A DIY Christmas Gift List

With the recent aquisition of a sewing machine for my birthday back in September, I have been trying to find ways to learn and improve my sewing skills. Since Christmas is coming up I decided to scour Pinterest even further, pick out projects I felt I could handle, and then figure out who I needed to give gifts to and find the best DIY Christmas gift for them.

This is a recap of what DIY Christmas Gift I’ve made this year for Christmas gifts. Feel free to pin or steal my project ideas. Most of them turned out just like the tutorials I followed and a few of them are a little more youneek and speshal.

She needed some sweet, girly baby things from her Auntie and Uncle so I made her these burp cloths and this taggie blankie with her K initial.

The burp cloths were super duper easy once I got the hang of working with the minky fabric. I told my bff that minky is a cruel mistress who will ruin your life. Seriously. Minky is so soft and sweet and you think you’ll love it forever until it tries to destroy all of your awesome projects. I eventually pinned it completely into submission and all was well.

The taggie blankie. Sigh. What a dumb tutorial. Perhaps if my letter K had been larger it wouldn’t have been such an issue, but, they have you sew it shut while all of the pins are still inside your fabric…then you have to turn it right side out. While trying not to bleed to death. You also have to attempt to not rip out your taggies. Which I did. Multiple times. I almost quit sewing 4 lyfe while I was making this blanket. Next time, I’ll just make a regular rectangle blanket. The initial was a super cute and fun idea, but not practical. I wish it had turned out better. Good news is, Kathryn won’t care.

With a brand new baby and an almost 3 year old I wanted to make something just for her. Something pretty and nice and also practical. I made this infinity scarf. This tutorial was great. I sat down to work with a few different ones and none of them made any sense, even though this is a super duper easy project. I was so thrilled when I stumbled upon this tutorial because she spoke my language and made it very easy for me to complete the scarf.

It’s a really awesome jersey fabric so it is very soft and comfortable. I love the print of the fabric(thanks, Joann’s!) as well. It’s girly and fun and can multi task as a super fabulous baby spit up cover upper.

They’re all young and hip and cool. What do you handmake for 20somethings that isn’t completely lame?

And then you include a Starbuck’s gift card. Cuz, even if a cozy is lame a Starbuck’s gift card certainly isn’t.

I had so much fun picking out this gift idea and making it. It was one of the bigger projects I attempted with more steps and a few different types of fabric that I hadn’t worked with yet. It ended up being super fun and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. The tutorial was absolutely perfect
and I combined a suggestion from another blog for different straps.

This gift both Jim’s mom and my mom are getting. I saw the idea on Pinterest, but it was simply a photo uploaded by someone.

Pinterest.

Reality.

I guess I hadn’t really stopped to consider how it wasn’t very likely that I was going to get an actual spread out handprint from my 2 year old for our project. Or how my handwriting wouldn’t magically improve while writing on fabric with a fat pen.

It’s cheesy and home made and grandbabyfied so I guarantee Grandma Jenny and Grammy are going to love it.

Jim’s family has a super fun tradition on his mom’s side of the family where names are drawn and you get one person to make, regift, or buy something for less than $10. I got Jenny this year and I knew right away what I was going to make!!

This thing is amazing. It was so easy to make. The tutorial was perfect and it came out perfect. Best part. It hardly uses any fabric and it is reversible. AND IT WARMS YOUR TOES. So awesome.

To continue with the cheap and DIY theme I decided to do the dollar store dishes, colored with sharpie, baked in the oven, Christmas gift.

Apparently, this is *the* gift this year. I searched Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Michael’s, Joann’s, and Hobby Lobby for cheap cream colored dishes. Every place I went was completely picked over. I initially looked for porcelain pens as well and nooobody in Joplin carries them. So sharpies it was(which why I decided to nix plates/bowls and just do mugs. I love my parents. I don’t want to kill them with my christmas gifts).

Ta da!

Father in law, Monty. (He got ammunition. Yee-haw!)

Brother in law, John. (Grill supplies)

Nephew, David. (Train and tracks)

Daughter, Abigail. (Way too much)

I’m not sure whether this means I love them more or less, but they get to have store bought presents this year.

To keep myself from feeling completely guilty that I didn’t DIY anything for A this year, let me take this opportunity to showcase(and be completely braggadocious about myself) the stocking I made for her.

It seriously took me like, 5 years to sew this thing. I’d work on it and then stop for 6 months…and then pick it back up. And then quit… I finally finished it when I was pregnant and knew what name needed to go at the top. Originally, it was going to be Jim’s stocking.

Sorry, honey.

Although, neither of us have a stocking. And we don’t have a fireplace. So, I’m really not *that* sorry.And with that, I am officially done with my Christmas shopping! Hooray! This has probably been the most prepared/far ahead/unrushed/thought out gifting I’ve done in my life. *Pats self on back*

That’s all, folks! I hope this can help you out a bit if you’re contemplating doing some DIY this year. If you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to comment 🙂