take the needle plate completely off to get it out. There’s apparently a different kind of stabilizer I need instead that’s much easier to use and more fabric like. This stuff would work on top of thicker towels, I think, where it’s not by itself so I am going to save it for those projects. I may have a free standing lace gnome pattern for bookmarks too… 🙂
My friend K1 got another blue towel with an embroidered chicken too, but it says something rather rude and I thought I should protect my poor, innocent, and noble mother from seeing it. 😉 K1 loved it though as it fit her chickens to a tee, so I am satisfied. Fun fact, I got these towels and some other ones from the quilt expo and they are very good quality! These tea pots make my heart enormously happy and I want to make a whole apron set with all of them on it. I think I have 8 or 9 of them. it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’m a sucker for adorable mushrooms, even if I am allergic to nettles.
Also from the quilt show tea towels were these two that I made for my mother. I completely fooled her too, she didn’t think I’d made them! Both of these designs came from the set that came installed on the machine and I was excited to use them. I fiddled with the colors on the tree. It was originally mostly red, but I wanted to have it match the green towel. I think they both came out looking very nice!
Probably my favorite and most complicated Christmas present were these dice boxes for my older brother and SIL. The blue set of dice has little tiny lutes imbedded in them, since they were for my SIL. My brother got the brown dice box and swirly dice. I also made them this towel with a funny saying on it. If you roll a 20 on these 20 sided dice in table top games, it generally means you’ve made it and whatever you’re trying to do succeeds. If you roll a 1, you’re essentially dead if it was an attack move, or fail at whatever you were trying to do.
The dice boxes were made all with the embroidery machine! They are an “in the hoop” project, meaning the entire thing was done in the embroidery hoop itself. I just cut them out after they were done. I’ll have to make more and take video because it was super cool!
I sent this kitchen towel along with the dice boxes too and it makes me giggle. I wanted to experiment with the variegated rainbow embroidery thread I bought and it came out looking really cool. The thread looks fuzzy in the lighting below, but it isn’t actually in real life.
I have some more embroidery projects too, but they were made for other things or as tests, so I’ll have to make another post and maybe show some video of the machine working. It is pretty magical!
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of Christmas fun! I’m looking forward to showing off more projects as I get more confident. Also, if you have any ideas on what to embroider, I’ll take them! I only need so many dishtowels!
Handmade Presents
Hello again! Now that everyone has finally gotten their gifts, I can finally share what I sewed this year. It took forever for our Christmas presents to reach people this year. It’s a good thing we celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas! The Husband said he was told at the post office that the building had been so full of packages that you couldn’t actually walk inside! Crazy times we live in!
Here’s some hats I made. The one with the hippo was for my Dad and the plain red one was for my friend.
My dad one year when I was little, kept singing the song “All I want for Christmas is a Hippopotamus” and we ended up finding him a clay hippo statue at the local thrift store which made us all giggle. I thought it was time for him to have a nice warm hippo hat to remember his daughter. The hat for my friend is lined, although I forget what I lined it with. I think a dbp maybe? He’s outside a lot and I made neck warmers last year for him, so I thought a hat would also be useful. He is married to K1.
For K1, I made a nice Cocoon Cardi and I might have to make a matching one for me. It’s so elegant looking! I did forget pockets though, although sometimes they don’t look nice in dbp if it pulls funny.
The boys got Viking shirts, which was really fun! I had virtual tea with both Ks today and the older boy was wearing his. It warmed my heart!
My younger brother got another set of pjs. This one had flannel pants with food puns and a plain blue raglan shirt.
I made the pun pants in memory of my Grandpa Ollie, who could clear the room with a few well placed puns. My brother says they both fit nicely and are very warm.
Everyone got microwave bowl cozies and a soup mix from Motown Soups. They were a hit! When we had our family zoom with my inlaws and sister in law, the inlaws opened theirs first and my sister in law was so impressed that I had to suggest she not go looking for any until her package actually got there. 🙂 The inlaws got bowling pin fabric. These two below are my parents’ set and my sister in law, I believe. My aunt got lemons and my brother got the same “basgetti” ones that we have. I really need to make a couple more to take to work as they would be extremely helpful there.
The Husband also got one of the pj pants that I have said I’d make him and then didn’t… Whoops! In my defense, the pattern I used first was not comfortable and I couldn’t find another one for a while. Since I’ve found a good pattern now, I can hopefully catch up. This pair has bears in sweaters. The Husband has a thing for bears in sweaters.
Piggy got a few handmade presents as well, although not by me. My inlaws made her some adorable bandanas and a little coat that will need some adjustments. She is still a chonky one.
She also got food treats from K1 when we got our cookies and gets so excited for them!
It’s so funny because she is so little on the face and then opens her mouth and it’s like you can see to Australia! I’ve actually compared it to a Tardis from Dr. Who- much bigger on the inside. 😉
I made these cute ornaments from toilet paper and paper towel tubes, because 2020 may have been sh*t, but I could at least make something pretty with it. 🙂
Behind it you can sort of see the Lego Christmas Village, which has a new home in the china cabinet. What? You mean other people actually display their china in the china cabinet? That’s some small imagination right there it is! Legos look much better there!
We missed the Lego Christmas Village set this year, unfortunately, but did get a really cool A Christmas Carol Lego book, which will look very neat in the village next year.
For my work people, I made a few spa things- peppermint sugar scrubs and green tea peppermint bath salts. I don’t have pictures, but they were both super cute. I packaged them in a zipper pouches. My parents got fun masks too. My dad got a soaring eagle and my mom got pianos that she can wear while teaching.
Although I didn’t make as much as I wanted to make this year, I’m pretty happy with what I did get done. The bowl cozies were super well liked and I gave a lot of people books too. I hope to start earlier this year and make more of Christmas handmade.
For now, I’ll leave you with a peaceful Piggy picture. I don’t know about you, but I could certainly use some extra peace on Mondays!
Monthly Review- November
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!
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.
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!