Christmas Makes

Christmas 2017 was a little stressful as I had a very tight budget for gifts and treats. I set myself the task of making several gifts, as my skills can produce something far nicer than my pocket could afford.

The four main things I wanted to make for friends were.

1. A pin cushion for my friend who does upholstery and is learning to sew.

2. A carved honey drizzler for my friends husband who keeps bees.

3. A new wallet to replace one I made years ago that is worn and the stitching has broken.

4. A diary cover for my friend who is a manager with a busy social life and has lots of meetings and appointments.

I started with the pin cushion and the honey drizzler as I thought they involved the most work, and I tried to source some leather cheaply for the wallet in the colours I was asked for by ordering an off cuts box online.

As my friend likes vintage things I wanted the pin cushion to have a vintage look and she likes heart shaped things. I chose velvet for the background (I got a skirt from a charity shop), and purple, pink and red shades from my embroidery threads. I looked online for some stitches I hadn't used before and designed a border of rambling roses and daisies. The top was to be left mostly empty for the pins with some made up flowers for interest. I made the cushion pad out of calico stuffed with some toy stuffing at the top and then steel wool. It turned out really nicely, the point at the bottom could have been a bit tidier but I think it's really pretty and has the look that I wanted.

For the honey drizzler I went to a local wood shop with a list of woods suitable for food items, and with the help of the chap I found a piece of olive ash with some lovely grain. I started by cutting the wood down to the right size (it was harder than I thought), then with one of my wood carving knives I carved out the basic shape. When it came to making the channels in the head of the drizzler I drilled them out with my Dremel and tidied the edges with my knife. The sanding took a really long time, I sanded the channels with small pieces on sandpaper wrapped round a wooden skewer. When it was fully sanded I sealed it with several layers of walnut oil. I was really pleased with the piece, I think it's one of the best things I've made from wood.

I never managed to get the red and black leathers I was asked for, for the wallet so I used charcoal and orange that I already had. It took me a long time to get going with it, I think I remembered how tricky they are to make. A wallet has a lot of sections and fiddly bits the main body and coin purse sections came together fine, the thing is to remember to add press studs before stitching sections together. I took lots of breaks from this project to do other things as I considered my next move. The thing that caused me stress was the inside section that keeps notes tidy and holds bank cards etc. It took me 3 attempts get it right, I got really annoyed with the whole thing. What I finally came up with actually looks quite stylish and the cards fit. Everyone thinks the wallet turned out great, it looks lovely and is perfectly functional, the recipient loves it so I should be happy but it caused me so much fury I can't see any good in it at the moment.

The diary cover was to be a useful thing personalised for my friend. I asked her a long list of favourites and chose a few to represent, band (James), childhood cartoon (Stop it and Tidy up), colour (Blue), Creature (Flamingo) and author (Terry Pratchett). I googled images and chose ones that I could combine in an interesting way. I decided to have the flamingo wearing Terry Pratchett's hat as his book covers are very complicated images and his hat was very distinctive. I looked for images where the heads were angled similarly. I also chose the James flower logo and one of the bees from the cartoon. I got a pair of jeans from a charity shop to use for my base fabric, and I used a pack of silk sample fabric for the applique pieces. I put detail onto the fabric with fabric pens and used iron on glue to set them in place. I used a tiny blanket stitch to sew each patch to the background, after sewing the flamingo I decided to change it to a darker fabric and it looked a lot better, it completely came alive when I added the little yellow leather eye. I lined the piece with a plain-ish cotton and edged it with lovely blue leather for colour and to be more hard wearing. This one came out really well, it fits the diary I'd bought perfectly.

The main projects didn't take me as long as I expected so I made a few other bits.

Christmas cards, these were made from a cereal box, some brown paper, puree tubes and nail polish. I covered the printed side of the card with the paper and left to dry. I cut shapes from the puree tubes and added details on the reverse with a biro so the indentations would show on the front. I refined the details of the front with a pointy chopstick and used the nail polish to add colour and sparkle. I glued each metal design to the cards, the tree had different sections cut from different shades of metal.

Hair clips, I made these for my friend who had bows with skull and crossbones on on her wish list, I couldn't find any matching fabric in my stash so I went online for some inspiration. I saw a few things made from glass eyes that looked quite cool so I went that way. I got some wide wired ribbon, took the wire out, folded it and gathered it to make little rosettes. I hot glued the rosettes to some hair clip fittings with a bit of leather on the back to secure it, then hot glued the glass eyes in place. They look odd on the backing card I clipped them to but I think they will look pretty cool clipped in her hair.

Book tree decorations. I made the red one with the star for a friend who is vegetarian and likes graphic novels, the pages are cut from graphic novels, a few sheets are stitched together and stitched to a stiff backing, I did five bundles. I cut pieces of mount board slightly bigger than the pages and a bit to make the spine. I glued the mount board onto a piece of silk and when dry added a star (a button with the shank cut off) and some beads. I glued the pages to the spine and glued a piece of patterned paper over the visible card and slightly onto the first and last page. I used a thick needle to made a hole in the spine and added a jump ring and a piece of ribbon for hanging.

The other three books were for a friend who isn't vegetarian so I made them in the same way but with leather covers that I embellished with some stitching in gold thread and some jewellery findings and charms. I made the pages for these, one has sheet music for Christmas carols that I found online and reduced the size, one has antique maps done in the same way and the other has vintage botanical illustrations of fruit and veg, all things that would suit her and her family.

I love these, I will definitely make more of them in the future.