Tag Archives: Presents for Kiddies

Make It: 15 Homemade Christmas Present Ideas

Homemade Christmas Presents

Usually around this time of year (i.e. after Christmas) I start posting about all the homemade gifts I’ve made for people. But this year, for the first time in about 6 years, I haven’t made anyone a present. I found this year that the run-up to Christmas was a bit stressful and it went really quickly – I had only about 4 evenings and 2 weekend days off in the month running up to Christmas! So instead of posting this year’s makes, I thought I would round-up the things I’ve made in previous years. Maybe if I start having ideas now, by next year I’ll have made a couple of things!

I’ll list these from quickest to longest to make (roughly), so you’ll have an idea of what you can complete in time if, like me, you start too late!

You can easily, and quickly, make a bowl out of a vinyl record for someone, like I did with this one for my brother-in-law.

Or another idea for a vinyl record is to make it into a clock.

Tea cup candles are pretty and can be flavoured – I gave mine a chocolate smell! And they’re not as scary to make as you might think!

You can always make clothes for someone else (and not just for yourself!) as I did with this Grainline Scout Tee for a friend, out of Strawberry fabric – Strawberries are her favourite thing!

A good alternative to clothes is an apron, which you can customise depending on the taste of the person you’re making it for – this one is cake themed for my baking friend.

An easy gift for any new babies in your family or friendship group is to applique some baby grows. You could do flowers or trains or other animals, or whatever the kid is into (if they’re old enough to have interests).

If you fancy a bit more sewing, you could make a tote bag for someone, using this tutorial, with their favourite thing on – in this case BBC’s Sherlock (who’s excited for New Year’s Day!?).

Or, also requiring a bit more sewing, you can make some baby clothes.

If you’re not into sewing, or if you fancy a non-sewn gift, you can make a scrapbook, like this one I made for my dad’s 60th birthday.

If you know how to knit and know someone who likes lego, what better than this knitted lego brick doorstop (with an actual brick inside).

Again for the kiddies, maybe for older ones than the baby grows, why not make a cushion or wall hanging with their favourite book or character on?

Probably the first thing anyone makes when they learn to knit is a scarf, so why not knit one (or more) as gifts?

If you’ve got a bit more sewing time, and an older kid than for the cushion or wall hanging, you can make a felt allotment or a (travel) matching game. This both take a while because there’s lots of bits to make (and lots of squares to sew for the matching game!), but you can make then as complicated as you like or have time for.

Finally, if you have lots of knitting time (in front of a boxset, perhaps?!), then you could make a rug like this one, which was based on a cushion pattern).

Do you make Christmas presents for people? If so, how early do you start and what have been your favourite makes?

Cute Little Baby Dresses

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I can’t remember if I mentioned on here, but my sister had a daughter back in April, to join my adorable nephew, who I’ve made a couple of things for in the past (Baby Dungarees, Sarah and Duck Cushion). My sister, Phoebe, asked if I would mind making a couple of Summer dresses for Alice (as my niece is called). She gave me the pattern and some fabric that one of her friends was getting rid of, so all I had to do was find the time to make them. I also used some fabric from my stash because some of the bits Phoebe gave me were a bit small and one bit was some old curtains, so I thought it would be way too rough for a little baby’s skin. So these were all very thrifty!

This was the pattern:

I’ve not used a Burda pattern before, so I don’t know if this is standard, but I found the instructions really confusing and pretty sparse. I may, therefore, have done some of the bits wrong, which led to the insides not being as neat as I would have liked, but I just couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to be doing! It’s good that it comes with different variations, though as I meant I could make the most of the fabric that I had.

First I made the romper suite version:

This was all fabric from my stash – the main fabric is one that was ruined when I pre-washed a load of fabric together and the pink one (that I used for the bias trim here) bled onto everything else. It kind of worked on this fabric, though!

I was a bit worried once I’d put it together that the legs looked really small. I know babies are pretty small, but I thought they have pretty chubby legs!

But I needn’t have worried, it fits fine:

How cute is she?!?! I know I’m biased, but come on! Phoebe says she reminds her of me – we’re twins, so I think what that means is she looks really like Phoebe and therefore quite like me. But Phoebe is more used to seeing my face, so she sees me instead of herself, if that makes sense?

She wore this to a birthday party and apparently got lots of compliments (sooo proud!) and then puked down herself, thus christening it properly!

After the disaster of using poppers instead of proper snaps on my nephew’s dungarees, I learnt my lesson and used proper snaps here, so hopefully they’ll stay done up for more than 8 seconds!

I used buttons from my stash for all 3 outfits. The ones for the romper were little pink ones my friend gave me from her huge tin of buttons (the colour looks really weird in this picture!):

You can also see that the inside of the straps isn’t super neat – this is the bit where I was totally confused, so I maybe should have done something differently that left this bits neater and not with a raw edge on the inside.

I also made 2 of the dress/shorts combos. I used the fabrics in different ways on both, and I’m pretty pleased with how they both turned out!

I made one in blue and pink – all the fabric came from Phoebe:

The buttons on both dresses are from the high-necked tops I refashioned ages ago – I’m glad I kept the buttons for so long!

And I made one in red and blue, but more red, so this is ‘the red one – this fabric was from my stash (the red was a pillow case and the blue was a fat quarter from my friend, in the same batch as the stuff I used for 2 Grainline Scout Tees)’:

I like the contrast binding on the shorts – I like how they look tucked under the dress so the fabric on the top of the dress and bottom of the shorts matches!

As you may spot if you’re eagle-eyed, I didn’t put the elastic into the shorts. Phoebe did tell me Alice’s waist measurement, but I didn’t know how tight to pull the elastic – I didn’t want them to fall off or pinch her round the middle. So I left a gap in each pair of shorts and posted the elastic with the clothes, for Phoebe to measure the elastic based on some of her other clothes. This might have been really annoying – sorry if it was, Phoebe – but it seemed like the best way to not ruin them at the last stage!

I kind of enjoyed making these, once I’d deciphered the instructions. I liked planning which variations to make and with what fabric. There was some really nice purple fabric, that matched a fat quarter I had in my stash, but however I tried, I couldn’t make any of the variations out of them, which was a bit sad. But 3 is okay for now. And I can make the little dress out of something thicker, like corduroy, for a Winter pinafore. The sizes go up to 12 months, so I’ve got plenty of time to make some more.

I might try a different pattern, though, so get some more variety – do you have any suggestions of good children’s patterns? With easy to follow instructions!

Make It: Felt Allotment

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OMG you guys, this might be my favourite thing I’ve ever made (how many times have I said this?!)! You know how I like to make presents for kids? Well, for Christmas this year I decided to make my friend’s daughter (who I made Norman and the Travel Match Game for), a fabric allotment, which I saw on A Beautiful Mess. She is now 3 1/2 (and with a brand new, very cute little brother) and this seemed like an age appropriate gift. Also, my friend has been teaching her daughter where food comes from and they’ve grown some things together, so this seemed like a brilliant indoors version of that. Just so you know, this is going to be a really long, picture heavy post! Sorry, not sorry!

This is my ‘before’ picture: a cardboard box (from Oxford University Press to be specific), lots of colours of felt (mostly left over from my Sarah and Duck cushion) and some brown jersey.

I decided to trim down the box as it seemed a little deep for small arms. My box was 47cm x 34cm x 14cm. A little bit of trial and error – i.e. making one soil ‘sausage’ wrong – told me that the size of my rectangles of jersey had to be 40cm x 42cm. The 40cm was to fill the 34cm width of the book, with some extra length for the seam allowances and the depth needed on the ends. The way I worked out the other measurement was to work out the length divided by 4, as that’s how many soil sausages I was making, (11.75) and make a mark. Then I used my tape measure to make a loop to fill the space up to the mark at 11.75cm, to find out the diameter of the sausage, adding a little more for seam allowance – I hope that makes sense?!

I then sewed the 40cm sides together to make a tube and then ran a loose running stitch around both ends, pulling it tight and tying it off. I did have to sew some extra hand stitches in each end to make sure it stayed closed and was tightly sealed, ready for the stuffing. I used a whole bag of stuffing (from John Lewis) on the soil, so beware that unless your box is a lot smaller than mine, you’ll probably need 2 bags of stuffing.

It looks like that episode of The Simpsons when Homer eats a really sour sweet!

The ABM instructions tell you to paint the box to make it look like soil, but I had loads of jersey left over – I bought a metre and only used a small amount for the soil sausages – so I decided to cover the box with the rest of the jersey as I knew I wouldn’t use it for anything else.

I found I didn’t need to stick the jersey down at all as it just stayed on its own in the middle.

And this is what the garden looks like with all the soil in!

Out of the veg (and fruit) in the ABM version, I made the beetroot and carrots. You can read on their post how they made them – I basically copied them, but with a couple of things I altered, such as the sizing. I also had a think about other root vegetable and decided to make leeks, radishes, onions and potatoes.

Beetroots

I made the beetroot from 5 1/2″ circles as dictated by the size of felt I had. I drew around a mug I had because it happened to be the right size.

I also couldn’t find any pipe cleaners in any of my local shops, as ABM suggest for stiffening the leaves, so I had the brain wave to buy some bendy hair rollers. It’s fairly easy to slip off the little hats on each end of the roller and slide the wire out. They came in 2 lengths, though I used only the long ones in the beetroots.

I copied Katie’s instructions on ABM and stitched the contrast stitching on the leaves and I enclosed the wire in the beetroot coloured felt. I realised my beetroots are a bit rounder than they maybe should be.

HINT: The closer you cut out the triangles into the middle of the circle, the more pointy the shape ends up – if you don’t cut deep enough into the middle, they end up quite round.

I made 2 beetroots, again dictated by how much felt I had.

Carrots

My carrots were 5″ long and 5″ wide at the top of the triangle. I copied ABM for how to make the carrots, so you can have a look there for step-by-step instructions.

I made 3 carrots in total.

Leeks

When I made my Sarah and Duck cushion, I ordered a load of felt from ebay, including a pack of lots of different greens as I was planning to put some trees on the cushion (but ran out of time and space!). It was a good job I had so much green, as well as other colours, when it came to making all the veg.

I gathered 3 shades of green which I thought matched a leek – each of the pieces was 5-6cm x 22cm:

Then I sewed the 3 pieces together, then cut it all in half to make 2 leeks, so each leek was 11cm wide:

I decided to make the leeks looks like actual leeks, with those layers at the top which are kind of loose and peeling off.

I cut some little rectangles (1.5 -2cm x 5cm) and placed them on the top:

The I sewed them on, continuing the stitching down to the white layer, to show the lines/ veins on the leek:

I then added another layer of rectangles on the top and more stitching.

I then sewed the long sides together, right sides together and turned them right side out, to make 2 leek tubes.

Once they were sewn into tubes, I could measure the diameter of the circles needed for each end – one green for the top and one white for the bottom. I sewed the green end on, underneath the loose layers at the top, so it was a bit fiddley, then stuffed the leek and sewed on the white end, by hand.

I have to say, the leeks are possibly my favourites.

Potatoes

I felt like potatoes were a necessary addition to any allotment.

I made these in a similar way to the beetroots, but with an oval instead of a circle and I used 2 per potato, kind of like a tailor’s ham. I divided the piece of felt I had into 4, making them 10.5cm x 14.7cm, and rounded off the edges.

I then snipped a triangle out of each corner of each oval:

I got the feeling that these were not going to look super like potatoes, so I got a potato out of our cupboard and noticed that they have all kinds of marks on them. I got out one of my felt tips and tried my best to make a piece of felt look like a potato……

Kind of successful.

I then sewed each of the little triangles, right sides together:

Then I put two of these halves together, right sides together and sewed them together all around the edge, leaving a gap to turn it the right side out and stuff it through.

They kind of look like potatoes, when finished – enough that the kid knew they were potatoes, anyway!

Onions

The onions started life like several of the other veg – as circles, this time 14cm in diameter.

I then cut the triangles out in 4 places, cutting quite close to the middle.

Like on the leek, I sewed lines of stitching to look like the veins/ lines on onions. I sewed several likes into the centre, on each chunk of felt. This took a while!

I then sewed together each triangle, right sides together, and then ran a line of loose running stitches around the top to gather it. I stuffed it, then gathered the stitches, tying it off and sewing a few stitches through the ends to make sure it was really secure. They ended up quite small, but that kind of fits with the relative size of all the vegetables.

Radishes

The radishes are pretty much the same as the beetroots, but a little smaller. The circles I cut were 10cm in diameter, with the triangles cut out and then sewn together.

The leaves on a radish look a bit different from the beetroots and are a different shade of green. The stalks also don’t have the coloured part on, so I cut extra strips of green to cover the wire I threaded in to make the stalks stand up.

I slotted 2 stalks into each radish and then sewed the top shut, sewing through the stalks to secure them in place. I made 2 radishes in total.

I had plans to make some parsnips and maybe some other root vegetables, but ran out of time and also, you know, forgot.

But the number of things I made was perfect to fill the box.

I made this over about 3 weekends, working on one vegetable at a time. It was quite nice to work on small things that don’t have zips or buttonholes! Also, this was pretty thrifty as I had the felt already and got a box free from my old work, and only had to buy the jersey and the stuffing.

This is probably the present I’ve been most excited to give away! My friends and I always get together in January to have a second Christmas, and this year we all flew to Aberdeen, where my friend with the daughter now lives. I decided to courier the box up as I wouldn’t have been able to take it on the plane and it took more days to arrive than I feared – I thought at one point it had gotten lost. But then it did arrive and I almost opened it myself I was so excited! I definitely like making and giving presents to small people! Do you like making presents for kids? Or for other people?

Make It: Sarah and Duck cushion

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Have you ever heard of Sarah and Duck? Chances are no if you don’t have a small child in your life. But you should watch it, small child or no. It’s a really sweet little short cartoon (each episode is no more than about 5 minutes) about a girl called Sarah and her friend/ pet (?) Duck. It’s narrated by Roger Allam (of Cabin Pressure and many, many other things fame) and Sarah and Duck have other friends like Scarf Lady and Bag, Scarf Lady’s knitting bag. They go on adventures and do fun things.

It is my nephew’s favourite show – it’s pretty much the only thing he watches on tv. For the kids in my life (one nephew and an honorary niece and nephew) I like to make presents for Christmas, and then I generally buy them books for their birthdays. My nephew is about 2 years younger than my friends daughter, for whom I made the Norman Wall Hanging and the Travel Match Game (which my sister has already requested one of, which I’ll make next year when he’s a bit older). I thought about making a wall hanging of Sarah and Duck, but then I decided to make is a cushion instead.

I copied the above image, drew it out myself (although I can’t draw, I am quite good at copying – anyone else?) and then traced my drawing to make pattern pieces. I ordered a load of felt from ebay, cut out all the pieces and sewed them on by hand, using the case of threads my friend bought me for Christmas last year.

Once I’d sewn all of the felt pieces on, the big job left was to embroider all the edges and features in black. They look a bit creepy without eyes and such, don’t they?! With the ebay felt, I bought some black embroidery thread – it took me back to my cross stitch days!

One of the things I’m most pleased with, is managing to pretty much copy the font for the title. I did this in chain stitch, which is one of the only embroidery-type stitches I know how to do apart from running stitch and back stitch!

This is it in its entirety. The fabric I used for the front was part of the same sheet I used to underline my Striped Laurel dress and I backed the front piece and the cushion with calico – in retrospect I wish I’d backed the back with the sheet too, as now it’s white on the front and cream on the back. Never mind. At least calico is durable. I tried to take a photo of my nephew with the cushion – it’s so hard to photograph a toddler and they’re always moving! This is the best one I managed to take!And here he is alseep in the car on the way home from our Christmas get together, cuddling the cushion – aaaahhhhhhh. (sorry the picture is so small, my sister sent it to me on my phone).