And the Stockings Were Hung

Last year my daughter's socking wore out. She's only six. And, no one wears a Christmas stocking! Obviously, I had bought it at the dollar store. She has had me on the hunt this whole season for a new one, but either they are too expensive, not cute enough or both. I decided that she needed one made especially for her by her mom. I am very happy with the final results and she loves it too. (I'm sorry for the blurriness-my camera is being a little picky lately I used a different stocking for a pattern and pieced it together. There is pink rickrack trim between the two different fabrics on the cuff (to hide that seam). The letters are cut from felt using an old scrapbooking alphabet template and hand-sewn on using contrasting embroidery floss. The flower is made of felt and also hand-stitched onto the sock. (I got the idea for the flower at A Feathered Nest and the instructions are at this cute site.) I finished off with a ricrac loop (not sure if I love that part-may still change it) to hang the stocking with.

Towels in Triplicate

For our 'One Craft, Three Ways' feature, Anisa came up with the fun idea of decorating our own Christmas dishtowels. I think I was the most hesitant to do this project. What in the world was I going to do with a towel? For Christmas??? But not having any fabulous (or otherwise) ideas of my own to contribute, I went along with it. I managed to fly solo to Hobby Lobby where I bought some Christmas-y fabric, not totally loving it or knowing what to do with it. Then....I'm not sure what happened...but all of a sudden I knew what to do! Remember back in the day when all dishes were done by hand? I remember my favorite dish towels, though slightly gray from years of dish-drying and counter-wiping were my moms flour sack towels that someone (probably her) embroidered. They were the best. No towel could dry a dish faster or better! Anytime I have to hand dry the dishwasher overflow, I've found myself wishing for those wondrous towels. And now....TA DA! Here they are!! These amazing and adorable designs come from Wee Wondefuls. You can get the patter free here. Of course I had to do both the boy and girl elf. They are way to cute to do just one! -Ang

I love buttons. I think it comes from my love of scrapbooking and having texture and dimension on my pages. I'm not exactly sure where I came up with the idea (my own brain, I guess). I decided to sew buttons in the shape of a tree on my dish towels. Here they are. It's a little impractical to dry your hands on (you have to dry them on the side) but it's way cute!!! -Anisa

I had a lot of great ideas floating around in my head for this one, but being severely limited by my lack of sewing maching I had to try other things.

After several failed attempts at as many ideas, I settled into something familiar...crocheted snowflakes. My tree is covered with them. I made them the during the second year of my marriage and they're still going strong. Anyway, it really stands out on the black towel that matches my kitchen.

--C

Monday Discovery: Paper Genius

At http://www.craftstylish.com/ there is a contributor that is a paper creation genius! Jeffery Rudell's latest post is this gorgeous silhouette nativity. This is definitely something I would love to do. Here is the link to his instructions.

I also loved his 'snow storm.' As a replacement to handcut snowflakes in the window (which I was actually going to do with my kids today), he suggests putting together a simple concoction of dental floss sandwiched between white dot labels. The result is whimsical and modern and I love it!

Three more links to his posts that are worth checking out:

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/26379/extreme-paper-the-long-dark-road-to-a-bright-idea

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/25718/how-to-make-a-garland-with-punch

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/13737/how-to-make-a-surprisingly-simple-paper-wreath