Good morning, everyone!
Today is a show and tell about sewing cute and creative hand made Christmas gifts for the little ones in your life. Homemade gifts that will be treasured and hopefully become vintage keepsakes.
Part 1 is about the handmade gifts I recently made for two little girls who are sisters. One of which I gave sewing lessons to this past summer. I posted about that here if you'd like to see a little one learn to stitch and sew on my Singer Featherweight sewing machine! Check that post out here.
Part 2 will be posted after Christmas. I made some special stitched gifts for my littlest and newest granddaughter, Charlotte Rose. And since I don't want my daughter to read this post and see what her little one is receiving for Christmas from her grandparents, then you'll have to wait for the reveal in a couple of weeks!
Part 1 - Cute and Creative Hand Made Gifts for Children
My husband and I have become friends with a young family this year and their little girls wanted us to be their "adoptive" grandparents. They are not lacking in real grandparents, mind you. So it is our joy to have these little girls in our life, including their other siblings.
Sometime earlier this year, I believe, I discovered a website called annwoodhandmade. Ann is from my home state of Massachusetts! She makes the sweetest little hand-sewn dolls and critters! Tiny ones that come with clothing and accessories. She sells her own patterns on her website (www.annwoodhandmade.com). They are offered as a kit, PDF, or printed pattern. She also offers free patterns with instructions on her blog.
I recently purchased one of her PDF patterns (tiny rag doll) and planned on making some tiny rag dolls for gifts. These two "grandchildren" of mine came to mind. And so here are the results of my sewing spree this month!
This tiny rag doll is FIVE inches tall! I have never made anything this small except for the felt mice I made several years ago. It was a challenge at times as my fingers are large and this doll and her clothing were tiny! I was able to sew some of the seams by machine. Others needed to be hand-stitched.
This tiny five-inch rag doll is complete with an embroidered red heart, pink lips, blue eyes, and rosy cheeks made with a colored pencil. Her black felt shoes are stitched on. Ann Wood created her doll's hair with a strip of black fabric, but I had some ribbon handy in the right width and color for blonde hair. I stitched it in the same manner as the pattern called for. This doll was made for a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes!
Here's the back view. You can see her "hair" is twisted into a bun. I used lace trim for the camisole straps instead of making fabric straps. The apron is reversible. Aren't the bloomers cute?
All dressed up!
Here is the second little five-inch doll! She was made for the older sister who has brown hair and brown eyes. I used dark brown ribbon for her hair in the same manner as the other doll. Her eyes are stitched in brown thread, too.
I made this one first and unfortunately I was too heavy on the rouge with the colored pencil!
And the back view.
Here she is all dressed up and ready to be gift-wrapped!
Back view of both dolls.
Front view - sisters!
And each one is tucked into a felt purse with a button closing. The same felt purses I use in my Etsy shop for packaging jewelry for customers. If you're interested in checking out my Etsy shop jewelry, click here. There are three different sections of jewelry in my shop. And all jewelry is wrapped in felt purses free of charge.
All tied up in pretty sparkly fabric!
I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest sewing project. I do go off the beaten path and make other things from time to time, though I have several carpet bag fabrics cut out ready to be stitched up after the holidays. If you are a new reader of my blog and haven't seen my carpet bags yet, check them out here.
I hope this inspired you to create and craft cute Christmas gifts for children and to check out Ann Wood's world of tiny dolls and critters to make special gifts for the children in your life! Yes, five-inch dolls are tiny and a bit tedious to make, but it was a fun project for me to make and give to little girls to enjoy!
I'll be back in a few days to wish you a Merry Christmas! Plus look for my post after the holidays when I reveal Part 2 to see the special gift I made for Charlotte Rose!
Have a great Sunday worshipping the LORD!