Perszyk+

For months before Christmas, I was planning on making some homemade gifts.  During this process I found I was really good at planning, and even better at procrastinating in the execution.  So, during the month of December I managed to crank out a whole slew of gifts for the family.  It would have been nice to complete more, but I just ran out of time.  Now that all of the gifts have been received I can finally post them here.

This is the first project I finished.  I wanted to make an infinity scarf; however, since I couldn’t decide on one fabric to buy, I combined two tutorials (Tea Rose Home’s Five Fat Quarter Scarf and The Cottage Home’s Infinity Scarf) to create this fat quarter infinity scarf for Amelia.

Fat Quarter Infinity Scarf

Next up was this zippered toiletry pouch, also for Amelia.  I got a remnant of cow print fabric at Joann’s and knew I had to make something for Amelia.  Once I came across this tutorial for a toiletry case, I decided to make one.  You can’t tell from the photo, but I used iron-on vinyl on the cow print and used it for the inside of the bag to keep things clean.  The outside of the bag was made using another remnant from Joann’s.  To make the bag, I used the fabric measurements from the tutorial, but when I was putting things together I noticed that even though the bag was lined, the seams would still be exposed.  So I searched the internet and used this tutorial to keep the seems from being exposed.

Toiletry Case with vinyl lining

With the success of my first zipper bag, I moved onto a second bag for my soon-to-be sister-in-law Rachel.  I picked up the outside fabric in the remnant bin at Joann’s (man this is becoming my favorite place to shop at Joann’s), and thought Rachel would like it since it had red in it.  For the inside, I skipped the vinyl, and just used a red-white polka dot fabric I had previously purchased at Joann’s.  Without the vinyl the bag was more floppy, but I liked it. Being my second bag it came out a little better and I think I’m ready to move onto other projects that involve zippers.  They aren’t so scary afterall.

Lined toiletry bag

Next was another scarf, also for Rachel.  I also had a hard time deciding on fabric, especially because the fat-quarter bundle I had my eye on at Joann’s while waiting for a coupon was purchased before I could get it.  I finally ended up buying it online along with the pom-poms.  This time I followed the Tea Rose Home’s Five Fat Quarter Scarf, but I used six coordinating fabrics.

Fat Quarter Scarf

The last thing I made before Christmas was a camera strap for Tysen.  I didn’t snap a photo, but you can imagine it.  I used this tutorial because I liked the added lens cap pouch, and I used turquoise blue fabric on the inside (from Grandma Louise’s stash) and a blue/white hexagon fat quarter from Joann’s.

My last homemade (sewing) gift was a fleece brobee hat.  I got the green fleece from the remnant bin at Joann’s (such a great find), and then used some red and white fleece and black felt from my stash to construct the hat.  I started with this pattern/tutorial, then added on a set of long ear flaps using this pattern/tutorial.  I added about an inch on the fold to make it so the ear flaps ended up over the ears (based on Tysen’s head).  To make the stripes I think I cut 1.5 inch fleece strips and sewed together using a 1/4-inch seam allowance and then cut the ear flap pattern out.  To insert the red spikes, I used followed the instructions here.  For the facial features, Tysen helped me out with the eyes and I just sort of sized everything else to take up the space on the hat.  It seemed to be the hit of the Perszyk gift exchange.

Brobee Fleece Hat

I had a lot of fun making all these gifts and I’ve already started making my list of homemade gifts for 2012, so hopefully I’ll get started soon and get everything finished in time for next year.  If there’s something homemade that you’d like, let me know.  :)

The deck has been removed and we found bones from a dead possum in the dirt under the deck!