A Crafty Christmas!

Merry Christmas all! I hope yours was wonderful, I know mine was. Lots of food, gifts, and family... what isn't to love about that? I also have some finished projects to show you! None of them are sewing projects, but side things I wanted to finish.

Yesterday, my dad helped me upholster the set of dining room chairs I found at a Goodwill downstate.

Here's the before:


And here's the after!
And here's me enjoying the two inches of new foam padding and pretty upholstery fabric!

I think they turned out beautifully! They will have a whole new life! We only had enough fabric to complete two of the chairs. Since I bought it downstate where I go to school and am now home for break where we don't have a fabric store that I can simply run to to pick up a couple more yards, the other two will have to wait just a smidge longer. But they are stripped of the old fabric and the foam is cut, so they will be a breeze once I get more fabric.

Ok, moving on to the next project on the list: Kris' warm woolies! I finished these Christmas eve as well.

Here I am hard at work!


and the completed warm woolies!


Here's Kris modeling them:


Aww, doesn't he look handsome and cozy? And the hat was a homemade Christmas present from his Grandma! He just has handmade love from head to toe :)

The woolies were really easy to do on the Knifty Knitter loom, but my joints in my hands get really sore from the tedious loom work, so I had to do them in increments. They turned out nicely, one a little longer than the other, but when they are stretched onto his feet you would never know. Now his toes will be nice and toasty for the long, cold (last!) winter semester at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI!

So those were my two Christmas eve projects, and they were both successes, I think! Now moving onto some sewing for the new year. Santa was a dear and was somehow able to fit my dressform down the chimney ;) I love it! I don't have it together yet, as today was a whirlwind of a day, but I at least took the bodice out of the box, and I love it!

(I don't get dolled up to open gifts Christmas morning, I just roll out of bed, so don't mind my not-so-fresh morning look haha)


And a quick shot of our beautiful tree!


Next on the list are some small curtains and tie backs, and then little wool herringbone dress, here I come!

Its that time of year again!

The time of year when I start to panic because I have no Christmas ideas for anyone on my list! Usually I have a few items thought up, or even purchased by now, but not this year. I am really hoping that my new found sewing skills can help me out with this and I can make some fun personalized gifts for the main people on my list. Now, that adds a whole new complication in the mix: what projects make good gifts? Especially for men! Gertie's latest post got me thinking about the men in my life and what I can do for them this Christmas. I'd like to make my dad something, but he's verrrry picky when it comes to Christmas gifts. One year, I made him a tie blanket out of a fleece that looked like birch bark and that was a huge success, but I am at a total loss for this year. And I thought about making a cotton zombie print chef coat for my amazing chef boyfriend, but he lives 10 hours away so I couldn't really fit it to his body. Plus, I am having an impossible time trying to find a zombie print cotton. I didn't think it would be so hard!

so now I turn to you, my 9 followers (:-}), and ask, what are some wonderful Christmas gift projects? If you have any ideas at all, throw them out there!

On a side note, have any of you heard of Fabricworm.com? They have amazing prints. I have ordered a few prints from them, and all were just so fun! Here are some I am drooling over at this very moment: