My only handmade gift

Wow, that's terrible!  I only made Christmas gifts for a single recipient, my sister, and it was something I should have made for her over the summer!  This apron, from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, is my favorite for everyday wear.  It covers you, and it's reversible.  This one was made with lovely printed linen, with gray twill for the ties.  

Since I had some leftover fabric, I whipped up some matching potholders (my own pattern).  I love the free-hand spiral quilting:

I guess with a busy end of term at work, silk slip project for Britex, Christmas rush and all the various school-related pre-Christmas activities, there just wasn't time for a bunch of sewing for gifts.  I even opted to purchase pajamas for my boys (despite having bought fabric to make some) when it got to the eleventh hour and I still had a party and a dinner at my home to prepare for.  From the kids' perspective, I'm sure a sane mom is preferable to mom-made PJs!

Since we didn't fly home to NY for the holiday, my sis sent along a photo of her with the gifts, along with a note that said she loved them.  Since I could only chose one person to get a made-by-me present, I'm glad she was the one!

Did you get as much holiday sewing done as you wanted to?  As a sewist, do you feel an obligation to make gifts?

Dumplings for Christmas

Other than the tree skirt, I only set out to make aprons for my son's daycare providers for Christmas this year in a conscious effort to reduce holiday stress.  The 2 year old goes to a Japanese immersion small family daycare**, and the teachers wear cute little cobbler-style aprons every day.  Clearly, I had to make one for each of the two main teachers!   So, in preparation, I purchased Japanese import fabric months back and ordered a vintage pattern from overseas.  After a few muslins to try out the pattern and making some alterations, I sewed up the first apron and it just fit oddly (though admittedly, I was trying it on and I'm not the same size as the ladies to whom they will be gifted.)  I loved the fabric so much, though, that with some scraps left over, I scrambled and made some cute little dumplings using this tutorial (and thanks to my Sewing Buddy, Jennie, for pointing me toward it!).  

Christmas tree skirt

After seeing this tutorial, it was immediately imperative that I make a tree skirt.  Not that we needed one; on the contrary, I own a beautiful skirt with rows and rows of cute little pompoms that I actually like quite a bit.  No, I had to make one because despite not being a matchy-matchy type of person, I had some extra fabric left over from the stockings I made for the boys in previous years and I just really wanted it to be made-by-me!  Here're the boys' stockings (I designed them myself, so no pattern to reference):

That 2-D Zoo (Alexander Henry) was just spot-on perfect for my animal-loving eldest, and well, the youngest just got a pattern that matched his brother's!  I love rick-rack, so it had to be incorporated into the skirt.

The original pattern called for ties to close the back of the skirt, but I chose to do buttons and loops to make it look more clean.  With all color options laid out on the skirt, I opted for a light pink to make it modern and pull from the 2-D Zoo print.

Here's the whole lot together, in all their matchy-matchy glory!

Notice, mom and dad's stockings are missing.  I made ours many years ago, and my husband insists that I keep them as-is (though I think I've convinced him that they need to be pulled apart and stiffened with fusible fleece so they aren't all floppy).  

Unfortunately, we have this big, tall tree stand, and the skirt is definitely not designed for that kind of thing, so it doesn't lay as nice and neatly as I'd like.  Oh well...once it's buried under a heap of Christmas presents no one will care anyway!