Showing posts with label festive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festive. Show all posts

Make it: Christmas Stockings

We couldn't do our Christmas Tutorials without making Christmas Stockings and so today, it's all about just that.  I have started a bit of a tradition with Christmas presents for all my friends children's first Christmas and I make a stocking with their name on.  So if you want to make your own, just follow the instructions below.

You will need:  Patterned Fabric for the outside (at least a fat quarter size), Plain fabric for the inside (although you could have patterned fabric inside too), Scissors, Sewing Thread, Ribbon, Pattern piece or an idea of your stocking shape and a Sewing Machine.

The first thing to do is cut out all your fabric pieces.  I made a template and then cut out 2 pieces of patterned fabric and 2 pieces of plain fabric to a little larger in size to the pattern piece for some seem allowance.

I then laid all the pieces together how I wanted to put them together.  The two pieces of lining fabric go together and then the two patterned pieces go right side together on top.

Then, you need to sew all around the outer edge, making sure you don't sew up the top.

When you get to about two thirds of the way up the back of the stocking, add a looped piece of ribbon inside the stocking.

Sew right up the back of the stocking, making sure the looped ribbon is sewn in place.  Also, make sure that you sew this piece of ribbon about 2 inches down from the top of the stocking as will become clear later.

When you are all sewn up, it should look a little like this.  You can trim around the edge if you have any excess fabric.

On the inside of the curve, cut into the fabric to make the curve work better when you turn it the right side out.  Make sure not to cut through your sewing though.

You can now turn your stocking the right side out.

At this stage you can do many different tops for your stocking as you have a blank canvas to play with.

For this stocking, I decided to sew around the top of the edge of the stocking so that it was all kept together.

Then, I folded over the top and used my trusty hair straighteners to press it.  I always use my straighteners to press small items and it saves getting the ironing board out!  Something I am always keen to do.

I then, folded the edge over again to hide the seem and pressed in place.  Now you can always leave it like this.

Or, like me, use a nice zig zag stitch to keep it in place.  As this is going to a child, I thought stitching everything in place would be a great idea!

After all that, you are finished!  What do you think?  I usually add their names onto the stocking, but that would give the game away as to who these are going to.  So I thought I would show you them before.  If you do want to know about the names.  I cut out letters from felt and then glue or sew them in place.

Below are a few of the other ones I made.  As you can see, you can make them all look different, even with the same fabric.  Who would you make yours for?  I made one for Sammy too last year, so at least Santa knows where to put her presents when he comes! he, he.


As always, if you make anything for our Make it Tutorials, just tweet us or Instagram with #livelovemake.  Or put a pic on our Facebook page.  We had some great pictures recently of our Cable Cosy, so thanks for those.  Always lovely to see what you have made.

H


Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

Make it: Anthropologie Inspired Christmas Decorations


Anthropologie is one of my absolute favourite places to visit, both in-store and online. I always love flicking through their mailshots and like most of you, wish I could afford to buy everything! However just occasionally I see things and think, 'Whoa I could totally make that for half the price' and have the fun of making it myself along the way. This years Christmas decoration collection was the perfect example and I thought I would share what I ended up making.

Pom Pom Wreath
I absolutely love this pompom wreath, I love the textures and the soft colours but I could not justify the price tag! I used a mixture of soft wools and my trusty Clover pompom maker to recreate this lovely door wreath for my own home. I simply hot glued the pompoms I made onto a cardboard ring I cut from a box and hung it with some sparkly ribbon. 


Monogram decorations
How beautiful are these beaded initial decorations, I love them, but not all the colours were to my taste so I used my felt and bead stash to recreate the letters I wanted in the colours that matched my scheme. I simply drew and cut out the letters from felt then stitched around with embroidery thread before stuffing them to make them rounded. To embellish I just jumped into my bead boxes and used some yummy bugle beads and sparkles. You could easily replace this step with some glue if you didn't want to sew all the beads in place.



Pom Pom garland
This garland was a no brainer, I just used the leftover pompoms from my wreath and joined them together to make a garland to string in my tree, or maybe on our stairway? 

Do you have any favourite Anthropologie 'hacks' or inspired tutorials? If you do, link them up in the comments so we can all go and take a look and get inspired.

Have a lovely weekend
Sammy xxx

 Live, Love, Make, Like, Share, Follow, Tweet, Pin, Add, Enjoy. 

Bloglovin / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram


Top Ten Tips for Feeling Festive

This time next month it will be Boxing day, Scary or what! I'm not a person who need to be forced into thinking Christmassy thoughts, pretty much from the 1st of September I'm already planning my Christmas tree theme for the year, but I know some people find it hard to even think about Christmas before November is over. If you are finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit here are my ten tips for kick-starting all those fuzzy festive feelings.

1. Plan a Christmas meal with Friends.
Every year our girls meet up for a Christmas meal, it is always a highlight for me as I don't get to go to a work Christmas do because it would just be me and Mum, so we do that on Christmas day. It's really lovely to meet up with our girls and have a catch up and a giggle. It's a nice excuse to get dressed up, Oh and there is always wine...lots of wine!

2. Shop for festive food.
In my opinion a Terry's chocolate orange is not just for Christmas, I love comfort food and I love it when all the Christmas flavoured goodies and party foods are available in the supermarkets. Anything orange or mint flavoured, Hot chocolate, Sausages in bacon, lindt chocolate reindeer, chocolate logs, mince pies, Christmas cake, gingerbread men, You name it, it's on my shopping list as soon as it hits the shelves! Mr Kipling sent us some of their festive treats recently and the Winter Whirls are just delightful! If you like cinnamon-y ginger treats you will love them.

3. Head to a department store Christmas decorations department.
I always love my yearly trip to London especially to visit Liberty's, Harrods, Selfridges' and John Lewis' Christmas departments. It is always guaranteed to get me feeling festive. I don't always buy anything, but it is great for getting ideas for decorations.

4. Plan Your Christmas Day Meal
If you are hosting a Christmas day meal (like I am this year) then plan that one, but if you are heading to family for the day, plan a separate festive meal for yourself and your best friend/ boyfriend/ husband. Steve and I always have a special meal on Christmas eve, just the two of us, I go all out, cook his favourite meal, decorate, and we get to open one small present from each other. If your not up for cooking, get a special takeaway or go out to a nice restaurant, make an evening just for you.

5. Shop for and write your Christmas cards.
I hand-make Christmas cards for family and close friends but for people living further away I will buy some. I make sure I get them early and write them right away so they are ready to post come December the 1st, this means I get the best choice of cards in the shops and it leaves me time for other things come December. 

6.Visit a Christmas market.
I Love a good Christmas market and there are loads, all over the country to take your pick from. H and I are heading to Bath this year and I am really excited as I haven't been there for ages. It's a nice reason to visit a town you haven't been to before. Check out christmasmarkets.com for one in your area, or an area you want to visit, why not make a weekend of it?


7. Go Ice skating.
I Love Ice skating, especially at this time of year, it is great fun, even if you are not very good at it. There are loads of indoor and outdoor temporary rinks put up all over the UK, but especially in London. Head over to Time out's site to check out where and when you can get your skates on.

8. Make an advent calendar 
Get your craft on! There are so many great ideas for making your own advent calender floating around sites like Pinterest, get some inspiration and get making.  Surrounding yourself with all things sparkly is a great way to get into the spirit.  If you don't want to make one for yourself or you don't have kids, make one for a friends children like the girls at A Beautiful Mess did.

9. Visit some spectacular Christmas lights.
When I was young my Dad used to drive us up to London to see the Christmas lights, one year we went all the way to Blackpool for the weekend to see the illuminations. I am going to stay in London late this year on my decoration shopping trip just to take a look at the Christmas lights and shop window decorations on Oxford Street. This is one thing sure to get the festive feelings flowing! 

10. Bake some Christmas treats.
there is nothing like the smell of Christmas baking, if you are not great at it, cheat like I do. Most supermarkets now sell ready-made gingerbread dough, just roll out, cut into shapes and bake!

I hope these tips have given you some good ideas to get your festive motivation going.
I would love to hear how you get in the Christmas spirit, let me know in the comments below.
Sammy xxx

Workshop: Gift Wrap

Our last Craft Club at Norden Farm is going to be one of Sammy's favourites, Gift wrapping!
You can book up now on the Norden Farm website

Thursday 12th December
7pm – 8.30pm
Make it: Creative Gift Wrapping - £15.00
All Materials Supplied.
Come and learn some creative wrapping techniques for this year’s present list.  You can bring up to 3 gifts to wrap and we will show you some simple and effective ways to make your presents look really special. 
Come 'Make it' with us.

H & Sammy