At last, the rest of our Handmade Christmas

Finally, I can show you the rest of the things I made for my children for Christmas.  I had intended to take pictures immediately following the gift-opening, but...well, we were enjoying Christmas.  Then there was the incident of a small wool-felt monkey falling down the toilet while it was being flushed (I know, what are the chances?  Apparently rather high, if you have little boys who pee standing up.)  After that, there never seemed to be a moment when all four little felt creatures were in one place at one time...and I had some Big Plans for taking pictures of the embroidered pillow along with Sparky in his matching pajamas...so never mind about all of My Plans -- here they all are!

First up: the little felt animals.

 
Made out of 100% wool felt (for softness and durability) and DMC embroidery floss

I actually cut out all of the felt pattern pieces for these two Christmases ago, but just...well, embroidery felt like a bridge too far at that time, and I couldn't find the motivation.  I left them carefully gathered in a little plastic bag, just waiting for the right moment.  Once I finally got started, they were so simple and surprisingly quick -- each one of these only took an evening, and they were so fun to put together!  These patterns are from The Cute Book by Aronzi Aronzo



I was actually spurred into action by my children -- I had left this book out, and they started reading it like it was a comic book and imagining stories for all of the little characters...truly, how could I resist?

 
The Purple Dress Kitty is Lavella's and the dog is Jonah's, but he was far too busy kicking around a soccer ball to pose with it yesterday afternoon.



 

Andrew and Elijah with their little monkeys.  The adventures that these monkeys have seen from the vantage point of a back pocket...or a backpack... or a sweaty fist; I love seeing them enjoy these little bits of handwork.

The pillow that I worked on for Andrew for months.

 
Free Hug-Bot embroidery pattern by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

The stitching didn't take all that long, but I just kept putting it down for more pressing projects.  Finally, as Christmas was drawing close, I just buckled down and finished it, sewed it into a pillowcase with a flannel backing to match the pajama pants that I had made for Andrew's school "Pajama Day", made a pillow form to fit, and it was done.

He also wanted me to sew up some pajamas to match for his Pom-Pom Pet (purchased at a school "Business Fair" that the 5th graders put on -- so cute), so I put together a quick "body sock" of sorts for "Felix".

 
"Felix" the Pom-Pom Pet posing with the matching back of the Hug-Bot pillow

Elijah also wanted pajamas for his favorite Beanie Baby horse, so I made a one-piece outfit for him.

 

This, of course, matches Elijah's pajama pants... (the "necklace" is a pipe-cleaner with a jingle-bell attached to it.  I'm pretty sure that Elijah made it at school.)


 

I really didn't know what I was doing (who makes pajamas for horses?!), so I just tried to remember what I would have done when I used to make clothing for all of my dolls and animals when I was 10 years old... I ended up laying the horse out on a double-thickness of the flannel, traced around him (giving myself about 1/2" seam allowance) and cut out the pieces.  Then I stitched around the outside edges, hand-hemmed the arm and leg holes, cut down the center-front, and stitched some soft Velcro as a closure.

 

Overall, it turned out much cuter than I'd expected, and Elijah was incredibly pleased with the result.

So!  There you go!  We are now all caught up with Handmade Christmas.  The horse and Pom-Pom Pet's pajamas were actually made this past weekend (I had to put off a few projects for sanity's sake before Christmas), but they were intended to be part of the gifts, so I included them here for posterity.

Tomorrow, I'll show you a very simple and fun restyle that I did for the children's bathroom on Saturday, but for now, I'm off to knit....because I've just cast on for another Ribbed Lace Bolero.