Christmas Cork Crafts

Despite my blog's name, I really haven't done many non-sewing crafts in recent years... but this year is different!

Tutorial: (Christmas) Fabric Bunting

A bit outside my comfort zone with this seasonal, crafty, non-garment sewing! But let's roll with it.

Candy Cane Striped Skater Dresses

Yes, I know, it's a wee bit early for Christmas stuff. I apologize for contributing in any way to the phenomenon of the Christmas onslaught beginning before Halloween, but I wanted to make some matching dresses for my nieces for their holiday card photos, so a bit of forethought was necessary.

I had some great red and white striped knit in my stash, care of the Real Martha (meaning it's old-school, maybe from the early '80s) that I thought would be perfect for Christmas dresses. Combined with the Kitschy Coo Skater Dress pattern, which worked out so well for my nieces earlier this year: Christmas-worthy (but still wearable in a non-Christmas setting) candy cane-esque dresses!  They've got a bit of a Where's Waldo feel to them, but nothing a cute kid can't pull off!

I love this pattern... so cute and so quick! I can cut and sew one together in about an hour if I've got everything set up.  Not much to say about construction. Like last time I made it, I did the neckline a bit different than in the instructions, inserting it in the round. Otherwise, by the book.

Can't wait to see them on the girls!!

Christmas Tree Skirt

Tim and I are spending Christmas here in Bangkok, so I thought we'd give in and get ourselves a tree to amp up the Christmas-y-ness (?) of things (sometimes it's hard to believe it's the holidays when it's 90 degrees out).

Anywho, the plastic base of our artificial tree was not the most attractive, so I thought I'd make a skirt with some Christmas fabric I had on hand.  I found this great tutorial online and used it as the basis for mine. 

Here's what I did:

• Used 2 fabrics, cutting 4 wedges of each per the tutorial (I made my circle a bit smaller- more like 20 inches long).  
• Serged all of the wedges together, cut the hole in the center and covered all of the seams in red bias tape.  
• Bound the inner and outer edges of the circle with the single fold bias tape (that's all I had and I was too lazy to make my own), added some snaps down the back opening.  
• Skipped all of the layers- just a single layer of quilting cotton worked fine for me, but things might be different if you're trying to cover a bigger stand for a live tree.

Ta da! Came out pretty cute!  This skirt came together really quickly... it would be epically fast if I didn't mess around with the bias tape on the seams.

Big Butt Baby Pants Galore

Made some more Big Butt Baby Pants (Triple B P?) a couple weeks ago...  

Barbara requested pants for Andrew since he's feeding himself now and things get quite messy, requiring multiple outfit changes per day.  These are like the reverse of the rocket pants I made for baby Alex last month:

This time I made a cuff detail so they can be rolled up or unrolled at the bottom:

Also, a Christmas "day look" (har har) made from the same fabric as the Christmas dress I made Zoe a few weeks ago, one pair for Zoe, one pair for Izzy:

Christmas Dress

Continuing the American trend of thinking about Christmas entirely too early, I was looking around at my fabric stash (which keeps getting bigger despite all my recent efforts to sew through it... I am turning into the Real Martha!) and I realized that I had a whole pile of Christmas fabric left over from a few years ago when I made reusable fabric gift bags to cut down on paper waste during the holidays.  I figured a good way to use up some of it would be to make Miss Zoe a Christmas dress... ta da!

 

Using one of the patterns that the Real Martha sent me, Simplicity 3511, I whipped up this cute little dress made from faux patchwork Christmas themed quilting cotton (which looks a little more gold and less tan in real life than it does in these photos) and some forest green accent fabric.

This was a great next-step dress for me to learn some new skills: using fusible interfacing to make the neckline, sewing a couple more buttonholes, gathering the bodice, topstitching around the neckline, arms and bottom panel (the pattern didn't call for this, but I saw that someone else online had done it and I thought it made it look really professional)...

I read that the pattern ran big, so I made a size 1... hopefully it fits her in December!!

I like the pattern.  This time I did version D, but with the sleeves from B.  I think next I may make the short sleeve tunic version (E) plus the pants (G)... quite cute.

Baby Sweater Bonanza!!!

The Christmas of baby sweaters! Babies, babies, babies, so many babies. I decided to make sweaters for all the babies out there :) I used the same pattern that Meg had used earlier in the year, Everyday is a New Sweater Day. I had fun going crazy with colors, from rainbow to very Christmasy christmas colors. Check them out!

For Chloe: Kate and Dan's baby


For Zoe: my lovely niece


For Izzy: Kate and Kevin's baby


Also for Izzy


For Jack: Nora and Tommy's baby


For Hudson: Tony's nephew

Christmas Cookies

This past weekend, Tim, Ben, Erin and I tried to amp up the Christmas-y feeling here in Jakarta (it's a little limp... I think it's the humidity) by baking some Christmas cookies. 

Tim likes to roll balls between his hands.

But he does not like getting his photo taken.

We made some tried and true favorites:  peanut butter blossoms (I will not tell you how much we paid for the Hershey's kisses. Ridiculous.), chocolate crinkles (I wanted to put these white chocolate/mint Hershey's kisses in these, but they were even more ridiculously expensive and I didn't buy them.), and spicy, chewy ginger cookies.

We made a mess. And drank some beers.

COOOOOKIES!

The kitties alternated between attacking Tim and innocently napping.

Baby Booties and Mittens

Zoe wrote to Santa and asked for some handmade booties and mittens... somehow the letter got lost and ended up here with me in Jakarta.

OK, no she didn't.  But her dad did email me, asking for those items on her behalf.  The Real Martha (Zoe's "GrandMartha" and thrice-a-week babysitter) then specified further, insisting that the mittens have some device to ensure that they stay on her little hands and that the booties have something similar to secure them to the baby's "cankles."  Yes, The Real Martha called the baby's chubby ankles "cankles."  She's not the only one who's had this thought about baby ankles, apparently.

Mittnets.

 In any case, I found some simple instructions for tiny baby booties and thumbless baby mittens, both with tie closures.  I whipped them up pretty quickly using Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn.  The stitch counting was a little wonky on the booties, so I had to figure out where the center of the toe was and devise my own counting/stitch marking method.  In the end it worked out fine!  I just hope they fit Zoe's cankles. 

Boo-tayz.

 Baby Z, expect these booties and mitten soon, but probably not before Christmas, based on my understanding of the Indonesian postal system. 

Indonesian Christmas Tree?

Well, I took a vote, and despite low voter turn-out, the results are in:  we went with a tropical plant as our Christmas tree instead of buying and artificial tree.  

Turns out it's hard to properly wrap a palm plant with Christmas lights, and their fronds are not very supportive of ornaments.  But it gets the job done, nonetheless!  Having it up makes it feel somewhat Christmas-y.  Only somewhat because it's still 92 degrees out there...

More Christmas Goodies

Yes, more Christmas stuff.  

What?!  It's after Thanksgiving now, so it's socially acceptable, right?

Some cute crocheted Christmas ornaments, loosely based on this pattern from GoodKnits.  The best part about this easy pattern is that I got to use up scrap yarn leftover from all of those sweaters I have been making.

Now I just need a Christmas tree to put the ornaments on...  May I poll the audience?  

Since I can't cut down my own Christmas tree out here in Indonesia, should I:

a) purchase an artificial Christmas tree, or   

b) hang the ornaments from a tropical houseplant (also to be purchased when we move into our permanent apartment on Thursday.)

Thoughts?

Another sparkly snowflake stocking to match the one I made last week.  

Tim doesn't like them- he thinks they're too girly.

I think he's just mad at me for whistling "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" as I crocheted.

Who needs a job?

THIS GUY!!!  

My fingers hurt from so much crafting, and I may or may not be going a little bit crazy at this point, after not having worked for over a month now.  Must find a job soon!!!  

All crochet and no work makes Meg a dull girl.

Anywho, here are my latest creations, all Christmas themed:

Using some of the sparkly white snowflake yarn paired with leftover turquoise yarn from Zoe's cardigan, I crocheted this super easy striped Christmas stocking loosely based on this free pattern from Lion Brand.  I sewed on one of my previously made sparkly snowflakes at the end because Tim said the color wasn't Christmas-y enough without it.  Pretty cute, I think.  Gotta make another one now so Tim and I each have a stocking to hang over our non-existent fireplace.

 I also crocheted this pretty poinsettia based on this great pattern from Planet June...  Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.  Maybe it's a tree topper?

Crocheted Snowflakes

While Springfield and the whole U.S. East Coast was blanketed in (or battered by) snow over Halloween, I was sweating it up in Jakarta and Bali, nostalgically crocheting sparkly snowflakes.  

Loosely following this free pattern from Red Heart yarn, I used yarn I bought at the local craft shop, Sidar Snuggly Pearls (a thin white yarn laced with silvery threads).  I changed up the pattern in a couple ways:  I didn't connect the snowflakes into a garland, but kept them separate.  Also, the yarn I used was thinner than they yarn called for, so it stretched out the snowflakes a bit, as did the fact that I double crocheted instead of single crocheting.  I think it made them lacier and pretty.

Gingerbread House

So, I'll admit it: we cheated a little on this gingerbread house. We used a pre-baked kit. But I swear it wasn't on purpose! In a hurry, I grabbed the box, assuming it just had the house-shaped cookie cutters, and that we would be responsible for baking adequate gingerbread walls and roofing elements to maintain structural integrity. I somehow missed that this part had already been done for us (despite the fact that it said "PRE-BAKED!" all over the box). Basically all we had to do was mix the icing and assemble the pieces.

However, the decoration was all me and Chuck, and it required some feats of craftsmanship. The kit came with some candy, but we were disappointed in the selection, so I purchased additional candy (Twizzler Bites for the roofing shingles, Dots for decorative features, Fruit Roll-Ups for the windows, candy canes).

Please take note of the following features, as we are quite proud of them:

• hand laid brick walkway


• Spanish-style shingled rooftop (complete with smoke-spouting chimney and skylight)


• flower-filled window boxes


• large be-bowed wreath


• towering evergreen trees in the front yard (decorated for the season)


• intriquitely detailed front entrance