CHRISTMAS

The blog has been sadly neglected in all the Christmas chaos this month. So I've posted a few pictures of the things that I've been busy making over the break.
Next year I'll get in early and add some "how to's" of some of the makes I did this year. I'm especially excited about sharing the gingerbread house recipe with you as my little boy had so much fun decorating it.

Christmas cards from my 3 year old.

The finished Christmas cake

 A present for a friends little girl.

 Not a good picture of the napkins and table runner but it's the only one I had. They were made from a single bed sheet from Ikea and decorated with stars in different sizes using silver fabric paint.

 The gingerbread house that my 3 year old lovingly decorated.

FELT HEARTS

I love sewing with felt, it's so simple and the strong colours make the finished article quite striking. I've done some plain gingham hearts for the Christmas tree but the felts ones are my favourite.

All you need is a simple heart template made from baking parchment. Pin  the template to the felt and cut out 2 hearts.

Take one of the hearts and sew on decoration of your choice, I chose 3 white buttons for mine to match the stitching but you can choose sequins, a single button or embroider your own pattern on.

On your second heart pin in place a ribbon to hang the decoration from and pin together the 2 hearts.

Then you need to sew around the heart in a running stitch (making sure you stitch through the ribbon as you go), until you have almost reached your starting point.

Use the gap to fill the heart with toy stuffing, you do need quite a bit but be careful not to over stuff it.

Once the heart has been filled you can finish off stitching the heart, finishing off when you reach the end and tucking the knot into the seam.

THE FINISHED GINGERBREAD GARLAND

After sewing a lot of little gingerbread men I didn't need half of them to fill the garland!
Here's the finished article. Excuse the poor picture, hanging it above the mirror to take a photo wasn't the best thing to do!!
The garland was an artificial plant from TK Max, I didn't think it would work at first but after trimming off a few branches and tidying up each end, it has come together nicely.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING

 Monday saw the soaking of the fruit for the Christmas Pudding, it smelt delicious sitting soaking in brandy overnight.
I used the recipe from the Nigella's Christmas book as we'd tried it out last year. Her recipe recommends using a certain type of sherry to soak the fruit in, I opted for brandy instead.
The next day all the ingredients were combined into the bowl, giving them a good stir.
Unfortunately the other members of the house were out so they didn't get a wish as they stirred this year!
Then the mixture goes into pudding basins and wrapped in foil (just incase of a lid poping incident!) and put in a pan of boiling water for 5 hours!!!

Yes my house did resemble a sauna by the end of the day and I had condensation dripping from every window. I'm sure it'll be worth it on Christmas day (although I'm not looking forward to another 3 hours of it steaming!).