Handmade Christmas: Elving

It's been a busy week in my little workshop!  I was planning on having a follow up post about ADHD, as there was lots of interest, but Christmas is fast approaching, and there's a few "Christmasy" posts I wanted to share before the big day.  But I will be back on the ADHD subject after the Holidays, promised!  

For now, I thought I'd share with you what's been going on in this little workshop of mine!  My son's teacher had ordered a set of nesting dolls for Christmas, but the dolls themselves didn't arrive to me until this Tuesday.  So I literally devoted the entire next day to do paint them, from start to finish.  But I have to say, I am really, really loving these girls!   

It's no surprise to you that I love crafting, from using power tools to work with wood, to painting, to hand stitching on felt, I love what I do.  But sewing is not something that I'm always comfortable doing.  I always doubt my abilities and don't always know how to achieve the ideas I have in my head, from lack of knowledge.  But I had to push myself out of my comfort zone this week, as my daughter asked for a sling for Christmas.  She wants it so she can carry her Waldorf doll.

I had this idea in my head, that I wanted to add a vine detail on it, but that requires sewing curves.  Not to mention that I've never had to work with jersey material.  I've tried to sew curves before and the results were awful, so I've stuck with straight lines ever since.    But I guess sometimes we push ourselves for our children.  And I surprised myself.  Not only did the vine worked out the way I wanted to, but I made this beautiful sling, without a glitch.  It's doubled, and I attached the ends hiding the seems.  Yay me!  LOL.

I am really happy with the end result, and I think she will be excited.  Can't wait to see the look on her face when she opens it!

I also had to make a present for an exchange we were doing in our group of girlfriends.  I had in mind to make my friend a scarf, so by the time I made the sling, I figured making an infinity scarf was basically the same thing.  Except that I made the scarf with two different colours of fabric.  I love how this turned out as well!  (I almost wanted to keep it for myself)  I think I'll have to make more :)

But I'm not the only one who's been elving around here.  My daughter really wanted to make something for a present for her cousins, so she sewed this pouch.  All by herself.  All I helped with, were the knots.  She was so proud of herself, and I so proud of her.

This is only part of what's been going on this week of course, as there was also Christmas concerts, baking, testing new recipes, and I did another special order as well.  But things are slowing down now, and I am looking forward to spending this Christmas at home with my family :)

What have YOU been busy making?