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....

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...

Rain on Christmas Day

But we're still water bombing....

Whoops! It's water bombing, can't spell...

Water, Water Everywhere...

This young man loves throwing water balloons at his Uncle on Christmas day. It has to be one of his favourite activities...This year making water balloons has been much easier because we now have a water balloon pump...

It really was supposed to be a Christmas present for him. But Granny, being Granny gave it to him early knowing that it will keep him occupied and out of mischief for awhile....

Lucky buy, I bought the pump for $8.00 on sale...

He got to 22 balloons then it was all too much. He
 gave up and started throwing them! Boys and water!

Lets Throw The Snowball...

I knew it wouldn't last long before I started to make a mess again.....Actually I've been a little lost with no sewing to do. So I've been busy making games for Christmas to keep the children amused...Except my tidy house for Christmas is no more!

Throw The Snowball
You need:
* 1 cardboard box
* Some Acrylic paints, White especially
* Paint brushes, different sizes
* A pair of scissors
* Hot glue gun
* Anything you can use to make snowballs

Let's Start Painting:
* Draw or paint a Snowman onto a cardboard box. I just painted straight onto the box...
* Next paint in the background ( I could only find pink paint).
* Let the paint dry, cut a hole into the painted Snowman's mouth.
* Then use the hot glue gun to glue the flaps on the box so it looks tidy.
* Next I painted the whole box white.

Your Snowman is all ready to play...Oops, I forgot the snowballs. They just need to be a white ball shape. You can use Ping Pong balls, Polystyrene balls, Pompoms, White Marshmallows (not too sure about this one, there will be sticky little fingers everywhere).

Lets Play:

Put all the snowballs in a bucket. Draw a line with chalk on the concrete patio, or tape the carpet if you're inside (make sure it's a tape you can get off). The children stand behind the line to throw three snowballs one at a time into the Snowman's mouth....When a snowball lands in the Snowman's mouth, a prize is given to that child.

This was fun until I spilt the tester pot on the lawn
and the dog stood in it....

We have a winner!

The Weeping Gingerbread House

This year we made a 'Gingerbread House' (from a new recipe and template). The young man requested one and he designed all the windows in the house himself...

You know the saying 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' well that's exactly what happened when we all decided to decorate the house. It was a free for all, we each did a side each using a non-functioning icing set. I was into totally 'overkill', I just put marshmallows everywhere, especially on the roof to try and hide the bad snow job!

Even though the Gingerbread was very tasty and moorish, it went way too soft on the house the next day. The Lollipop windows melted also. I blame the rain and humidity...In the end the Gingerbread House looked like it was a house of tears...

This mixture smells divine. You can find the recipe here.

Firstly though I'll show you how we made the windows...

Making Stained Glass Windows For A Gingerbread House
You need boiled sweets to do this, they have to be crushed, this bit gets messy...But we have found the perfect solution to this, just use wrapped boiled Lollipops. Pam's is the brand used here, they were just perfect.

The job of crushing Lollipops was given to the young man...

Once crushed carefully snip the corner of the wrapper and pour into the cut window...

Use a new Kebab stick to push the crushed lolly into the corner of the windows...

Mixing the crushed Lolly colours is fun too!

Two toned windows....

Baking the Gingerbread House

Windows baked....

Imprinting the roof tiles and cutting with a knife the
hot Gingerbread House pieces to straighten up....

Because we didn't do the base for the Gingerbread House,
their was plenty left over for biscuits

Icing and Decorating The Gingerbread House

Royal Icing
3 eggs whites
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
Icing Sugar  approx 500g. Use as much  or little as I needed

Whisk the egg whites and Cream of Tarter until stiff. Then fold in Icing Sugar beating as you go until consistency you need is reached.

I must admit this Royal Icing is very good for gluing the house together and covering the board. But I  personally prefer a Royal Icing like the one below for decorating my Gingerbread House... Next Christmas I'll know better.

Royal Icing
1 egg white2 ½ - 3 cups Chelsea Icing Sugar1- 2 Tbsp lemon juice

 Refer to Chelsea Sugar for more detail.

Beating the glue icing....

So busy beating the icing I forgot about the rest of the baking.....
Too late... I BURNT it!

Who will help decorate the gingerbread house? The Granny, the Mother and the Child!

This part was easy as this Royal Icing glued the sides easily...

Excuse messy Muffin tin I need a new one...Lollies chopped
and ready for decorating!

Now perhaps we all should have stopped here....Less is more they say!

No we never stopped, the icing was went everywhere,
 especially where you didn't want it to go!

Who will help eat the Gingerbread House?

The children never ate all the lollies....just what they wanted!

The Weeping Gingerbread House

Gingerbread Men Fundraiser

I would have liked a much more spicy gingerbread, but I'm not eating them children are (I didn't make them). This recipe was from Chelsea Sugar and you can find it here.

Unfortunately my metal icing set fell apart awhile back...When I'm in charge of the icing bag it really is a 'hit and miss affair'. I find it's no easy task for a novice like myself... Never mind though, the children won't notice my quirky icing of these 'Gingerbread people'. One snap and they'll be gone...and the money raised will help the people in the Philippines.

Bee busy I was...this is my favourite T-towel
Hmmmm...my icing skill have gone down from last year!

All iced with Royal icing...the end of the bag icing set I broke it!

At $2.68 approx. These paper bags are great for
wrapping the gingerbread men in.

I found some old Xmas stickers to stick on the bag

I've bagged them up in rows, then covered with Glad wrap
to keep fresh for the stall...

Small Christmas Bags

I think I need bows for my bags I'm making.  Bows will make them look so much nicer. My fluffy wire stuff doesn't look too good...Oh well I'm off to the fabric shop. I guess I won't come out with just ribbon, there will be other treasures too...the joy of sewing!

French seamed the side seams and 2 thread rolled hem
on the top...

 Organza Xmas bags...

Children's Art at Christmas Time

Keep the artworks and scan them onto your computer. Then surf your way over to PicMonkey, a photo editing website (the basic stuff is free). Upload your pics and have fun playing with all the features and make yourself some Christmas cards. Children feel very proud and valued when you do stuff like this, it's always worth seeing that important look on their faces...

After you have finished editing the cards you have made, save them back onto your desk top. Now print them out, or take your print to the nearest copy centre. Remember to use a good quality card.

These cards are Christmas postcards and they are now already to send, or give away...

A Toucan Bird Christmas card...drawn by
the little person in the house!

The Almond King

Today I'm making the 'Almond King's Crown' It's a little bit of craziness in my house... Perhaps your wondering how the Almond King came about?

A couple of Christmases ago my daughter decided to put an almond in the Pavlova she was making. The person who found the almond nut in their slice of Pavlova was the Almond King for the day. Except there were no rules in place and we just made everything up as we went along. But now there are too many creative minds at the Christmas table so there are moments of madness when our imagination runs wild...

Really you don't know all the trouble one almond has caused...When the last Pavlova was baked the cook saw the almond and then diverted the piece of Pavlova to someone else. In the meantime the young man saw it too and was so upset....Luckily the girls were too young to notice.

This year we'll have some order because a special crown has been made for the 'Almond King'. Here it is...

The Almond King's Crown  
A basic zig-zag crown

Materials:
1/2 metre of felt in contrasting colours
Thread for top-stitching
Fake jewels, buttons, scraps felt
Gorilla glue or UHU
Iron-on stiffening
Scissors, or rotary cutter
Hack saw (small)
Sewing Machine

To Make:
Basically you make your own template on paper to the size and height you want. This is an adult crown but because it's made out of felt it tucks nicely behind the children's ears and stays on their heads  okay...I didn't want to have an expanding strap at the back. But this is an option you could just make a half crown with wide covered elastic at the back.

I wanted to trim the bottom with fur but left it plain instead....next time!

Cut out a crown shape. Use the template have you made.
You'll need to cut two one pieces of felt.
Also chose some jewels to glue onto the
crown...

Trace onto stiffening by tracing around the cut crown. Then
cut out the shape

Press the iron on stiffening to
the inner yellow part of the crown. Use a hot iron

Trim to make everything  up to make even. In
the end I used sharp scissors..I need a license
 to use a rotary cutter...

Attaching the centre decoration to  the other side of the buckle.
This jewel represents the almond... 

Cutting the shanks off the buttons ready to glue on.
Use a hack saw blade or in my case I'm using
 a coping saw. I've also top-stitched the two
 pieces of felt leaving back open. Sew On the
felt shapes..

Now top-stitch the back seam through all
layers. Finally decorate and embellish
over  the seam line

The finished crown showing the
inside back seam. 

The Almond King's Crown
by
Sew Sister