Scrappy Christmas Bunting and Scented Christmas Tree Decorations using scraps from the scraps)

I had almost forgot to post about my thrifty delight that is "scrappy Christmas bunting".

I was the most perfect-simple-oh-so-satisfying couple of hours I spent on the morning of Christmas Eve.

I had a fair bit of joined up jelly roll strips from the Christmas Table Runner (if you haven't yet seen it .... follow this link ... I hope you like it! I am uber proud!) so carefully snipped out some triangles and then some plain fabric in festive green.

I then whipped up 10 flags and then raided my "pretty little things" (whilst humming this tune) and added some cute little bells and charms that fell out of the most beautiful little Paperchase crackers I purchased in last years January Sales .... I knew they would come in use!

These little pretty things were tooooooo pretty to just tie on with any normal thread! I used my precious vintage roll of gold thread that I received from the lovely mum in a parcel she sent me during the Bloggy Blanket Chain (if you go and check out this post I did about it then you can follow the link to Mum's page .... she is so brilliant and does do a great job of looking after all of us bloggers!).

Anyways ..... what more fun could I be having ..... creating-Christmas-crafts!!!!

 

After using some lovely left over spotty red bias binding to join all the flags up I decided the wall in our kitchen could do with a little bit of jollying up .... so two tacks later (and a little help from Craig) our kitchen wall looked like it was celebrating Christmas too!

Ta-Dah!!!!!

And if that wasn't enough fun for the morning!!! ..... There were scraps left from the scraps!!!

So I made lots of little triangles and made some Christmas Tree Scented Tree Decorations!

Oh so easy, oh so smelly, oh so lovely!

Firstly I got a bowl and put in Christmas smelling stuff ..... Cinnamon sticks, orange peels, mixed spice, cloves ..... etc .... your all Christmas loving peeps ..... you know the whiffs!

I mixed it together and took a sniff .... but being careful not to sniff too hard .... I didn't want to Christmas over-dose!

I then filled my little tree's with toy stuffing and and teaspoon of the smelly-stuff and then joined up the gap with a tree trunk!

These were used to wrap up little gift bags of homemade fudge to give to my guests coming in the afternoon for coffee and mince pies .... and they went down a treat!

So that was my little morning of sewing ..... ahhhhh .... it seems like so long ago ... I wish it was Christmas Eve again, everything is over so quickly when you grow up .... I guess it won't seem like a minute until the next one arrives though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Love xxxxxxxxxxx

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A Tutorial on how to make bunting.

Cut long strips from various fabrics. Either all the same width (including your seam allowance) or at variant angles and widths (this is easier when your a beginner).

Join the strips by placing two pieces the right side together and sewing a hem along the long edge. Keep adding a strip until you have the correct width. Then press the seams.

Next use a template and cut out all of your flags (plus one triangle for the back - I used plain green fabric) from the new piece of stripey fabric you have just made.

Then, place your front piece and back pieces together, the right sides facing in. Go around each of the triangles on your sewing machine, leaving the straight, top edge free.

Turn all of your flags out the right way and iron them. I then trimmed the top edge as this was a little wonky now.

Arrange onto your bias binding (there are some great videos on you tube if you want to know how to use it) and then zoom up the row of flags with your sewing machine.

I then added some little trinkets on the bottom. You can add buttons on the binding in between the flags as this looks nice too.

If you want to see a crochet bunting tutorial then check out this link to one of my previous posts where I made some Happy Birthday Flags!

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Kate's Christmassy-Boozy-Ginger-Truffles

 
Heat 300g of milk chocolate, a big glug of advocaat, a small pot of double cream and two teaspoons of ground ginger in a pan. Stir all the time and don't let boil.

Pour into a container and let it set in a cool place.

Once set use a teaspoon to scoop out a ball of the mixture and roll quickly in the palm of your hand.

Then roll again onto a plate with your desired covering.

I have used sugar crystals, coca powder and white chocolate shavings.

Will keep in the fridge for a few days. Perfect to make in advance of a Christmas party!

Advent Tutorial

Well done Mum, you were right! I was making an advent calender.

For my birthday I was given some lovely Christmas fabric to play along with and because I hadn't been on a sewing machine for yonks I decided a nice simple project would do me nicely.



So I am making up little tiny draw string bags. 96 of the to be exact. That will be 4 lots of advent calenders. I do think they will make some lovely early Christmas pressies!

They are soooo easy and I think they look lovely! I have taken some photos and though you may like a little tutorial.

1. Get out your sewing machine. Don't you just love it!

2. Choose your fabric and cut out 48 rectangles about 9cm x 12cm. I have made mine all different sizes to suit all sorts of goodies!

You could do the bags in the same fabric, or if you are like me, a selection of different patterns and textures. I have decided to make four advent calenders and will use lovely scrummy fabric for half of the bags and some silk christmassy emerald fabric for the other half. Mainly to keep costs down, but also to give the other colours and patterns a chance to shine!

So here is another sneaky preview of my lovely noel fabric!

Beautiful reds and greens.

Lovely festive holly.

Little fairy shoes .... my favourite I think.



Or is my favourite this lovely Nordic pattern. I think so!

 

3. Make a hem on each of the rectangles of about 1cm.

4. On a plain light coloured fabric (I used the back of some stripy scrap material) write on the numbers in your most lovely writing and using a fabric pen. I cheated and used some stamps but I think it looks nice that way .... more consistent!

5. Using pinking sheers cut out the little numbers and use a nice sew them onto half of your hemmed rectangles. I put my numbers in different places. Some at the top, some in the middle and some at the bottom ... it all makes the hunting more fun - don't you agree!

6. Now get a numbered rectangle and a non-numbered rectangle and place them together with the right sides facing and the hems level. Now sew each sack up leaving, remember not to sew up the hem as this will be where the ribbon is threaded through at the end.

7. Now trim all of the threads, use pinking shears to trim all of the seams and trim the corners.

Ahhhh that's better. A nice neat finish!

8. Here are all my bags waiting to be turned .... its time to turn yours aswell.

9. To make the drawstring, thread a blunt large needle (the one you use for sewing up those pesky crochet ends in with) with some glorious festive ribbon or string. Push it through the front channel and then through the back channel. Tie a knot in it and snip off the excess.

10. Yippee, you now have lots of lovely draw string bags.

I don't need to tell you that these could also be made bigger for pump bags, smaller for jewelry ..... you all have your own crafty creative heads to think of the endless possibilities!!!

I'm off to start production line number two - this time with a lovely red fabric.

I am not going to reveal my finished product yet. One reason being it's not ready, but the second reason being it seems like the prefect 1st of December blog. You should wait until then too. I can't wait to see all of your different types of calenders and ways of celebrating advent.

Here is to a hand-made 2012 Christmas! xxxxx Kate xxxxx

Snood

So tomorrow is my sister in laws birthday and I wanted to make her something special.

She has just started a new job in a new school as a primary teacher and I wanted to make her something to keep her warm while she is on play ground duties.

A scarf was too obvious. So a snood it was!

First things first though .... a trip to a yarn shop to choose a warm but funky kind of wool.

Aero .... has anyone seen it before. It is delightful. Uber Funky. It reminds me of a surf shop kind of yarn. Chunky, practical, vibrant and cool. 20% wool to 80% acrylic.

As for the snood here's how you do it .....

Get chunky wool and a 9mm hook.

In UK terms ; ch 10 and then do as many rows as you need in trebles. I chose trebles so there was a bit of give in the snood. Then join with a row of double stitches.

Here is the finished product ......

Practical beyond belief. You can have it pulled up right to you nose and ears with it still tucked in your coat.

It is so easy!!! Defiantly something to do for an outdoors person. Perfect for a man as well ( we all know they are hard to make for).

I'll let you know if she likes it!

Mrs TT Mouse

 

My friend at work is having a baby and as she will most probably be showered with knitted jumper and after knitted booties, I fancied doing something different. At Knitting Class I shared this desire with my very dear knitting companion Nicky who recommended little mouse. Baby friendly and cute beyond belief I was super excited about making one.

It is fast and easy and I would love to share the pattern with you.

(N.B. It is called Mrs TT Mouse after a lovely blogger who came into my mind on several occasions when doing this project ... go check her out!).

Main Body

Cast on2sts and K 1 row.
 

Ist Row	(k1, m1) twice, k1 (5 sts)
2nd Row	purl
3rd Row	k2, m1, k1, m1, k2 (7 stitches)
4th Row	purl
5th Row	k1,m1,k2,m1,k1,m1,k2,m1,k1 (11 sts)
6th Row	purl
7th Row	(k1,m1,k1) twice, (k1,m1) twice, k1, (k1,m1,k1) twice (17 stitches)
8th Row	purl
9th Row	knit
10th Row	purl
11th Row	(k1,m1,k1) four times. (25sts)
12th Row	purl
13th Row	knit
14th Row	purl
15th Row	(k2,m1,k1) eight times, k1 (33sts)
16th Row	purl
17th Row	knit
18th Row	purl
19th Row	(k3, m1) ten times (43 sts)
20th Row	purl
21st Row	knit
22nd Row	purl
23rd Row	knit
24th Row	purl
25th Row	k1, (k2 tog) ten times, k1, (k2tog) ten times, k1 (23sts)
26th Row	purl
27th Row	knit
28th Row	purl
29th Row	k1, (k2 tog) five times, k1, (k2tog) five times, k1 (13sts)
30th Row	purl
31st Row	(k2 tog)  three times, k1, (k2tog) three times (7stiches)
32nd Row	p2tog, p3tog, p2tog (3sts)

Then cut the yarn and thread through the three remaining stitches. Draw it tightly, and the secure with a knot.

I added my tail and whiskers at this point.

Tail

Cut three lengths of yarn. Knot the end and do a tight plate and then secure with a knot.

Whiskers

Cut four lengths of yarn and knot in the centre. Sew this to the middle of the back of the nose and then use a crochet hook to put the whiskers through to the front. The cut to size.

Then sew up the body and stuff it to make it a fat little Mrs TT Mouse.

You are very nearly there ..... just the eyes to sew in with some coloured wool, either side of the nose. The finally you will need to make two ......

Ears

Cast on three stitches and knit a row.

1st Row	(k1m1) twice, k1 (5sts)
2nd Row	purl
3rd Row	k1m1, k1 to last stitch, m1, k1 (7 sts)
4th Row	purl
5th Row	k1m1, k1 to last stitch, m1, k1 (9 sts)
6th Row	purl
7th Row	k1m1, k1 to last stitch, m1, k1 (11 sts)
8th Row	purl
9th Row	knit
10th Row	p1, p2tog, p to the last 3 sts, p2tog, p1 (9sts)
11th Row	k1, k2tog, k to last 3 sts, k2 tog, k1 (7 sts)
12th Row	p1, p2tog, p to the last 3 sts, p2tog, p1 (5sts)
13th Row	k2tog, k1, k2tog (3sts)
14th Row	p1, p2tog the pass the st over the other and fasten off.

With the knitted side facing outwards sew each ear above the eyes. So there you have it. Your very own Mrs Mouse.

As my friend Nicky pointed out you could make a whole family. Just use little needles for a baby, and bigger needles for a daddy. I made the mummy using 4mm.

EEEEEEEEKKKKK XXXXXXXXX

Birthday Bunting Ta-Dah!

So as promised here is my first Ta-Dah of the week!

Here are my two buddies from work doing their best TA-DAH pose as I had to have some help as it's so mashosive!

Oh my, oh my, oh, my! I have really, really, really, loved making every single bit of this project.

From choosing the most delightful birthdayish colours.





To whipping up into a hooking frenzy over the bank holiday weekend and watch the flag pile grow,

And grow!

I even enjoyed sewing the ends in while my sister in law came over one night to keep me company!

I also felt soooooooooooo much satisfaction joining them all together! It was the cherry on the cake for me!

Of course, it is extremely versatile. You could get making some Christmas one, maybe some for a child with their name on it? Or even your own birthday bunting. I made this one for the future. I wanted a little family tradition. Every birthday I want to get this out and hang it up. In fact I may start next week for my Mum's birthday. I know she'll love it!

Do you fancy making some?

Here is the pattern  - enjoy :)

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My flags were about 20 cm long which made a very large string of bunting when spelling out H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y but you could make yours whatever size you wanted, just adjust the chain at the start.

This pattern is in UK and I used a 4mm hook. (for all you USA readers check out my conversion chart at the end of this post; here).

For the flags

Ch 20

Row 1 - Make 1 dc in the 2nd stitch from the hook and dc all the way along until the last stitch.


Row 2 - ch 1 then make 1 dc in the 2nd stitch from the hook and dc all the way along until the last stitch.

Repeat until there is only 2 stitches left, then dc these two together and fasten off.

Make as many flags as you need.

Then sew in the ends! You'll thank me for that little nudge!

Top Edging

Row 1 - 20 ch, then dc all the way along your lovely flags and then ch 21 at the end.





Row 2 - Make 1 dc in the 2nd stitch from the hook and then dc all the way back again and fasten off.





Row 3 - Change colour, Make one dc in the 2nd stitch from the hook and dc right the way along your lovely string of bunting once more! Fasten off when you reach the end and breath a satisfied breath!

Decorations

Go crazy - I don't need to tell you that.

For mine I grabbed a bargain pack of felt alphabet letters, bugs and buttons from The Works (you can order online here).

I patiently threaded all the letter and felt bugs on.

Don't you just love the bugs! A lovely Green Caterpillar

A Bright red ladybird with sequin spots.

And a lovely plump bumble bee with lovely sparkly wings!

I then threaded all the buttons with yellow wool and added them to hide the joining section between each flag.

And here are some more Ta-Dah pictures on my living room floor.

It was so long I couldn't get it all in the frame!

 Thank you for reading, I have really enjoyed sharing it with you.

 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Kate xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx