::Sewing:: Christmas 2012 Giftings

Hey there!

I hope you had a great Christmas. This year I made most of my/our gifts. I did it because I am not a big fan of shopping and I'm even less of a fan of the crazy pre-Christmas shopping frenzy.

Using the free Craftsy course Bag-Making Basics: Reversible Tote & Zipper Pouchwith Kristin Link I made my sister, MIL and SILs a zipper pouch each.

Here are my fabrics all cut out and ready to go.

Exterior, lining and zippers all ready to go!

When I use interfacing I like to cut it slightly larger than intended to make a cleaner finish once I've trimmed it down. So an improvement on the process for future would be to cut out all the external pieces as one block of fabric. Fuse the interfacing and then cut the separate external pieces to size. This would mean that I could avoid this mess of interfacing scraps after trimming it down all the individual external pieces after fusing the interfacing to it.

All my interfacing scraps. And this wasn't even all of it!

Making four pouches at the one time meant that I was able to do some chain sewing.

Chain sewing pouch tabs top-stitching.

Here are the finished pouches. The tabs are made of the same fabric in the lining.

Clockwise from top left: my sisters; MIL; younger SIL; older SIL

The mushroom one went to my sister who picked out the fabric on a trip to the fabric store a few days before. The white and teal one went to my MIL; black one with doors and keys went to my younger SIL and the teal one went to my older SIL. For more pouch pictures check out my flickr.

For pouch fillers I gave my MIL and SILs a travel size bottle of The Body Shop body wash and either a loofah, face chamoise or shower cap. Here are the crocheted coasters I made for my sister and popped in her pouch. Ravelled here.

Six crocheted coasters for my sis

I gave my sister's BF and Mr S's nephew a Christmas stocking each. The plain calico one went to Mr D (my sister's BF) and the other other one went to LP (the Mr's nephew). Mr D got a gift card (the thingy sticking out in the picture) and I filled both of the stockings with lollies and baste stitched the tops closed for ease of transport.

Mini Christmas Stockings FTW!

After I took the picture I added a crochet chain loop to each of them so they could be hung for next year.

Here are all my pressies ready with gift tags ready for gifting.

Gifts made? Check! Gifts tagged? Check! Alright, let Christmas commence!

I have a couple more gifts to give, but as they haven't yet been delivered to the recipients I best not disclose their details just yet.

Until next time, hope you making lovely things for the ones you love (especially yourself),
Vanessa xo