19 days ‘til Christmas!

Ok, so I’m starting to get a little obsessive with my studio space and I’m burring myself in lots of projects. On the weekend :

- I padded out my dressmaking dummy to the correct size (to ensure perfect pattern fit every time!)
- finished my first “block” pattern to create a template for my own designs
- started this simplicity pattern (using white lace)
- Finished another Christmas garland for the house.

The paper garland only took me about 1 hour to make. The paper is from spotlight (currently on sale for VIP members) and I used a Lincraft hole punch.
To make:
- punch out 3 circles of contrasting paper (I did 31 x 3 circles for my garland)
- stack 3 circles on top of each other
- pull 10 cm’s of thread through the machine before you start to sew
- sew a straight stitch right through the centre of the 3 stacked circles then keep machine sewing with no paper for a couple of stitches, then feed another 3 circles through and stitch again down the centre. Repeat until all circles are sewn.
- Leave another 10cm’s of thread at the end for tying.

Great Christmas project for those of us running short on time!

P.s. This is a pic from the weekend of myself with our sewing teacher Letty and some of the lovely ladies from our class - I'll miss them over the Christmas break!

DIY Christmas Decorations

With December just over a week away I thought I’d better get cracking on some Christmas decorations. Inspired by the origami I saw on a recent holiday to Japan, I thought I’d start by making a quick garland of 3D stars.

I trialled a few different types of paper and ribbon but found that the sheet of Cristina Re reversible paper I had lying around had the best paper weight to produce sharp points on the star.

This video taught me how to weave/fold a 3d star and I used strips of paper about 1.2cm wide by about 50cm long.

One sheet of Cristina Re paper made about 13 stars. Clear fishing line was used to string the stars together after puncturing a whole in each star with a sewing needle.

After practicing with a couple of stars, it only took about 5 minutes to make a star from cutting the strips to completing the last point.

If you like the stars but don’t want a garland then you could easily turn a single star into a tree bauble or use them to decorate gift wrapping.

I hope you enjoy this quick Christmas project!

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