Handmade Holidays

I didn't make very many handmade presents this year.  I did squeeze in a knitted cowl for Leah:

And I finished my Facebook craft pledge gifts with an Advent pillow and an Advent package (not very handmade, but at least it was hand assembled):

I sent that one to Yomary for the kids to do; I used Advent verse printables from here and had candy for each day, along with nativity figurines for several days (from the Charlie Brown nativity) and some other activities and gift cards.  It was so fun to put together.

After Anna's refusal of my offering to make her a princess dress, I realized my years of sewing for my children--and having them enthusiastically accept the results--is limited.  So I decided to do a few holiday sewing projects for them.

I made the Puppet Theater from Little Things to Sew.  It's sewn on a canvas drop cloth and sized to fit in a doorway on a tension rod:

In action on Christmas Day (thank goodness for puppets in the Dollar Spot at Target, perfect timing!):

Both kids love to draw pictures and are very, very proud of their artwork.  I decided to print out fabric using their drawings (via Spoonflower) and make them some PJ's.

I have no experience with manipulating graphics (and no applications in which to do so), so I just scanned their pictures and uploaded them to Spoonflower without alteration, then tiled them on fabric.

Will's whale:

Anna's rainbow:

The fabric (cotton poplin) turned out well, although I wish I'd figured out a way to saturate the colors.  Anna's fabric was more faded than her original drawing.

I made the pants from the Oliver and S Sleepover Pajamas pattern.  Spoonflower fabric is expensive, so I just ordered enough for the pants and then appliqued some t-shirts from Old Navy to complete the set.

Kids modeling their new jammies on Christmas night:

They were a hit!  And I was thrilled they liked them as much as their new store-bought jammies. :-)