My Top 10 Christmas Gift Ideas!
With just under a week to go until all hell breaks loose for the dreaded ‘Black Friday’, I thought I’d get ahead of the game and post my favourite picks of sewing-related Christmas gifts. Despite being a grown adult, I still love writing a Christmas list to give to my mum. The only difference is these days we have the wonder of the interwebs for browsing for products instead of being thrown the Argos catalogue with a notepad and pen! Although I secretly still like to do that….
Anyway, here are my absolute favourites which will certainly be featuring on my list to Santa!
1. The New Craft House Sewing Kits (between £18-£24)
2. Sewing Box from Stoff & Stil (£38.75)
3. Doughnut Pattern Weights from OhSewQuaint on Etsy (£24.99)
4. Tilly and the Buttons Cleo Dungaree Dress Kit (£39)
5. Colette Sewing Planner from Fabric Godmother (£27.50)
6. Foxy Eye Mask Kit from Guthrie & Ghani (£7.50)
7. Gutermann thread ‘notebook’ from Jaycotts (£49.99)
8. Merchant and Mills – Selected Notions Gift Box (£42)
9. Suzy Magazine Issue 1 via their Kickstarter Page (£10 or more pledge)
10. Ernest Wright Dressmaker Shears in Pink for Breast Cancer Care (£40)
I hope you feel suitably inspired to get your Christmas list posted to Santa! And here’s hoping that we’re all featuring on his nice list – ah course we are!
A sneak peek inside the-S box!
I’m one of those really annoying people who starts banging on about Christmas during the heat of summer. Just to be honest! So you can probably guess the levels of excitement and girly squealing when I received this gorgeously festive crafty subscription box through the post.
The lovely people at the-stitchery kindly sent me this November edition of ‘the-s box’. They release a new box every month, filled with sewing, knitting and crafting goodies.
This November box is themed as ‘Nordic Noel’ and is packed with Scandi-inspired fabrics, ribbons and other craft supplies. Perfect for making decorations ahead of the festive period!
They also enclose with the box some project ideas, which are great for getting a bit of inspiration. Suggestions include hanging fabric or felt hearts, Christmas tree or snowflakes for the tree, embroidered lavender bags to give as stocking fillers and mini gingham stockings decorated with bells. I feel all giddy for Christmas just typing this!
A single box is £14.95, which I think is great value considering that the full value of contents of this particular box is £19.25. This is great as a treat to yourself, or a gift to crafty friends and family.
I can’t wait to get stuck in with some Christmas crafting with my S Box!
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free box, in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A Cosy Mustard Yellow Linden Sweatshirt
Over the weekend I treated myself to this quick sew project – which I’ve been meaning to make for about a month!
The pattern is a Grainline Studio Linden Sweatshirt. I made one of these last autumn, and I’ve worn it so much it’s kind of turned all bobbly. So it was high time for me to make another. I love this pattern – it’s perfect for a quick project. This one took me a couple of hours to make.
This sweatshirt fabric is absolutely stunning, and I loved working with it. The mustard yellow colour is incredible, and I love the tiny flecks of other colours too! I bought this fabric from Guthrie & Ghani using a discount voucher I had in my goody bag from the Sewing Weekender. And the inside of this fabric is so comfy – so so soft!
I stitched it up entirely on my overlocker, which worked fantastically well. And a first for me was having a go cutting out pattern pieces with pattern weights and a rotary cutter. I honestly didn’t think I’d like this method, but turns out it gave such a perfect cut… and I’m a convert!
The neckline is the trickiest part of this pattern. It kind of feels wrong stretching it out as you sew it in. And I guess the neckline is a bit on the large side, but I’m ok with that.
I made this jumper 2 sizes larger than the last one I made, so that I can fit my baby bump in for a while longer, going into the Winter… here’s hoping.
I have some more fabric in the wings waiting to be made into another sweatshirt, which I think I’ll do soon, while I’m in ‘Linden mode’! So watch this space 🙂
Pattern: Grainline Studio, Linden Sweatshirt
Fabric: Mustard yellow sweatshirt, Guthrie & Ghani
Size made: 8
Alterations: None