I made a decision I was going to try to do handmade Christmas presents for everyone on my list. OK, well , my kids are exempt because they weren’t so thrilled with the idea since I make them things all the time and they aren’t always thrilled with the results. Have you ever tried to knock off a Betsy Johnson dress ? Sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn’t. Someday they’ll appreciate it. I will have to add something from Urban Outfitters for my teenagers and my 8 year old wants a Waldorf Kathe Kruse doll or one of those American Girls dolls that always remind me of that talking Kathy Doll episode on Twilight Zone. I don’t think I could bring myself to buy an American Girl Doll. First, they are over a hundred dollars and made of plastic and second, they are probably made in China and if you have read one of my previous posts you’ll know I don’t buy supposedly American Heirloom items that cost over a hundred bucks and are made in China . Makes me feel like I’m being hoodwinked. As far as the Waldorf doll goes I’ll have to buy one because I did make her one once and that is another project that should have ended up on Craftfail. Oh and the dog we had at the time decided it was a chew toy a week after poor Lily got it. A month’s worth of work up in smoke in two minutes!
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| Aren’t these Waldorf Dolls adorable? |
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| Check out these groovy American Girl Dolls. Ok, maybe I would want one too if I was eight, but I still prefer the Waldorf girl above. |
O.K. back to the point of this post, handmade gifts. I have a lot of sweaters lying around from the recycled baby sweaters I make for my Etsy shop and mittens and gloves are perfect projects to make from the scraps. I can’t wait to get started! With the upcoming birthday party of my daughter and all the things I have to do to get ready for Christmas there is no way I’ll be writing my own tutorial so I am linking to some great projects below I found on the web.
Now as much as I love mittens I would actually prefer to have gloves as I need to be able to use my fingers and still stay warm. I think mittens are great for kids but my fingers get fidgety when I wear them. Here are some glove tutorials I found trolling around the internet :
glove pattern from sew.com. This is a full size PDF you can print out if you click on the link. Directions for sewing them are also included. Aren’t these bloggers generous? If you make something you should thank them!
Below is a tutorial for making long gloves with a sweater and cheap mittens you can get at the 99 cent store from craft addictions.
I’ll post some photos of my final projects soon!
