Thursday, December 1, 2011

Starting on Christmas gifts...

Hi!
So this year I am way behind on making my Christmas gifts! How bout you?
Last year I made everyone quilts - and worked on them all year. This year... I just couldn't settle on anything. So I started scouring the web for ideas, and came across some great tutorials that helped me decide what I am going to do!
I have several women in my life that I like to gift to at Christmas, so it seemed fitting to make kitchen oriented baskets this year.  Here is the start of what will be going in the baskets.
Oven mitts made to their kitchen colors, with matching potholders.


 I used this tutorial for the mitts.  And changed it up a little bit, as the thumbs were just gigantic, as were the hand part, so i made them a little smaller to fit women's hands :)
I also added a loop on the side with snaps.  I don't know about you, but I never have a convenient place to put an oven mitt! And great... they all have loops... but i have no place to hang them! If only I could hang them on my oven door....
So by adding the snap closure to the loop and inside cuff, you can hang them on your oven and just pop them off when you need to use them, and then they will be out of your way when you aren't using them!
(please disregard my horrible sewing job on this one - it was my first and will consequently be staying with me, since i discovered so many things along the way! lol)

 Little tip if you go to make these: I used home dec weight fabric. Great for this purpose! But add the heavier fabric + insul brite+cotton batting+ lining for each side... it is THICK!
And word to the wise, when you quilt that kind of thickness the only bendability you are going to get is whichever direction you quilted! 
This one i did vertical lines.... um... yah... no bendy! :D
and the pot holder i did diagonal lines... care to guess which way it wants to fold when grabbing a pot?
Sooo... the next few sets I made I quilted horizontally - and voila they work great! LOL
Still have 3 more sets to make, but now that I know what I'm doing, it will go fast!

Next item in the basket will be home made vanilla!
mmmmmm!!!
yep, getting a late start these won't be ready to use until about feburary!
But I will be putting homemade labels on the bottles, and little hang tags that say "I'll be ready to use on this day"   - Here's what they look like right now...

Not very attractive yet. LOL
But they WILL BE!
I followed this fantastic and easy tutorial here.
And yes... that is a little mini cheap wine holder! hee hee... they were the only bottles I could find that would work! So hey... got a few glasses of (actually not too bad) wine in the process! :)
If you're interested in making some great vanilla follow the link!
I got my beans HERE.  Great prices, great fast delivery!

I'll give you a sneak peek to the rest of the goodies in a day or so!
xo
Bren

4 comments:

Primitives By The Light of The Moon said...

Those oven mitts and potholders look great....and just love the idea of a snap!
Bet the vanilla will be smelling wonderful, too!

WoolenSails said...

Really unique and wonderful gifts to give to others.
I just make things without thinking and then decide who gets what, lol. That is as far as my brain can get before I zone out;)

Debbie

Kathy (woolfind) said...

You are so talented Bren! They look great :)! someone on your list is going to be thrilled with them!

michelle allen said...

what a great gift idea! they're so cute i totally love them.