stockings

I whipped up some Christmas stockings last weekend in an effort to try and make it look festive in our house. We don't have a tree because I'm paranoid about Fenix trying to climb it and potentially pulling it down on himself -- not worth the anxiety!

So we hung garland over the the doorway, wreaths on our front door and in another spot inside, and the stockings are hanging above the mantle.

The stockings were really easy to make. I bought a yard of blue and gray felt and a quarter of burgundy felt along with a spool of burgundy satin ribbon. I drew the pattern freehand on a big sheet of paper and then used my Olfa rotary cutter with a scalloped blade to cut out the pieces of fabric.

I cut the letters freehand and then stitched those onto the blue front panel first. Then I stitched the front and back panels together with a regular old top stitch - sandwiching a strip of ribbon folded in half between the two to make a little loop for hanging.

I finished it off by making a pompom from some variegated scrap yarn that happened to match perfectly!

Here they are, waiting to be filled:

goodbye cords, hello skirt

I came across a project on cut out and keep the other day that totally inspired me. It's a pretty basic idea - you take your old jeans or pants and turn them into a skirt. This was right up my alley.
You see, I am very guilty of holding onto clothes that don't quite fit properly in hopes that I will some day regain my girlish figure. This is not happening folks. That's where this project comes in since it's good for those old pants that are really cute but are a little too snug in the thigh and ass region.
Click here for the tutorial.

Check out my finished version below. I have another pair of these cords in yellow and I'll be skirtifying them in short order. Notice that I took a little more care in the finishing than what is shown in the tutorial by using the cut off pant leg to form a panel in the front and back of the skirt. This makes a more a-line silhouette which is more flattering on someone with a curvy figure (such as myself).