Custom Santa Sacks

 Did you know that it's less than 100 days until Christmas???

Front One

Rear One

The last couple of years I've designed and made Custom Santa Sacks at the very last minute, but this year I thought I'd be more organised, and start taking orders now, so that I can have the fabric printed in plenty of time.

 Front Two

Rear Two

There are two different design colourways to choose from and each one is personalised with the name of your choice.

The Santa Sack is a strong cotton/linen blend, fully lined with a drawstring, and measures approximately 43cm wide x 65cm long.

This is an example of one of last years Santa Sacks.

If you're interested, I've added a listing to the shop!

Last Minute Santa Sacks

So this year I promised to be more organised for Christmas....

But, it never even crossed my mind to offer my Custom Santa Sack service, until a lovely customer who purchased one a few years ago actually requested another one.

So these were a little bit last minute!

Photographed in fading early evening light, and now packed up and heading to the post office for a very important mission.

Next year I promise to be more organised (ahem... cough)

A backwards step

Now that the whole Christmas/New Year shebang is over for another year, I can take a step backwards with some handmade christmas pressies.

I had these little square panels printed aaaaaages ago and they've been sitting in the stash just waiting for a project.

All printed from from my original hand drawn illustrations......  as you can tell from the wonkiness of Pacman.

I just overlocked the edges and made them into simple unlined zippers pouches. One for each of my older nephews (to hold their iTunes vouchers), and the Owl for Little Miss (in her favourite colour).

The funniest thing about the Pacman pouch, was watching the boys on Christmas Eve and waiting to see how long it took for them to work out what it was. First guess was Space Invaders......

Oh Galaga, Pacman, Donkey Kong and Frogger. How I miss thee.

The Week That Was.... in Instragram Snaps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are we there yet?

Only two more sleeps peeps!

Unfortunately the dreaded lurgy has decided to visit and ruined my motivation and energy to do anything much.... but I forced myself back to the sewing machine yesterday afternoon to finish the Christmas pressies.

I'm giving my little nephews a Lego type gift each.

I really struggled to find an appropriate Lego for the twins who are 3 1/2. There seems to be a real gap in the market between babyish type Lego and the 5-12 age group.

Of course, what I love more than the Lego, is the Lego bag!

Nice bright durable cotton drill with a panel of gorgeous Lego fabric by Susie from Flowerpress.... and in different colours so that there are no arguments.

I hope they're a hit!

The Wonky Wreath

I spied Vic's lovely yarn wrapped Christmas Wreaths over at Punky and Me a few days ago, and they gave me the inspiration to have a crack myself.

With no cardboard on hand, I went out searching in the dark unknown depths of the garage stash and found some different size embroidery hoops (just another thing I hoard from the oppy even though I don't embroider), and some random balls of yarn.

I didn't have anything red or green, but orange and turquoise was close enough!

I faffed around with it for a few nights on the couch. I was a bit mesmerised watching Kev on Go Girls instead of concentrating on the wrapping...

But, once I'd finished all that wrapping, I thought it was missing something... it just wasn't quite Christmassy enough - but I had an IDEA.

Back out to the dark depths of the garage for another search.... this time I was looking for wire, and my wire beading jig (another thing I haven't used in the last 5 years).

When I opened the box labelled 'Wire Beading Jig' .....surprise surprise I found my long lost hot glue gun - HALLELUJAH!

What was that rule I learned at Lissanne's workshop???  LABEL, LABEL, LABEL.

After that little bit of excitement, I sat down and crafted a little star (or what is supposed to be a star) using some copper wire and the jig.

Yesterday, I finally hung it on the front door - with only four more sleeps til Christmas.

And here endeth a very long story about a very wonky wreath.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Even though it was quite chilly and blustery lastnight, we braved the cold and headed off to Carols in the local park.

Luckily the kiddies never seem to notice the temperature!

They were very excited when Santa arrived on a firetruck.

Just for a laugh - meet Baubleboy

Oh Christmas Tree Yukka

My sister and BIL and the kidlets are heading off for a Queensland holiday this week (soooo, what do you think the chances are of the phone ringing at 4AM while they're away?)

I had to take advantage of the slave labour family christmas spirit before they left, and invited the boys over to decorate my tree.

I can't deal with any of that mess inside the house, so my original idea was to get them to decorate the silver birch tree in the front garden....

.... but using their own artistic abilities, they decided that the christmas baubles were much better suited to hanging from the dragonfly lights and the yukkas.

Once they'd finished, I tried to get just one decent ta-daa moment for the christmas album.

...and again

...and again.

I give up.

Revealing - part three

Now it's time to reveal some of the handmade pressies for my nephews.

I was a little bit stumped for ideas this year as I've made them so many handmade things over previous years for birthdays and for christmas.

I would have loved to make them all a pair of shorts, but I just ran out of time. The two big boys received gift vouchers for the local bike shop, and nothing handmade (whoops)!

I made teeny tiny zippered pouches using my Dragster Fabric for the Bubbas (they're two and a half now so I really should stop calling them the Bubbas). They don't have wallets so they needed little coin purses to keep inside their manbags.

I made little boy sized lanyards for Moo Moo and Nico, so that they can wear their wallets around their necks like the big boys. We also discovered that the lanyards can hook onto the tow bars of Chuggington trains.... just in case anyone would like to wear a train around their neck?

The four little boys also received a supercute handmade wooden boat each that I bought at one of the local craft markets. It's the type where you blow up the balloon and attach it to the top and it makes the boat paddle along.

I wish I'd taken a photo of them playing boats in the spa at the holiday house.... oh well!

Revealing - part two

This is another custom order which I couldn't reveal prior to the big day.... just in case.

A certain lucky little girl received a mini laptop for Christmas. So, of course, a mini laptop requires a mini laptop bag!

It should be very hard wearing with the denim outer, and a layer of S320 and then a nice cushy layer of fusible wadding.

I had a bit of fun with the flap using my Owl Oblong Fabric, and then a lovely silver twist lock to finish it off.

Revealing - part one

Now that Christmas is finally over for another year, I can start revealing some of the things I whipped up.

This one was a custom order for a personalised Santa Sack. The request was for a totally unique sack that was modern looking, but with wadding and quilting.

I used my original illustrations to design the front panel, and then had it printed.

It has fusible wadding all over and was quilted in straight lines to keep the fresh modern look.

I forgot to take a photo, but you can also fold the top down to reveal more illustrations.

I've heard that a certain lucky little boy had his Santa Sack filled to the brim!

A different type of gift...

Appliqued tees - Dragster Dominoes Fabric

I'm off to a little christmas lunch gathering on Friday with a couple of girlfriends and their kiddies.

In previous years, I've managed to make all of their christmas gifts myself, but as the families have expanded, it's become a little more difficult.

This year I started making, collecting, and swapping earlier.


Sam, Cate, and Lily are getting some lovely Beccasauras appliqued tees (which I forgot to photograph before they were all wrapped), Belle is getting a gorgeous Beccasauras tunic top (also forgot to photograph).
Cate is getting the superb Polly Pratt dress that I won at Sew It Together, and Lily is also getting a little dress that I made a while back. The girls are also getting some beautiful hairclips that I bought at the Daylesford Makers Market a few weeks ago.

I actually managed to make the pressies for Connor and Jack. I followed Nikki's tutorial for the belts. I had no idea what waist size the boys are (and there was no-one on hand to measure), so I just googled garment sizing and used those measurements - hope they fit eeeek! Also, I didn't have the right size D-rings on hand so I substituted small slide-adjusters instead.

I know that kids don't get very excited about receiving clothes instead of toys for christmas, but at least their mums will be happy!

PS - Thanks so much for all of the lovely comments on yesterdays post and via Facebook - some very generous people have already called 131495, or booked their next blood donation appointment online - what a superb effort!

Christmas..... in pictures