Pillowcases

I bought a half yard of this snowmen fabric a couple months ago, intending to make something for my aunt who loves snowmen.  I think I was originally intending to make coasters or napkins, but I realized a couple weeks ago that the amount of fabric I had would be perfect for pillowcase edgings.

These were super easy to make.  For each pillowcase, I cut a piece of snowmen fabric 40" x 9", and a piece of white fabric 40" x 28".  I folded the snowmen piece in half the long way with right sides out, so the fabric was doubled and cute snowmen were visible on both sides.  I sewed the 40" long sides of the patterned and white pieces together, then folded the whole thing in half to form one long edge of the finished pillowcase, and sewed the other side and end. I debated embroidering my aunt's name or a snowflake, but decided against it as the snowmen are cute enough on their own.













I gave them to my aunt for Christmas, and she loved them!

Winter of hats!

From left:
Turn a Square for my father in law (Rav)
Generic hat in green stripes for my dad (Rav)
Maze for my sister's fiancee (Rav)
Three-Spiral hat (in handspun!) for me (Rav)
Generic ribbed hats in stripes, for a friends kids (Rav)

I hadn't really planned on making any Christmas presents this year, but between a couple requests for hats and a few patterns that I've been wanting to try for a while, it turned into a winter of hats.  I also made a few other non-hat type presents, but they just don't look as cute all lined up.

Flannel scarf

This scarf is destined to be a Christmas present for a friend who I think could use a little extra coziness this winter.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make for her, and then remembered a wonderfully big, cozy scarf I'd oogled on tv the other day.  A quick trip to the fabric store, and a flannel version was underway.

The finished size is 9" x 75".  It's probably long enough to wrap twice, but I find it's warm enough wrapped once, with nice long ends in front.  It was made of pieces 19" wide and from 5" to 10" long (the plaid cut on the bias), joined together and then the whole thing was folded in half the long way.  I bought 1 yard of the plaid (60" wide) and a 1/2 yard each of the black and white (44" wide), and it was more than enough.  I could have gotten away with less of the plaid if it wasn't cut on the bias.

It needed a little something else to feel more personalized, so I added a star in the corner.

Maybe I need a version for myself?

Hot water bottle cozies

 Cozy monster!

I'd never used a hot water bottle until a couple months ago, but I'm a total convert now. Getting into bed on a cold night is about a hundred times nicer when a hot water bottle has been warming it up for a few minutes. And in the morning, there is still a little heat left to curl my toes around for a couple minutes before dragging myself out.

Once we started using the bottles, I wanted to make fleece cozies for them, but then my sewing machine broke. Several weeks later, I finally got it fixed, and yesterday I popped out a couple of awesome cozies.

 
They are super quick (the eyes and fangs took the most time).  To make a pattern, I just traced around the full bottle then added an inch on all sides. I used the pattern as is for the back, and then for the fronts I folded it just above and below the midpoint and cut out two pieces so they would overlap. The monster's eyes and teeth are felt. I did the monster first, and when it came time to do the dinosaur one, I think it took about 5 minutes total.

The monster (we call him Cleveland) is for my husband, but we are both getting a big kick out of him.  It's incredible how putting eyes on something gives it so much personality.  But the dinosaurs are pretty cool, too - here is my favorite (I like his goofy teeth):