Christmas gifting

I was going to be risky by posting Christmas gifts on the world wide web for everyone to see before Christmas, but I decided to wait. Being one who loves surprises, I always want to make sure that it goes as well as I can make it go. Since Christmas is safely gone, I thought I'd post a few pics of what handmade Christmas looked like this year...

I enjoyed watching a few friends put together their gifts including a cape for a nephew, sugar scrub for exfoliating dry, winter hands, while I sewed up some pillowcases for my soon to be mother-in-law and a friend of mine. (I got the idea on pinterest and it was super simple.)

The pillows were soooooo soft. :)

For my to-be-sister-in-law and also for my dad, I made a little journal out of some scrap cardboard and printer paper. I thought it would look so much cooler stitched up the middle instead of stapled, so I bent a few needles and bound the journals together. This is another stolen pinterest idea. I sewed a button to the front and looped around some thread sewn to the back of the journal for a cute closure.

Not photographed is the stamped initial I put on the front of both journals (it was handy that sister's first name and dad's last name initial both begin with "S"). If you do the stamp project with a letter, make sure you cut it out backward. I remembered that the hard way. ;)

I didn't photograph the t-shirt scarf I made my mom, but I did photograph the way I made a few Christmas cards and a birthday card. I have a bunch of tiny fabric scraps from Frayed Sew that are too small to do much with, but for the Christmas and birthday cards, they were perfect! I just cut out little circles and it was so easy to zip them through the sewing machine for a super cute look. I mean, 2 minute project. :)

Last but not least, and biggest undertaking for this novice, and I mean novice seamstress, was a clutch I made for my sister-in-law. I thought she'd just love the fabric and the funky combination, aside from the fact that girls just love purses anyway, right? This was my first time sewing a zipper, putting in a clasp, and sewing with interfacing. A lot of seams were ripped out and redone with all this new territory, but I was so happy with the result and excited that I actually did it!

So there's handmade Christmas 2011. Next on my crafting list is my 2011 facebook promise to handmake something for 5 of my friends (oops, I still plan on doing it, those of you who are still waiting) and also this clutch for myself....someday. Have I mentioned I love Pinterest? ;)