Ribbon & Cinnamon Decoration and Christmas Card Holder.

Love it or Loathe it, you can't ignore Christmas. I realized the other day that I'm normally a lot happier this time of year. I sat down and looked at what was wrong and it came to me. I have more work to do than time to do it, and less money than I'd like to spend at Christmas. It occurred to me that I can't be the only one thinking the same.  Therefore I decided to experiment and come up with some decorations that were festive and yet quick and cheap to make. This would allow me and  anyone else in the same boat to have a hand crafted personalized Christmas, without spending too much time or money.  I thought about Ribbon. Ribbon is cheap and plentiful at this time of year. Not only is it inexpensive to buy but many people have plenty spare in their homes. The other advantage of ribbon is it comes in many styles and patterns, allowing you to make a truly unique ornament  which could also me a nice early gift to someone.

For the Cinnamon decorations you will need
Ribbon
Cinnamon Sticks
Scissors 
Optional 
Needles
Thread
Elastic Bands

For the Christmas Card Holder you will need;
Ribbon 
Needles
Thread
Scissors 
paper clips (or sticky tape)
Cinnamon sticks decorations.

This simple decoration is my homage to the yule log symbolizing warmth and comfort. Cinnamon sticks can be often found very cheaply at oriental supermarkets.

Bundle the cinnamon sticks together. Things are a lot easier if you hold them in place with elastic bands.  I used Dalchini Sticks which are very thick.

You can simply tie  the ribbon around the sticks and pull it into a bow. Then hang or rest the sticks into your tree. This also can give an artificial tree a warm subtle scent.

You can hem the ribbon first by folding the ends over double and top stitching in place.

Smaller cinnamon sticks give a more delicate looking decoration.











Christmas Card Holder

Christmas Cards always help a room feel festive, however finding space for them all can be a struggle.
For the cost of a piece of ribbon and a few minutes you can have a custom made card holder.

I find Grosgrain Ribbon works best

To begin with take some ribbon, about 3 times longer than the Card holder needs to be. Pleat the ribbon along it's length, make the pleats around 1.5 cm deep.

Stitch the pleats in pl;ace with a singe row of stitching down the middle.

Take a paper clip and slip it into one of the pleats

Slide a Christmas Card under the paper clip so it's held in place

Add more cards as you receive them and just pin or otherwise fasten the card holder in place.

The pleated detail of the ribbon does add a festive charm to this little project

I chose brown to match my sofa  but red, gold or green would look fantastic.

For more idea on festive projects and amazing wrapping ideas check out this fantastic blog I found today.

 http://claireabellemakes.com/2012/11/19/christmas-wrapping-ideas/

A simple Halloween & Autumn Decoration

In the past I've made some intricate stuffed fabric Pumpkins. Whilst many people liked these a lot of people said they were put off by the amount of time each pumpkin would take, and the amount of sewing. After some playing around I've managed to create a very simple, but in my opinion rather cool pumpkin pattern. Don't feel constrained to orange fabrics, you can make a very ethereal creation with  a shimmering white or pale pink, or something festive with a Brocade.

You will need:
A rectangle of fabric 15 cm by 30cm
Small piece of fabric for the stalk
Scissors
Pins
Sewing Needle  (hand sewing needles  and Sewing  Machine Needles if using a machine)

Tailors Chalk
Toy Stuffing
Thread

Mark out a rectangle of 15cm by  30cm and cut out.

  Fold the fabric in half giving you a Square of 15cm by 15cm Stitch down the side opposite the fold

Sew two lines of parallel stitches at the bottom of the square. This is to perform a gather. You can do this perfectly well with hand sewing, just pull the threads tight and tease the fabrics into gathers. I used a sewing machine, anchoring the threads at one end with a back stitch but not at the other, then pulling the threads to make the gathers.

 Once you've gathered the fabric like this top stitch between the two lines of stitching to secure the gathers. Fold  right side out. You should now have a little bag with an open top and gathered bottom.

 Fill the pumpkin with toy stuffing. You can use cut up scraps of wool or fabric to save money here, But a bag of toy stuffing costs under £4.00 and my bag has lasted me many many projects.

With a hand  sewing needle run a stitch along the top of the pumpkin, pull this tight and secure to create a ball. 

To shape the groves into the pumpkin secure some strong thread with a stitch at the top and wrap it to the bottom of the pumpkin pulling tight, secure with a stitch and wrap the thread to the to and secure with a stitch  repeat   for as many grooves as you like. I started with four, equally spaced.

Take two rectangles of green fabric to be the stem. I used 6cm by 4.5cm. Sew together along the long sides and one short side (leaving an opening for turning through and stuffing. The line of stitching at the top doesn't have to be straight, making it a little slanty can make the stem look more organic.

Turn through using a pencil (yes I DID spend 10 minutes trying to use my finger before I thought of the pencil) and then use the pencil to stuff the stem with toy stuffing.

Stitch the stem onto the top of the pumpkin using small stitches going around the base of the stem.

And behold a pumpkin. I thought this was cute, however my favorite pumpkins have more grooves so I added another set of four using the same method as the original grooves.

 I am rather proud of my little pumpkin. There may seem to be a lot of steps but only because I wrote down EVERY little thing. You should be able to make up one of these little guys in 20 mintues or so. You could even cut out triangles  in felt to make a Jack-o-lantern and glue it on with fabric glue. As well as Halloween these decorations could be used for an Autumn display  or part of a costume (be it the green goblin or headless horseman)

October is a confusing month

October can be very confusing for the sewing enthusiast. We have Halloween rapidly approaching whilst Christmas is not far behind. Taking the fact that many think Christmas needs much longer to prepare for often means our Christmas sewing is blended in with vampire costumes and stuffed pumpkins. Having covered some Halloween sewing already I thought I would  begin with some festive stitching. Christmas sewing projects take all shapes and sizes from Christmas Stockings to gifts and decorations. However the one thing we need to have prepared first in many cases is the Advent Candler. The start of December is now only 6 weeks away so I think it's OK to start getting a little excited by it.
Whilst not on the website yet the shops now have their Christmas fabrics out on display. This includes the Stockings and Advent Calendars. Home made quilted advent calendars have many uses. Not only do they give you a choice what treat to pop into the quilted pockets but they can be chosen to compliment your other decorations. Not only are they fun and rewarding to make they can also become a family heirloom. They make great gifts and if you have a large family each child could have their own calendar stuffed with their personal favorite snacks or other treats.