Homemade Christmas Stockings

It seems like every year I buy new Christmas Stockings! No matter how hard I try, they just don't last around here! So for the past few years I've been buying the cheaper, plain ones. Usually I write everyone's name in glitter or something like that.
This year I was looking to decorate the Stockings yet again.
We just went to the Christmas Parade in our town last week and an idea hit me when I was looking to decorate them this year - The beads!! We always need something to do them after all. I hate having them around the house just making a mess.
Decorating our Christmas Stockings has become quite a tradition in our household. It's fun to do and makes them more personal. You can use anything from around your house, even if you don't have any glitter or sparkles. Any kind of ribbon, beads, buttons, bows, or sequins you have on hand will work. Just be creative and make them your own! Some imagination, a little vision, and a Hot-Glue Gun will make every Stocking unique and individual.
I think my Stockings really came out cute this year and I really enjoyed making them!

Cross-Stitch Christmas Pillow

This is a project I've been wanting to do for literally years!! I made this cross-stitch picture the winter of 2004. It's been sitting in a zip-lock bag ever since. Yes, I'm a procrastinator!
But today is the day! My last day off was Friday, so I went shopping and finally bought the material for my pillow. The picture has red and green in it, so I chose a beautiful red fabric. I bought a red ruffle (no I'm not that good at sewing just yet!) And I bought a pretty strip of white lace. I knew my next day off would be today - Monday - and I set everything out to be done today!
Here I am, sewing my pillow!

I really love to Cross-Stitch!! It's one of the very first "crafty" things I learned how to do - The summer I was 12, my grandmother taught me while I was visiting her in Florida. She had a bunch of those tiny ornaments in frames, mostly birds. I was bored and complaining and she thought it would be a good way to pass my time. I cross-stitched an Owl as my very first project. I was so pleased with myself and what I could do. 2 decades later I still love to cross-stitch!
So I did my picture 6 six years ago. It's very pretty. I plan to make several seasonal pillows with cross-stitch pictures I've made over the years - all just waiting for me to do something with them LOL This will be my first project.

 
It's always best to wash your fabric before you sew anything, just in case it bleeds or shrinks, at least that's what Mrs Howard taught me (high school home ec). I of course forgot to do this over the weekend, so I did a quick hand wash in the kitchen sink and threw it in the dryer. It needs to be ironed after it comes out.
While the material is drying I pin the lace to the ruffle and sew it on.

 
It takes me hours to figure out exactly how to layer the bottom (red) material, the ruffle, and the top cross-stitch piece just so in order to get it to come out right!! But finally I figure out something along these lines:

The ruffle gets pinned lace-side down on top of the picture.
The red material (back of pillow) gets pinned on top of the ruffle.
Sew along the edge of 3 of the sides, so that you are sewing all 3 layers together in one stitch, leaving at least 1/4inch seam allowance - I left 1/2 just to be safe, considering I was having so much trouble it seemed best.
Leave one side open to stuff. It will be sewn by hand.
After stitching, turn pillow inside out and be sure ruffle is free and sticking out along the edge as it's suppose to . . . yep, this is where I had my trouble! Apparently I pinned the ruffle all the way around and had the open ends both meet on a corner - a corner that I sewed. Yeah. So my ruffle was all bunched up and sewed crooked in one spot.
I pulled the stitches just in that corner . . . . And did it again!
AHH!!!!!
I pulled the stitches again. Not so easy this time. Along the way I stuck myself with the needle right underneath my thumb nail. I cut a hole in my red material. I sewed a pin into the seam of the pillow. That's where the cut came in - I had to cut it out!
I cried.
I seriously thought about just cutting everything off and and buying more material and a new ruffle and starting it all over before I destroyed the cross-stitch piece - the one part I couldn't replace.
I finally got the dang ruffle right and . . .
put the whole thing down until tomorrow and watched a movie with hubby. It seemed like the sensible thing to do.

. . . . 3 Hours Later
Well I decided to give it one more go before going to bed. I felt refreshed after my movie break and when looking at the pillow, I realized, there wasn't a lot left to do. And to tell the truth, I didn't want it facing me in the morning! LOL So I tried again . . . And here it is!!

              

Christmas Pillow 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly not my very best work to date, but not too bad considering it was my very first attempt at a pillow and I was working with no instructions whatsoever ... not even a YouTube or eHow Video! You should see my very first cross-stitch project. And my first crocheted blanket. Not too mention my first scarf! It's all about learning and practice. I'm definitely glad I tried it - and finished it!
And I will be making more in the future!

 

 

 

Amigurumi Wiener Dog

This is the most adorable dog toy ever!!
I saw the pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn web page, where they have tons of great patterns! It looks like my dog Wennie, so I thought it would be a great Amigurumi to do for her. I did it in one day and it's so cute! It's easy, fast, and looks just like the expensive toys you buy in the store for your dog. You can make them any color you want, crochet a collar for it, even add a little bell if you'd like!
I plan to make a few for friends who have pets for Christmas ...

"To: SweetPea
Love From: Wennie" :-)

I think they're great! Because it's a long toy, it was a little hard for me to get a good picture with my web cam, but here it is:

Plankton

This I found and knew right away I just had to make it!!
My children are huge Spongebob fans, my oldest more so, and when he saw the picture of Plankton on a web site he said "Mama, I need that!" LOL How could I possibly say not now to that?
The good thing about Amigurumi this small is that they really can be made super quick! I made this in one evening. Pipe cleaners are needed for the antenna and for the arms - just wrap them in the yarn. Plankton's eye is crocheted and then sewn onto his body. After I crocheted the cream-colored part, I used red yarn for the pupil and a tiny bit of white yarn for the "glistening" effect. If you don't wish to sew that much however, you can always use felt and just hot-glue it on. Plankton's eyebrow is a thick piece of fluffy black yarn, hot-glued over his eyelid and his mouth is white yarn, sewn in a sort of triangle shape. His teeth are black cross-stitch thread, sewn over the yarn. The eyelid I sewed on after I attached his eye to his body - just stitched through, over and over until it covered as much as I wanted it to cover.
It sounds like an awful lot of sewing, but truthfully, it didn't seem like this much when I was actually doing it. I think anything you wanted to do with felt and hot-glue instead of yarn would make this pattern go faster and be simpler.
My Plankton stands about 4 inches tall .... and my first born son loves him!!

Amigurumi Alien

This cute little Amigurumi Alien was one of the first Amigurumi that I ever saw. I found it at Free Amigurumi Patterns. It was cute, small, easy ... all the things I love in an Amigurumi pattern! LOL It turned out to be very simple and so adorable!
Well my oldest son saw the pattern and wanted it so bad! Of course I made it for him! The alien in the pattern I saw was used with a very light "alien" colored green. I used a very dark green (a color I had bought for some Christmas patterns I plan to do). I used white for the eyes and stitched on black for pupils with yarn. The eye stems on mine are different lengths, as the pattern suggested, giving them a bit more personality. I did have to stick a pipe cleaner into the longer eye stem though because, for some reason, that one didn't want to stand up on it's own. But it's super adorable! And did I mention easy? LOL
Cute! Have a look:

Fuzz Balls

These are so adorable! My kids love them!
I use Lion Brand Yarn Fun Fur & Festive Fur with this cute little pattern and my kids love them! At first all I had was some blue. But the blue fades from a really dark, almost black, to a light light light shy blue - it's really pretty. And the best part is, when you make your Fuzz Balls, they each look different because of the changing colors of the yarn! It's great!
I now have another color of Fun Fur that's got lighter colors in it - pink, green, purple and light blue - and am making more to go with the little village my children are creating with the ones I've already made! LOL
They're super easy, super quick and adorable! Glue some wiggly eggs on them and you're all done! you can add little hats or bows to give them each their own personality and kids love them!
Here is a pic of 2 I did today, a boy & girl couple ;-) 
(just to give you an idea of how big they are, they are each the size of a tennis ball)

My Attempt at a Pokemon

My youngest son loves Pokemon! He's been a fan for years! So I was pretty excited when I found a whole blog full of free patterns of Pokemon Amigurumi!!! YAY! Of course my baby wanted Pikachu right off! I mean, who wouldn't? He is the top dog after all.
Well it took me exactly 3 tries to give up!
And I'm talking crocheting the entire head and body. Pulling out all the threads (just in case you didn't know, crocheting is almost always one continuous thread all the way through a project. You can literally unravel any one of my blankets or scarves just by pulling long enough!) And starting over again. I did this 3 times!!! For some reason I just couldn't get it to come out right!?! So I decided perhaps I need a little more practice at Amigurumi before I tackle something like that. And perhaps a stitch marker. Well my sweet boy kindly choose another Pokemon that was easier for Mama to do.
See the problem with Pikachu was that his head and body were, like I said, continuous rows. But I found Pichu - which he said was his 2nd favorite!! And this one was in separate pieces. Yay Mom!!
Now I had bought the yarn specifically for Pikachu . . . so Pichu looks like Pikachu LOL But my baby is happy and that's all that matters to me! Pichu was actually very easy! It took me a few days to complete, simply because I had a lot to do in those days (the week of Thanksgiving) and couldn't devote constant time to it. But I finished it and he loves it!! And I promised I'd work on dear Pikachu and get him done as a Christmas present :-)
So here is my finished Pichu (the wrong colors, yes, but still adorable)