Ideas for small presents?

Last year I started following a blog and this article made me want to try making lovely felt characters. Even the English friend who came to visit last year just before Christmas gave it a try. They are so sweet and make perfect little presents and/or fillings for the Advent calendar!

Madame is wearing pearls and Monsieur a bow-tie

 Want to know the trick for the shapes? My ikea biscuit forms!!!

 

More Christmas Decorations

Three days late here is finally our "Adventskranz". My mother-in-law and I only managed yesterday to find the time to meet up and make our "Kränze". Here is mine:

 This year the candles are white and of different sizes (this way at the end of Advent they will all be roughly the same size). Last year they were deep red, but white also looks very nice.

For my first Christmas in Germany after my wedding I made a couple of things:

A cloth to put under the Adventskranz or just in the middle of the table as decoration

A table cloth

Those two aren't on the table yet as I need to clear away my sewing-machine but soon I will finish setting-up everything for Christmas. The last thing will be the Christmas tree but we do not have much space left with all the baby stuff... Let's see!

One thing I will definitely not be making this year is this:

We need to open and close often the small second part of our door for the pram, so having this sort of decoration would be quite annoying as it would sprinkle needles all the time!

Keeping Baby warm outside - Part 1

Winter is still not really there, but it is slowly getting colder. My husband and I recently bought a new baby-carrier which is much better for our poor shoulders and back (it has a strap around the hips like hiking backpacks), the only thing is that with Baby N. in the carrier I cannot close my coat. One can buy an already-made sort of coat extension, but they are quite expensive. So I thought "I have a sewing-machine, a bit of time... Let's get on with making one then!"

Three different fabrics: two layers of thin fleece (I didn't have thicker black fleece), one layer of thick cotton and one layer of laminate (click here). A small cord, two cord-stoppers, a YKK 5VS zipper compatible with the zippers of our winter jackets. Two to three hours of work (split on two days) and here is the result:

I have been using it for about a week now and I can say that it is quite warm. Baby N. will need to wear her warmer clothes when it get properly cold, but for now she is fine with less layers. We do keep each other warm!

Christmas Decorations

Advent has begun, Christmas markets are open, incense is burning in our house, decorations are up (even Baby N. has decorations on her rocker and likes them very much), Christmas music is playing, Stollen, Domino Steine and other yummy things on the table... Ooooh it really is one of my favourite parts of the year! 

Snow and great cold are not there yet but I am NOT complaining as I find winter rather long and dark and cold here...

My husband also took part in yesterday's activity of decorating the flat by building our star like every year now and by assembling a wooden decoration which is not bigger than an adult hand (To give a better idea of the size: the metal in the middle is a sewing needle!). Enough talk, let's see the pics:

 I wish you all a lovely Advent!

Mobiles again

In previous posts I presented some mobiles which I have made to decorate our home (see here and here) but I had forgotten last year to take pictures of my Christmas mobile. Yesterday was the First Sunday of Advent, I decorated the flat for the Christmas season and seized the occasion to finally take a picture of it:

I must say that the original idea was not mine, I tried to copy my Grand-mother's angel mobile. I personalised it a bit by choosing silver colour rather than golden and by having them on several levels rather on one curved stick. 

Last year was first Christmas away from my parents' home and it felt very strange, making this mobile made me feel a bit better: it was a bit of my childhood. Who knows, maybe in twenty years or so my daughter will do the same and we will have a third version of this mobile!

Scoodie

As I have said in a previous post, I bought many different fleece blankets in order to make various projects and I presented you with this link:

http://cyatutoriaux.blogspot.com/2009/12/scoodie-ou-echarpe-capuchon.html 

I finally got round to make my first one. Since the tutorial is very clear on this other blog, I will not show the different steps of the sewing process, just the final result. I have tested the "scoodie" for the first time today and must say that I am pleased, very pleased with it! It can be worn loose when the weather is just a bit chilly, or tighter when it gets colder and windier. It also looks rather nice and is completely reversible.

One thing I need to say: the computer automatically printed the pattern on a different scale! It was 94% of the original size but I prefer it this way since I do not intend to wear anything underneath.

Now the pictures:

 

New Toys!!!

Last month was my birthday and I got (asked for) the knitting-mill. My mother also made me the surprise of giving me interesting books on 1) how to make your own patterns 2) how to learn to sew with the sewing-machine (it gives good tips to help improving) 3) spool-knitting creative ideas. This third book is quite good and I got loads of new ideas but I did not have the appropriate tools for everything so I bought this sort of loom which is supposed to be used for making flowers but is also perfectly adaptable for spool-knitting. And since I was at it, I also ordered pompon-makers. Those were not necessary I suppose but well... ;)

 

I can forsee loads of lovely creations coming up in the next few months!!