Get Ready for Your Christmas

With all the snow we've had, it's starting to get me in the mood to prepare for Christmas!

And so I want to encourage you to remember to include yourself  in all the preparations you make for Christmas by offering another coupon for the store this month!

Just press HERE  to go to the coupon to print off, for 40% off one item from now through December 24th, 

(Patti, this was the arrangement you sent last year)

Madonna and Child on Christmas Eve

 Last year, I went around our house and captured some of the icons we have of the virgin and child, here
 This year, I thought it would be nice to visit some of the amazing art housed in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., which I visited earlier this year. 
These art works were painted by amazing artists like Fra Angelico, Benvenuto de Giovanni, Fra Filipo Lippi, Domenico Veneziano, and D'Arezzo between the years 1270 up through the 1500's, I think. 

A Christmas Banner

(Yes, I am back on my laptop! Hooray!)

 We will be spending Christmas in Savannah, and of course all the Christmas decorations are in Asquith. So i decided to make some festive looking holiday decorations.
One of the projects is this banner/garland.
I've made a couple of garlands before, like the ones I have hanging up at the shop.  Because a few people have asked about whether there is a pattern, I decided to take photos and make a little tutorial here!

1. Pick out some nice fabrics... I decided on 3 patterned ones with a Christmassy look. plus white.
Cut them into strips, I think mine are 8 inches wide.

 1. Make a cutting template. 
I cut  a couple of rectangles, 6" x 8 ".  Fold the rectangle in half and cut the diagonal triangles off the edge.

 this is what it looks like opened up:

 3. Use the triangular pieces as cutting guides for the rest of the triangles you want to cut

 I cut a stack of colored triangles, and white ones to use as the backs of the flags.  (You can have the flags be colored fabric on both front and back, especially if you hang the garland in a way or place that both sides are showing.  I decided to use white on the backs because I didn't have enough of the Christmas fabric to do both sides)

 4.  if you want to put words or anything else on the front of the flags, do it now. 
  I wanted the garland to spell out Merry Christmas, so I decided to make red letters and attach them with fusible web.
To make the pattern for the letters, I just made some 2 inch lines on freezer paper and sketched out the letters. (on the dull, papery side!)

 I ironed fusible web onto the back of two rectangles of red fabric:

 then cut the letters apart, and placed them on the right side of the red fabrics, ironing them down so they would stick long enough to cut them out. (freezer paper is like that!)

 5.  Lay out the flags in some sort of plan.  I alternated the colors, and then planned where the letters would go.  I decided to make 3 sections of words rather than one really long garland.  I put the letters on the flags and then ironed/fused them down to make a permanent hold to the fabric.
I did a trial one where I stitched around the outline of the letter, but it was time consuming, and I decided that I really don't think it's needed on a seasonal garland.  But, it could be decorative on some projects! 
Or, you could just embroider letters!

 Also at this time, I sort of figured out how much fabric I'd need to use for the length of the top string.  If you need to join strips together, it's nice to use a diagonal join to reduce bulk.

6. Layer each of the triangles with a backing fabric, and stitch around the lower 2 sides,

 clip the fabric at the bottom point so that it won't get too bumpy when you turn the flags right side out.
I used the blunt end of a paintbrush to help push out the sharp points at the ends of the triangles:

Iron the triangle "flags" so that they are nice and crisp!  If you want, you can embellish them more....

6. To make the string that connects the flags, I make it using 2-1/2" strips of fabric.  Iron them in half lengthwise, like you are making a binding,  (In other projects I've used the leftovers of binding strips that I just joined end to end. 

 then, iron the raw edges to the inside crease, like in the photo above.

7 Lay out the flags beside the string, and space them out where you want to sew them on. 

 For this project, I put them pretty close together, about 1-1/2 inches apart.  At other times I've put them farther apart.
Then sew the "string" closed along the double fold edge, slipping the triangles inside the string as you go to hold them in place. 
I sewed on little bells to the ends as well, to make it more festive!

I hope you give this project a try!!
                (they are fun to make)

Christmas Fabric Gift Bag Tutorial

fold-over top gift bag with button and string closure

Recently I was chatting with a friend who mentioned that she is making a real effort this year to prepare for and enjoy the Christmas season.  I have been thinking about this, and like this attitude.   I recall some years when Christmas was so magical, and I loved the tree decorating and wrapping gifts, and baking.  Other years it has seemed less magical, and some things that should have been enjoyable didn't seem exciting any more.  I think that to "enjoy the season" is a frame of mind that I will cultivate this year.
In keeping with this resolution, I spent a couple of hours this morning sewing some fabric gift bags.  For the last few years, I've purchased lots of paper gift bags as well as wrapping paper.  This creates a lot of paper waste on Christmas morning.  If we use fabric gift bags, they can just be stored with the decorations and be available to use again and again!!! This has the added benefit of not having to stand in line buying more paper products, tape and bows.....
I certainly have lots of fabric leftovers so this should be  pretty low-cost venture!
I have prepared a pictorial step by step on how I made a basic fabric gift bag:

1. cut some rectangles of festive fabric to use as the outside of the bag.  You  can piece them to make your scraps larger or to make the bag prettier.

 2. cut a lining rectangle the same size as the outer fabric.  The lining can be another patterned fabric, or you can just use muslin.

 3.  If you want a padded bag, cut an additional rectangle of batting.  If you just want it a bit thicker, you can use a piece of flannel.  Or, you might just want to stick with using the 2 fabric layers.

 4. If you want to use some of your festive embellishment ribbons, get them out to have close at hand.

 5.  If you want to decorate the outside of the bag, do it now.  In this example, I am using a piece of flannel as interior batting for the bag and some ribbon for trim.  I sewed the trim to the outside of the bag and the flannel batting to help stabilize these 2 layers.  If you want to do any other decoration, do it now.

 6.  Fold the rectangles of outside fabric and lining in half vertically and sew seams up the sides.  (At his point they are looking like little pillow cases!)
NB!  Leave an opening 3 or 4 inches,  in one side seam of the Lining fabric.  I forgot to do this in the lining photo here, and had to un-pick part of the seam later.

 7. If you want a flat bag, skip this step.
If you want a "boxed" bottom to your bag, pull the corner of the bag so that the side seam is perpendicular to the bottom, and sew a seam across the point.  The farther in that you sew the seam determines the width of the base of the bag.

 sew these seams on both the lining and the outside.  Make them the same size.  Back-stitch the seam ends.

 trim away the extra fabric

8. Turn the lining right side out.  (Now you can see the opening in the side seam!

 9. Tuck the lining into the outside of the bag, matching the side seams. Pin.

 10.  Sew a the bag outside to the lining all the way around the top edge.

 11. pull out the lining from the bag and then reach through the opening and turn the whole thing right side out.

 12.  Push the corners of the base out nicely.  Sew the gap in the lining closed.  I just do this by machine since it won't show.  I don't know where my photo of this step went to.

13. Top-stitch around the top edge of the bag to keep the lining in place.

 14.  This bag was the right size for a wine bottle, so I tacked on an extra bit of ribbon to use as a closure.

 15. The full bag!

 16.  My assortment of gift bags:  in addition to the one show above, I made a flat one, a tall one that can fold over to close, and 2 shorter ones with boxed bottoms. 

 this one has a velcro closure.  It is quite difficult to machine stitch through velcro.

 this one has a magnetic snap closure.  a bit deluxe, but I had it on hand.  I would have like to have used some regular sew-on snaps, but didn't have any.

 I sewed a felt decoration to the flap to cover where the snap is.  This bag also features a flap variation that I found in an Art to Heart book called "12 Days of Christmas"

There are all sorts of variations and decorative things that you could do!!! Just have fun and use your imagination!  And enjoy thinking about what to put in them!