merry christmas! see you in 2011

Do you know the trouble with having a craft blog in December? Everything you are making is likely a gift for someone.  It makes keeping secrets really hard.

Rather than fight it this year and try to craft double-time, I am crying uncle and going on vacation.  I hope you enjoy the stocking tutorial below - it is my last offering for 2010.  I'm going to spend the next several weeks enjoying my family.  Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

See you in January.  :)

ruffle stocking mini-tutorial

Ready to sew the world's fastest stocking?  Ok, maybe not the fastest ... but it is pretty darn quick and looks perfectly festive.

First, make a stocking template - a very simple shape.  You can sketch one out, or google one.  Make it whatever size you want!

• Lay the template on a felted wool sweater, leaving about a four inch border at the top.  Use the hem of the sweater as your top line for a polished look.  Cut two.

• Cut a 6 inch length of felt, fabric, or ribbon to use as your stocking's hanging loop.

• Pin the two felt pieces right sides together, inserting the hanging loop approximately 4 inches from the top of the stocking.  The loop should be on the inside and the ends should extend outside the stocking edges.

• Sew around the stocking, leaving the top open.  Set aside.

• Using the template, cut two pieces of ruffle fabric.  Do not leave an extra border at the top.

• Pin right sides together.  I recommend pinning at the bottom of each ruffle to hold them in place.  It takes some extra time, but ensures they will line up and not get bunched while sewing.  Sew around the stocking, leaving the top open.

• Turn the ruffled stocking right side out.

• Slide the sweater stocking inside the ruffle stocking.  The sweater stocking should extend approximately 4 inches past the top of the ruffle stocking.

• Top stitch along the top edge of the ruffle stocking to attach.

Fold the sweater stocking down to create a cuff.  Hang and enjoy!

Use your extra candy cane ruffle fabric to make a peppermint bark skirt:

mmm ... delicious

decorating

Oscar helped me decorate the tree today.

He still has a little ways to go to master the art of spacing ornaments.   At one point he had four ornaments hanging on the same branch.

I try to make a little something for the tree every year - this year's project was a candy cane felt garland - you can find instructions for it at Purl Bee.   It was so fast and easy (my favorite kind of project!) and looks fantastic on the tree.

holiday cheer book wreath

I started decorating our apartment for Christmas this morning - the Glee Christmas album is blasting, all the boxes of decorations are out of storage, and I cracked open a box of chocolate covered peppermint Joe Joe's.  It is basically a perfect December day.

Do you have a trendy book wreath hanging somewhere in your home?  Give it a holiday spruce by adding some ornament balls.

So simple - you can poke metal ornament hangers right through the rolled book pages.  Make the holes deep in between the pages and you'll never see the hole when you remove the ornaments later.

My book wreath was already hanging in front of some green fabric (glued to the wall), so the red ornaments made it perfectly Christmas-y.

Advent Complete!

Did you finish?  I almost didn't make it.  Jared and I bought a X-box Kinect over the weekend and I have been busy trying to perfect the dance moves to Salt n' Pepa's "Push It."  I need a lot of practice.

It was 2 a.m. last night before I wrapped things up with the advent.  Here are my ornaments for this week:

Christmas light, gingerbread man, holly leaves, and a snowman (Oscar's favorite!)

Then I made an ornament ball for each member of the family:

When more kids come along, we'll have to switch some ornaments out.

All together now ... ta-da!

I bound the edges with white double fold bias tape and added red felt tabs for hanging.   The trick has been where to hang it.  I want Oscar to have access, but not too much access.  He really likes to stuff the ornaments in those pockets, so fingers crossed that they hold up over the holidays. 

Want to see more from the Flickr pool?

I love this Nativity Advent by sahm3:

Vivian from Craft with Confidence came up with some more great ornaments, including this slice of pumpkin pie.  See all of her ornaments on her blog.

And I can't leave out Katie of So Happy, everyone's favorite Advent Sew-Alonger.  Her ornaments from this last week are more beautiful than ever (more on her blog):

Perfection!

Be sure to check out all the Advent Inspiration in the Homemade by You flickr group.  Thank you so much for sewing along with me!  I doubt I would have finished without your support.

If you didn't sew an advent, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate Christmas everyday.  I am Momma - Hear Me Roar has a great idea for a Good-Deed Advent, with one act of service every day until Christmas.  She has the good deeds strung in super cute buckets, but you could just as easily put all the service slips into a mason jar and draw one each day.

My longtime friend, Ellen, makes Gingerbread Countdown Chains with her family every year.  It was one of my favorite holiday traditions growing up, because they always gave one as a gift to my family.  What better way to celebrate the season than with a delicious cookie?

And I am following Jordan's lead by adding a daily holiday activity to our advent calendar.  Today we are walking through the annual Holiday Market downtown.

If all else fails, go out and buy a $2 chocolate advent calendar from Trader Joe's.  Or if you are me, buy two so you don't have to share with your kids.  :)