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Last Minute Handmade Christmas gifts

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There’s still time to make gifts for family and friends so here is a reminder of some of my tutorials. These are simple enough for those those last minute handmade Christmas gifts. Most of these projects can be made with things you already have in the home. You can also get my free ebook which has 3 easy tutorials for you to follow. Just enter your name and email to the subscribe form on the right to get your FREE ebook!

Baby Toys to Make.

If you’ve had experience with babys then you’ll know they like the simple things best.

The most popular one Baby Lilly holding taggie blanketI’ve made has been the taggie blanket, babys just love it! For extra texture, instead of the animal applique you can sew on some different scraps of fabric, velvet, seersucker, a piece of hook and loop, felt etc. You can also make them smaller or bigger, even pram blanket size.

 

 

Made with the same base fabric Baby Lilly with plush baby toyis this plush baby toy. A little bit trickier to make as you’re sewing in a circle but still simple enough for a beginner. This is another one you can adapt and if you struggle to sew a circle then just make it a square!

 

 

 Useful Baby Gifts to Make

One of the most useful things Diaper BagI’ve made which, according to baby Lilly’s Mum, is the diaper bag. This has been in constant use since Lilly was born!

 

 

 

 

A christmas bib is Baby christmas dress and matching bibsomething you could make with festive fabric. Follow the bandana bib tutorial here, I did one to match the baby christmas dress I made.

 

 

 

 

My recent post, “How to Patchwork Quilt” How to patchwork quilt finishedshowed you how to make a pram quilt. This would make a beautiful gift and could even become a family heirloom!

 

 

 

Other Gift Ideas

One of the simplest things to Handmade bookmarkmake is this handmade bookmark, you’ll find a tutorial here. These suit all ages and can be customized to suit the person you’re making them for. Adapt the pattern slightly by doing a square shape and filling with lavender or other aromatic herbs.

 

 

A festival/utility belt can be made Festival Beltfor all ages but the young ones love them for taking to festivals!

 

 

 

 

These are just a few ideas for easy homemade Christmas gifts. Have a look through my “projects to make” category for more ideas. You can also check out my “projects to try” Pinterest board for more ideas.


And lastly, if you do need any supplies check out these links.

HAPPY SEWING!

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Baby Christmas Dress

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I was thinking about making a baby Christmas dress for Granddaughter Lilly and wondering about fabric when this appeared at my door. 

Christmas CurtainsA bag full of curtains!

There were four pairs of curtains in the bag, all lined with red fabric. I didn’t take measurements but there was a LOT of fabric in there!

 

 

 

 

 

Unpicking

First was the job of unpicking, Unpicking the fabricI like to reuse as much as possible so the curtain tape came off first. That will get saved in my haberdashery box for future use.

 

 

Then I separated the lining. Christmas FabricI’ll only be using the printed fabric for this baby Christmas dress and will hardly use even 1 of the curtains. Enough to make a dress each year as baby Lilly grows!

 

 

 

Making the Dress

Then it was time to start making Baby dress patternthe dress. I used a BurdaStyle pattern, 9752 which gives a few different options on style.

Following the instructions I pinned the pattern onto the fabric. There’s a tutorial here for how to read sewing patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

I usually find Burda patterns easy Sewing the Collarto follow but the collar on this on really had me stumped. I spent a long time trying to figure it out but after a bit of trial and error and the help of a sewing forum I got there.

I used to have a problem inserting sleeves but have finally mastered that skill!

 

 

This is the top half of the Top Half of dressdress finished ready for attaching the skirt.

 

 

 

The skirt was straight forward with a simple gather around the waist. I’ve used this technique on many baby dresses and will be posting a “how to” tutorial soon. It gives a nice fullness to the skirt and makes sure there’s plenty of room around baby’s hips.

Baby Christmas Dress Finished!

Because of the problems I had with the collar this took me around 8 hrs to make. I did manage to run up a matching bib in that time though. Now Lilly will have this cute baby Christmas outfit to wear over her first festive season!

baby christmas dress

Baby Christmas dress Baby Christmas dress

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