Two of my favorite people to make gifts for are my SIL and hubby's niece. They both like things that are made with love and they're always excited to open my packages. It makes me happy to make them happy. For a couple of years now, my SIL has a vase with some branches in her kitchen that she decorates according to the season. I gladly granted her requests for little fabric fish, Easter eggs, and Christmas ornaments. Each year, I try to come up with some new pieces to add to the collection. For last year's Christmas I had made glass glitter stars, fabric baubles and 3-d book page trees.
This year I sewed, respectively knitted tiny leather mittens and scarves. Just when I had finished those wintry accessories, my friend Michelle over at
A Crafty Mix posted a DIY for the cutest little
washboard ornaments. I commented that it would be great for the washboards to have some tiny clothes to keep them company. While I wasn't able to make some of the adorable washboards because I can't print anything at the moment, the thought of tiny clothes kept floating around in my head. I decided to sew a set of sweaters.
I recycled a part of an old T-Shirt that I had recently sorted out. I added embroidery lining and double sided fusible interfacing between the fronts and the backs. The sweaters are 2" (5 cm) high. In the pictures the color is not accurately displayed. The sweaters are
more teal colored in real life, matching my SIL's kitchen décor.
The mittens are about the same size as the sweaters. They're made out of leather scraps I received from a tailor may years ago. I thought it would be easy to stitch the mittens by machine but it wasn't because I didn't have a leather needle in my stash. I made several attempts but my machine kept skipping stitches and the thread broke numerous times. I solved the problem by removing the spool and the bobbin and just piercing the leather by machine. Hand stitching through the holes took a bit of time but was easy to do then.
It's a long time ago that I knitted something but it was quite fun to make five of these little scarves. It certainly helped that all five of them were finished so much faster than one in a regular size.
Have you made any ornaments this year for yourself or to give away?
The ornaments will join these parties:
A New Life at
Rostrose