I fantasize every year about Handmade Holidays....and feed myself the believable plans that seem really easy to accomplish in November, but turn out to have been way, way, WAY beyond my skill level by the time the December 20's roll around.
Although, I did manage ONE handmade item this year for each child's Christmas Eve gift: pillows.
Above is a detail from Eliza's. The mouse is "Marisol" and was the dearest wish Eliza announced on December 21st.
Lars did this one year as well -- innocently saying with wide and hopeful 7-year-old eyes how he just KNEW that he would see a knit penguin peeking out of his stocking -- I got off easy with Marisol ;-) this year -- she didn't require the midnight knitting that "Pasha" demanded from me three years ago....
The scrap of lace was 50 cents at the local thrift shop....and heavy white cotton was from a HUGE German pillowcase at the same shop. 1 Euro.
:-) I am suddenly VERY MUCH a thrift-store-girl.
One of my plans for an amazing gift had been to make bags for Eliza's riding gear, and just look at this perfect fabric:
But, as it turned out, I only managed to make a couple of bags for her friend's birthday party. (How about THAT for the Handmade Mom Chronicles? ha ha ha!) I have lots more of that fabric, though -- so the "riding gear bags" are on the back burner for now. There's less guilt that way, when I just move the whole project over to the ever-present back burner.
Incidentally, this has turned into my "signature gift" while living here -- every birthday invitation gets a big box of Crayolas, a workbook in English and a fabric bag....
I also made some toy boxes/bags for the neighbor's baby. As the THIRD child, all of this baby's toys were being stored in a cardboard Pampers box. :-) I just couldn't resist upgrading that....
These two bags below were for another December birthday: TWINS from Eliza's class had a Viking Party (which I thought was one of the finest party themes in the history of time.....this mother went all out with costumes, soapstone carving and roast chicken legs .....fabulous...)
Anyway, the twins' mother liked the bags so much, she wanted to learn to make them herself. So, we sewed together, and made a mostly-matching bag for the twins' little sister.
The Handmade Legacy :-) appears to be that it doesn't really matter all THAT much if I don't sew everything for my children. Or my relatives. I am discovering the whole new world of Fabric Diplomacy.....and that goes year-round! It really is more fun when we share. Hooray!
6 comments:
I totally LOVE the bags! They are beautiful! What patterns did you use? And I love the pillow for Eliza, too. What a wonderfully clever and special gift. The fabrics are beautiful. Are they German or from your US stash? I am frantically cleaning the studio in the aftermath of Christmas and can't wait to find my sewing machine again. I would love the patterns for the bags if it is easy to send! Thanks for all the inspiration - as usual, you are amazing! :)
Padden4 - you astonish me - these are the "basic tote bags" that you easily do in you SLEEP. Seriously...they are just like the one you gave to Eliza. But, here is the link where I found the original tutorial: http://www.supereggplant.com/archives/000216.html
The fabrics are a mix of mostly American. The paisley is from "Icky Baby" (terrible name, I know....) and Eliza had a pair of toddler capris in this fabric. When I saw that I could buy YARDAGE, I thought I would make her another pair in a bigger size (which I never did - ha ha!) but it makes for a nice bag or fabric box. The pink ladybug and pink camelia are both upholstery fabrics that I bought on some clearance YEARS, YEARS ago (you do the same thing, right?....) because they were so reduced I couldn't not buy them. ha ha! The brown check, cream ticking and brown/pink polka dots (Anna Maria Horner) are all American from the craft store on base. But, the taupe and red stripe fabric is actually a type of oilcloth from Norway. I always wanted to have a "viking party" of my own, and had that with plans to make a sail and boat for this imaginary party in my head. :-)
Oh, the riding gear fabric is Heather Ross, and I think I bought the last three yards available at Reprodepot. I still can't understand why no one else beat me to it (you know how things FLY out of stock over there...) I love that grey background.
See how much I stash and save and hoard? ha ha ha! 90% of what I have is a decade's worth of squirreling-away. :-)
I would like to know/see what is happening inside your studio walls, please!!!! That's funny about finding the sewing machine again....hey - did you see that Cloth, Paper, Scissors has a special issue JUST on Studios? Hooray! And...and....you can SUBMIT you studio for publication. You should seriously consider this -- I'm serious! There are a lot of clever-points in your room that make it perfect for publication. :-)
http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2009/06/buckets-and-buckets-and-a-question-for-you.html
I realized that maybe you were asking about the BUCKET bags :-).
I was aiming for the look of the link above, but ended up using a free tutorial :-) from Sew, Mama, Sew: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=738
(The extra pocket on the outside and pull-out felt toys are really cute, don't you think? Those didn't make the cut on the three I sewed, but maybe another time. )
Honestly, Tanya...you really are talented...I love it all..(and wouldn't GG love all you do? My goodness...everyone in Auburn would be seeing printouts of all this...ha!) (Oh, and a little tip on how GG did her handmade stuff for Christmas: She started the day after Christmas, bless her heart) (And that may be the only sure way to, possibly, get it all done?)
Now THAT is a brilliant piece of advice about the day after Christmas. Seriously. It makes so much sense, when I think about it!
I think about GG a lot in the sewing...even though I didn't have any interest while she was still here, I am completely certain that my leaning toward bright/bold/colorful is because of her influence. It makes me happy to think so, anyway. :-) And, Eliza is DEFINATELY an apple that fell from GG's tree when it comes to big color! To be honest, Eliza would eclipse me with GG, don't you think?
Actually, you did do quite alot of "sewing" with GG..ha.. (I'm sure you do think of her often while doing it). And you could not have pleased her more.. you know that, right? (And Eliza and GG would, indeed, be quite the pair..makes me laugh to think of them together)
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