Day: December 22, 2013

Stocking Work

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I finished writing all the cards on my list last night. That means I get to work on embellishing the stockings. It is kind of a reward.

As I explained previously, these are simple felt stockings. Every year I try to embellish them a little more so they are more interesting and more special.

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Tonight I worked on DH’s stocking, the Noel stocking. I thought about adding joyeux, but I don’t think there is enough space. I am not going to change anything major, because I want to focus on the embellishing.

I went around the Noel in a blanket stitch, but I did it wrong. Still, I think it looks more interesting now than before.

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I had already done the blanket stitch on the bottom, but added some to the top, which was a little tricky.

I am not sure what to add next, so I may move on to another stocking.

Beading, maybe?

Gift Post #2-2013: Pillowcases

Pillowcases Christmas 2013
Pillowcases Christmas 2013

I had some time and thought I would make some pillowcases for the littlest nephews. The ‘littlest’ nephews are now 2d and 4th graders so ‘little’ is relative.

Still, I thought it might be a fun to give them a pillowcase they could especially use during the holiday season. I won’t have much of a chance to do that as all the niece-phews are getting quite old.

They came out well, but I really had trouble with the directions this time. Once again, I used the Twiddletails tutorial, which has been great in the past, though it isn’t as straightforward as it could be — or it is not written in the way I think.  I have decided that what I need to do is measure a pillow case of my own, figure out the dimensions of each piece, take what is good from the Twiddletails tutorial and create my own tutorial. I haven’t posted a tutorial in awhile and it is about time.

Christmas Pillowcases - open 2013
Christmas Pillowcases – open 2013

I think the problem is the selvedge. I always get confused when I am reading the directions about the selvedge. I don’t know if it matters where the selvedge ends up. I have made notes on my printout and have determined that they are muddying the situation. It could be that I need to just print out a new version of the directions and make other notes. We will see once I measure my own pillowcase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* This is the second version of this post. The first version disappeared in the move of my blog.