This year I managed to create more handmade gifts at Christmas time, and over the year for various birthdays. The idea is for me to replace a gift I would normally have purchased (using a budgeted amount) with a personalised hand made item. I have a lot of nieces and nephews to buy for, and although it can be easier to go into a shop and just plop down some cash, I find I want to avoid gifting gifts made from plastic, or with batteries, or that just add to a meaningless pile of junk that goes in a drawer, or a pile under the bed.
So, sounds great in principle, but the first year I tried this, it was harder than it sounds! At least, for me. I spent the last week before Christmas madly sewing and stuffing toys, but I managed to give one softie to every niece and nephew on my list!
This year I started earlier, and avoided (some!) of the craziness. These are some of the projects I completed for various people. All of these I am very pleased with, and I think they were well received. Evie loves her lap quilt! And I totally desire Izzy’s pincushion and needle book. It was quite hard to give that one away!
Simple Crafty Life 
Just read your whole blog from start to finish! Totally captivating and inspiring! Thank you for this Jess, looking forward to the next instalment.
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Thanks so much for checking it out, Mel! I’m hoping to keep posting every day. At least, that’s my plan for now. 🙂
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Love the Super hero cape and cuffs! Did you use a pattern? The lap quilt is adorable. Congrats great blog.
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Hi Susan! Thanks for visiting, and your lovely comment. 🙂
I didn’t use a pattern exactly, but was inspired by images of superhero capes and knew I could make my own. I might make a tutorial for a simple quarter circle cape, since that’s basically what it is! I stuck a felt circle with a felt lightning blast sewed on it to make it “Super!” 🙂
The cuffs were inspired heavily by a tutorials I found: http://lolanovablog.blogspot.be/2011/06/feltycuffs-tutorial.html
How awesome are these?
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