Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew, tutorial and giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by for this month's tutorial on 'Ho, Ho, Ho and on we Sew' hosted by Fiona and Paula. Christmas is always a time of year when the kids and I enjoy making hand made gifts for friends and family. A couple of years ago we made these fantastic Christmas lollipop nose critters for their school friends.  I thought it would be fun for us to make something else small that could easily be handed out as end-of-year presents at school, and that kids can make (either with you or by themselves depending on their age).

Introducing...The Envelope Christmas Stocking!

Made from felt, only takes an hour or so to make, can be decorated to suit all tastes, and the envelope flap at the top will prevent the goodies inside from falling out!

Materials needed:

Wool felt

Ribbon

Twill tape

Buttons

Embroidery floss

Craft glue

Elastic or twine

1. Draw your stocking template onto paper or cardboard. Cut out and then trace around it again (this time you want the mirror image, so flip your initial template over) for the template for the back of the stocking. Before you cut out this second template draw a half circle shape onto the top of it. This will become the envelope flap.

2.  Place your templates onto the wool felt, draw around them and cut out the felt shapes. 

3. Decide on how you are going to decorate your stockings, keeping in mind that the top flap will be folded over, so leave some space for this. Using craft glue, glue on any ribbon or felt shapes that you are using. As these will be presents for school friends we decided to include the first letter of their names.

4. Hold the envelope flap down and then sew on your buttons in the correct place using some embroidery floss. 

5.  Use a hair elastic or some twine to create the loop for the button closure. Sew this onto the inside of the flap, being careful not to let your stitches show through on the other side. The felt is quite thick so this is fairly easy. 

 6. Line up the front and the back of your stocking, and pin a loop of twill tape in place (this is for hanging the stocking when it is finished).

 7. Using embroidery floss and blanket stitch (I used this tutorial to remind me how to sew blanket stitch), sew the front and the back of your stocking together. Note that you will need to sew a couple of stitches of running stitch first through the twill tape, and then start on the blanket stitch. 

8. Fill your stockings with whatever small gifts you would like and let your children gift them to their friends! I think chocolate and candy canes will be going in ours!

 Now it's your turn to link up any Christmas/holiday makes that you have made this month. This month's giveaway is sponsored by The Village Haberdashery. The winner will receive a £10 gift voucher.

To enter the giveaway put your project on the link-up below. 

An InLinkz Link-up

As usual we want to say a huge thank-you to all the sponsors who have provided wonderful prizes this year. It is not too late to start creating gifts for Christmas!

http://www.patchworkelephant.com/

Flying chickens!

Another friend leaving, another gift needed as a token of thankfulness for a friendship that has been a sweet blessing. 

'Sew Organised for the Busy Girl' by Heidi Staples has become my go-to book for gifts recently. This time I chose the Chevron Table-runner and pulled some fabric that I knew my friend would enjoy, as she had gifted it to me!

This was my first time making flying geese and I was surprised by how well they turned out! I think just about all my points survived!

 

I had an issue quilting with my navy 50wt Aurifil thread - it just didn't form great stitches as compared to my standard Aurifil 50wt 2600.  Has anyone else had this issue before with different colours of Aurifil? 

For the back and binding I used a Lotta Jansdotter Glimma fabric which I have been hoarding for a while!

Linking up with