Notebooks

These are so simple. Who wouldn't want one. I plan on making about a dozen more to gift for Christmas. The fabric in the pics is for my mother in law who loves "Gingerbread Men" and for a cousin who recently stated that she's planning on redoing her Christmas card list after the holidays.

Now to find some funky fun Tween fabric.

Oh ~ our wonderful mail lady.

Neighbors

Bet I have it on hand.

My total cost was $2.00 for 2 notepads. The fabric used was from my stash.

I'm going to be taking care of all the bonus people on my list for about $1.00 each but it'll be so much more to them because of the time and love that's sewn into every notebook.

Gingerbread men

First up is what very well may be the worlds ugliest gingerbread man.

I made a the smaller version below and decided to make a bigger one. At the time the ribbon seemed like such a good idea. Maybe it was being sleep deprived and sewing well past midnight that lead me to make the choices that I did. Oh the pic is far too kind. This doll has received so much attention that I think he'll be front and center in an up coming "white elephant" gift exchange. I'm sure he'll be lovingly passed around at this type of exchange for years to come and he's sure to bring much laughter to the party. Keep a watchful eye out you never know when this guy will end up being yours (at least until the next exchange).

This is the smaller version. My mother in law loves gingerbread men and while out shopping I found many that were priced between $9.99 and$24.99. You fellow craft people know exactly what I thought ~ I can make that.
I've completed three of the little ones so far and I'm sure they'll be well received.

Here is a pic of two of the little gingerbread dolls.

The pic with the third one in in didn't turn out.

I used items and material that I already had on hand to make these.

4 dolls total cost $0

Kate's Dolly

This doll was made using Kimberbell Kids Doll Patterns

which can be found at

www.YouCanMakeThis.com

I couldn't find the right color of felt for the shoes to go with the clothing fabric so I added an extra 1/4 inch to the top of the shoe pattern, cut 2 pieces of fabric for each side of the shoe, stitched together 1/4 inch at the top only, sniped the turn being careful not to cut stitches, turned right side out, ironed flat, and proceeded with pattern directions. (Oh and I added a ribbon when sewing the two parts of one side together for a little extra style).

Very rustic message of love that will serve as a visual reminder of what my girls feel everyday ~ My love

This one is for baby Kate. Kate has hair that started out black and turned reddish brown then blond. I choose this yarn to represent her unique and beautiful hair. It's a perfect choice and I'm very happy with it for our purpose but would not necessarily suggest using variegated yarn to anyone else. Also I wanted the wig to be as full as possible. I didn't overlap when winding yard for my wig but I sure pushed the yarn together as tight as possible. In hindsight I may have used a bit to much yarn. But with that said the doll still looks awesome.

Kate is in LOVE with ELMO.

The print on the outfit is just the icing on the cake for this gift.

Now can I wait till Christmas.

One doll done and two + left to go.

I used white muslin from my fabric stash and lightly dyed it to a cream color using tea bags. I also manage to find all the other material except yarn in my stash. The yarn cost $2.50 and I used less than half of it.

One doll w/ outfit = $2.50

I'm not sure about the time on this one because I had many tech issues with my equipment while making the doll.

Deut Aprons

Wow these aprons go together rather quickly and will make wonderful gifts. I've already made 2 adult aprons and 2 child aprons. The beautiful floral material was chosen for my 83 year old Grandma. I then chose coordinating material from my fabric stash to complete the aprons with enough material left to do at least another two aprons (however I plan on embellishing some dish towels and making oven mitts with the extra material).

My time investment was right around 4 hour for all four aprons and the total cost for all four aprons was $7.00 after using a 50% off coupon and subtracting the cost of the extra yardage that I've yet to use.

You can make these also by going to www.Youcanmakethis.com and buying the duet apron pattern. Be sure to check out their free Chefs Hat.

I plan on making Chefs Hats and adding them to a gift basket that will also contain the ingredients to one of my Grandmas famous recipes. I'll then add a sweet request from my children simply saying "Teach me to cook Grandma and our time will yield treasured memories to last a lifetime."

Oh but I'm not stopping here. This is a project that my girls have help me on. what they don't know is that mommy is planning on making them their own aprons to keep here at home. These will be gifted in a similar way with personalized chef hats, wooden spoons, some basic ingredients, and a coupon book for cooking lessons from mom.