The Christmas Elf

I decided to be an Elf maker for a day, or two....It's Christmas after all, and this year since I have a thing for Elves I'm not making a Gingerbread house, or Pinata. Instead there is going to be an Elf who doesn't give out sweets and isn't made of sugar.

So I thought I would just make up my own sewing pattern, and this did sort of work out. Except the finished Elf didn't look exactly like the pattern I tried to draft. My Elf took on a life of his own...His face is made from the fabric left over from Humpty Dumpty, and the rest of him is made out of Christmas scraps of fabric.

This little Elf was supposed to have a bigger head. and this was cut out with more of a roundish shape to it. Except all this changed when I appliqued the hearts and mouth upside down on the face and the head was already sewn onto the body. I had no patience to start all over again so instead I re cut the head shape out again  on the body which made it much smaller.

Also my other problem was the Elf eyes, I forgot to sew them on in a contrasting thread which I really wanted to do. But before you knew it this 'Imp of an Elf' was all sewn up and glued together. Too late to change anything now. So I glued the eyes onto the felt circles and let him loose in the garden...and what a naughty little Elf he was!

Bells, glue, clips for the Ric-Rac...Buttons for the eyes and
silver fringing around the neck

Golden thread laces for the Elf shoes...

Garden antics of the impish Elf!

'Sorry no room for Elves, twos company threes a crowd...

Is that really me? Who else has sewn Elves this Christmas?

Have a Merry Christmas everyone....

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall...

Who would have thought I would get this costume finished...I started at 6pm last night, it had to be worn by 8.30am the next day, and I have had weeks to do this but didn't know what to do. I looked at all the Humpty Dumpty costumes  online to sew. Their are not a lot out there so I just made it up my style.

The problem I had was that I was given this green looking round stuffed pumpkin thing full of Dacron (which I didn't make myself). No matter what I thought to do...that pumpkin thing was my nemesis. It really needed to be re-stuffed.

My Humpty Dumpty under padding looks similar to
the orange pumpkin pattern here.

To make the Humpty Dumpty costume I simply traced around the stuffed padded green pumpkin I was given to make the white egg cover. Then I kept fitting the egg shell cover over the child wearing the pumpkin shape. The fabric I used was a fairly stiff shiny white fabric, a bit like taffeta in texture.

The red bow tie was taken from my own clown costume. The tights are from the clown costume also. The collar I drafted myself, I wanted to use a coloured fabric, but white was all I had. Shoes I did not need as the children have bare feet in the play.

Really I should have made a new padding for underneath, but I kept putting off. I just didn't want to do it...A new stuffed shape would have made Humpty Dumpty more solid looking, more like a big egg.When finally my creative kicked in I had only 24 hours to put this outfit together. So the green pumpkin padding thing had to do. I didn't even mend it...So here is the end result for my Humpty Dumpty costume.

Humpty is looking a bit flat here....His tummy
needed to be a bit firmer.

He looks like a sinister 'Humpty Dumpty'. The face paint was painted in
a hurry as we ran out of time, but it looks okay he's an egg after all...

The hat dictated the whole outfit...he wouldn't give it up.
He was wearing that hat and that was that.

Easy Christmas Bunting

Spotlight is the place where I found these Christmas bunting flags, all printed on one sheet of fabric. Just waiting for me to buy, cut out, and sew...The best part was that it was half price, a real bargain I thought. But I must say what I saved in dollars here I overspent on bias binding. So actually their was no savings to be had at all...

I decided to buy red FOE (fold over elastic) and then I didn't like elastic it made the job too hard. Next I bought five metres of red bias binding straight off the roll. Only problem was when I got it home it was was a crimson red colour. Who chooses bias binding with sunglasses on? Me, lesson learnt.

After all the extra spending I found the exact red bias binding in my own stash. Who would have thought and I started pinning the flags onto it to realize it was way too short. In the end I used a red 'Hello Kitty' bias binding I  had made a while back because I  just couldn't be bothered going out again..

If you want to make 'Christmas Bunting' with your own fabric from start to finish. This blog, jenthousandwords.com will show you how to make Christmas Bunting.

Sewn on my faithful Bernina 801 I've been using it
a lot lately.

For now it's on the wall...

When Life Gives You a Bowl Full of Lemons...Make Lemon Juice

I have a bulk lot of lemons, so before they go mouldy I am freezing the juice. This is the first time I have done this...The plan is to take the lemon ice blocks, and have them free-flow in a plastic bag for later use. The problem is how do you keep them from sticking together, any ideas?

Just have to tip the lemon ice-blocks out into plastic bags for the freezer.
Or perhaps not tip them out at all and put the container with the lemon
ice-blocks into a self sealing plastic bag.....Big decisions!

Christmas Elf Stockings

The Elves are visiting us this year (only because I gave away the Christmas stockings I sewed last year). I had fun making these curly toed stockings, but soon realized my days of making little stockings are just about over. You have to have good eyes for a project like this. Mine are fading slowly for doing the intricate stuff, like applique.

It might have helped if my old Bernina 801 had a light bulb that actually went, and I cleaned my glasses properly so I could see. The pattern I chose to use for the Christmas stockings this year is from Sew-4-Home. You can find the tutorial and  pattern here.

I chose to use the Bernina 801 for this project. It looks rather jaded with
it's paint starting to peel at the bottom.

I stuffed the end of the stocking with a bit of fluff (Dacron). The bells
are off the 'Lindt Easter Bunny'. Just the perfect size... I saved
them from last Easter for the cat's collar. But the cat wears a
bigger bell now.

I didn't use the letter template that the pattern linked you too. I found another
because I couldn't re-size it on my printer...