January Christmas Sewing

Hello again friends.  I trust all of you had a very happy holiday and are well on your way to a lovely new year as well.  Now that our Christmas tree has finally come down, I'm really buckling down to getting some present finished for Christmas.  I wish I could say they were for 2013, but I am not that kind of lady.  2012 it is.  Better late than never, right?

In our family we exchange gifts with one set of cousins, and this year my kids 'gave' to Emily's girls.  The boys had minimal involvement other than affirming that matching pink skirts sounded like a good present.  Emily's girls approved the fabric choices and I like them too.  The pink striped fabric is actually a really nice linen that I inherited from a friend that recently moved to Charleston, SC.  She passed on a big box of really nice linen, wool, and courdoroy, and I have some projects in mind for a few of the other pieces.  

I actually intended on just making two skirts, but the first smaller sized skirt ended up much too short for Emily's Kid 2.  No problem, I'll just keep it for my Baby Girl.  Now if they ever see each other they can all be matching.  Photoshop might be our only hope of making that picture a reality.

I didn't use a specific pattern or tutorial for the skirts, but the bottom was finished using some home made bias tape and the technique from the Lazy Day Skirt by Oliver + S.  Although it takes a little longer, I like making skirts with a flat front and an elastic in the back.  And enclosing all the edges of course!  I'm a little obsessed with the finishing details, and this helps me sleep better at night.

Next up is a tree skirt for our brother (although it's really for his wife).  We spent Christmas with them in Ottawa (Canada) and they didn't have one.  I had this really nice green wool (also from the box of fabric treasure) and we looked at lots of different tree skirts to figure out what she might like.  In the end she decided that she wanted something simple and classy, and thought I would know what she would like.  I hope I'm right.

I bound the edges with a bottom weight linen blend from Joann's and made the tree appliques out of the same fabric.

Initially I tried two more complicated techniques using interfacing (first this, and then I tried cutting out the shape from interfacing and ironing down the seam allowance all around the edges).  They both looked puckered and took forever.  Mr. Carlee mentioned that his mum always used a zig-zag stitch around things, and in the end that was the right thing to do. 

I have plans for at least two more gifts, and then realistically I should probably get started for next year!