Dresses for girls: homemade baby presents

July 30, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 6 Comments

A momentous event occurred a few weeks ago. My sister gave birth to a baby girl.

Of course, every birth is pretty momentous — a life is begun where before there wasn’t one — but this was especially astounding as the baby was the first of her generation to not be a boy…

Between me and my siblings, we’ve so far produced five boys, so the arrival of a little girl into the mix is most exciting.

Also exciting for me was the chance to make some cute little dresses and bloomers. I love my boys (of course, it hardly needs saying) but if there is one thing I miss not having a girl, it’s the chance to sew tiny girl clothes with beautiful Liberty fabrics.

But that chance I now have!

The sewing machine was retrieved from the attic, dusted off and I got to work.

I made two matching sets, both from the same patterns and, sigh, just look, aren’t they sweet?

The dress is from the Purl Bee tiny triangle dress pattern. It’s a straightforward, though slightly fiddly sew, I found. Ironing 1/4 inch seams onto every edge was a little bit of a faff and I got a bit bored of trying to endlessly measure them to make sure they were straight, so, well, some of them ended up a tiny bit not straight.

Do any more regular sewers have any tips for good ways of going about that?

Anyway, other than that, it was very simple to put together and the end result looks lovely. I think my only criticism is that, in the wearing though not so much in the photos, the triangle shape is actually a little bit too extreme — it really does stick right out at the sides. This would probably be fine on a standing-up toddler, but on babies who spend their time lying or sitting, then there’s a little bit too much material in the way.

The bloomers are made from a free pattern by Sewing Mama RaeAnna on Craftsy and I was utterly, completely delighted with these. They look way more complicated than they were to make, just using some elastic round the waist and legs to get that cute gathering, and I sewed them up in no time. If I ever have another summer baby (boy or girl) I will definitely be making loads of these as nappy covers as they are seriously adorable.
The fabric for both is a Liberty tana lawn*. The designs are called Capel L (the green flowery one) and Lola Weisselberg (the purple, more ornate pattern). The first is available on the Liberty website, though I can’t find the second. I have to confess, I bought both from eBay.

To go with the dresses I had to – of course – make some personalised babygrows using my go-to fabric transfer paper method. I made her older brother a set of printed babygrows when he was born (you can see them here: a very important arrival) and I wanted her to have some of her own as well.

(Please excuse the rather crappy photos, I always have difficulty photographing these: invariably, parts of the babygrow are blown out, while the background looks grey and under-exposed. Three years of making these and I still can’t take a decent photo of them…)

The tulips are a Graphics Fairy image; I just couldn’t resist using some more flowers since I rarely have the chance to put lots of flowers onto my boys clothes. (Not that the sproglets don’t love them, actually, so maybe I should break away from all the gender stereotyping.) The As because her name starts with A. The anteater is from an amazing vintage alphabet I first found years ago, but use at every possible opportunity I get. The French A is from a new discovery: a partial vintage alphabet, also free from copyright.

And that’s the complete set: a load of teeny, tiny, flowery little girl clothes. I’m already planning what to make her for Christmas…

*I realised as I wrote this that I didn’t actually have a clue what “tana lawn” meant, so I have just Googled it to find out that the Tana is for Lake Tana in East Africa where the original cotton grew, and “lawn” is used to describe a fabric made with high count yarns; the Liberty tana lawn is made “without the use of crease-resisting chemicals or irritating allergens, the result is a famous masterpiece of fabric technology: fine, cool, comfortable and durable, with brilliant reproduction of colours and prints.” Which all sounds wonderful, but does explain why I found the fabric creased a lot as I sewed it and I had to constantly iron it out. Not really an ideal quality for an item of baby clothing it has to be said. I did also find, as a very amateur sewer, that the slightly silky quality to the fabric made it a little trickier to sew. But will no doubt be lovely to wear…

Turning one

June 1, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 6 Comments

We’re just back from a lovely week in Somerset and I’ve got lots of photos I want to share with you of some of the beautiful places we visited. However, since I think I would need to change this blog’s name to Gardens wot I have visited if I were to follow on with yet another garden visit post, I’ll save them up for next week. This, instead, is something I found sitting in my drafts, written a month ago when it actually had just been the littlest’s birthday and then left as I had wanted to get some better pictures. I think it’s time to admit defeat on that front and just publish it…

Just popping in rather quickly to share a photo of the T-shirt I made for the littlest’s first birthday at the weekend.

Homemade birthday top — Oh glorious baby chubbiness!

I’m thinking of turning it into a bit of a tradition, this birthday T-shirt thing. Do you remember the top I made for the sproglet’s second birthday last July?

Needless to say, far less time, thought, planning and energy went into the making of this one for the poor old baby. Where the sproglet had a large, well-planned and well-cooked-for first birthday party, last Saturday’s affair was a family only, last-minute organised do, catered by a quick trip to Waitrose to pick up sausages, scotch eggs and the like. We managed to make him a cake, at least, but forgot to buy candles.

Homemade birthday t-shirt — Crumpled and creased, post-action

And as the first guest arrived – my Mum – I was still busy ironing the image onto the front of his birthday T-shirt, cobbled together in the last few minutes before the party officially started.

Ah well, I rather suspect this will be his lot for the rest of his childhood. Hand-me-downs and less fuss made over all the big milestones. I wonder if it might not be a much easier entrance to the world, though, always aware that you’re not actually at the very centre of it, making it all spin round. At some point in time, his elder brother, the sprog, might get a rather rude awakening to all that, after the constant adoration and amazement from his family.

Gorgeous boys, both, in their different ways. I’m very lucky.

PS, I should mention that the image I’ve used isn’t actually copyright free and good for reproduction, so, erm, don’t tell on me. In a bit of a rush, rather than use my normal vintage images sources, I just had a very quick Google.

PPS, If you’ve not already seen it and want to make your own T-shirts (or anything else at all), check out my tutorial for how to print on fabric.

Finally finished: a toddler cardie

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 14 Comments

Oh, the sun, the sun of the past few days!

Can it really signal an end to this interminable winter at last? I am keeping all fingers and toes crossed that it is so.

And so, with the appearance of some warmer weather, it is, naturally, perfect timing for me to actually finish the cardigan I first started knitting the sproglet in October. You know, to keep him warm in the winter months.

Luckily, he hasn’t had any sort of growth spurt recently so, despite the insanely slow pace of knitting (there was a two months hiatus, at one point, because I simply couldn’t be bothered to decide where the buttons needed to go before knitting the buttonholes) the cardigan still just about fits him.

Overall, I’m pretty chuffed with it — except for the middle button placement which isn’t exactly centred, but I’m sure the sprog is never likely to notice that.

The pattern is called the Wonder Years toddler cardigan, by Elizabeth Smith, found through Ravelry (of course) and downloadable for $5.50(US). I thought it was a pretty good pattern, very clear to follow, and the only alteration I made was to add a little bit of length (in an attempt to make up for the slow knitting time vs growth of small child). You can see my Ravelry notes here, if you’re interested: toddler cardigan.

When I finally got round to sewing the buttons on (after another month long hiatus following actually completing the knitting) I gave it to the sprog to put on.

“Oh Mummy, I yike it, I yike it berry berry much,” he said to me.

And I wondered why on earth I hadn’t just got a wriggle on and finished it sooner.

As gratitude goes, it really couldn’t have got much better.

Incidentally, the “in wear” photos here, showing action shots of Driving-a-Car and Playing-with-Nail-Clippers-that-are-only-a-little-bit-Dangerous are because saying, “please stand still while I photograph you wearing your new cardigan” no longer cuts the mustard these days.

Joining up with Yarn Along

7 uses for old socks

January 5, 2015January 4, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 6 Comments

Happy 2015 all!

Well, I’ve not written any resolutions yet (or my yearly ideas of things I could…), I’ve not cleaned the house for the new year, or put away the Christmas decorations or even written a list (and I am a big list writer)…

But I did clear out the sock drawer this morning. Whoop whoop.

I freed about 20 old pair-less or holey socks from the confines of the chest of drawers and then wondered what on earth to do with them all.

A quick Google later and I have some great suggestions.

For once I haven’t rushed out to start a Pinterest board (it felt like a slightly esoteric topic, even for my great love of Pinteresting absolutely everything) but I thought I’d share a few of my faves with you. Because, surely, clearing out a sock drawer is everyone’s idea of a good new year habit, isn’t it?

1. A sock puppet

Oh yes, you hardly need me to tell you this, I know, it’s so blinking obvious that you can make a puppet. But I just had to share this adorable giraffe with you from Craft Jr. Because, really, this isn’t any ordinary sock puppet, is it, this is more of a work of genius… Check out the full tutorial.

The thing I love best about this (well, apart from the extreme cuteness of the giraffe) is that it uses a pretty boring sock to start with. And, believe you me, with a lawyer husband, we have a lot of pretty boring socks in the house.

2. Sock monkey

Of course, there’s the good old sock monkey. You couldn’t do this with a sock with holes in, but it could be a good plan for a sock whose partner has been swallowed by the washing machine…

There’s a free tutorial and pattern on Craftpassion.com

3. Sock hobbyhorse

Hobbyhorse made of a sock | Wolves in London — © Mummo

If you’ve got a particularly large, woolly holeless sock, then take inspiration from these amazing sock hobbyhorses, found (via Pinterest) on Mummo.

I think these are actually for sale, so there’s no tutorial, but with a bit of wool, a stick and some basic sewing skills, I think I could probably figure out my own version of this.

4. Sock sloths

Sock sloth | Wolves in London — © Lauren at Cut Out + Keep

Need I say more?! Sock sloths. Oh my goodness, just look at him!

There’s something of a sloth obsession in our house; we spend a lot of time watching Youtube videos of squeaking sloths. (Search for “sloth squeak” if that sounds like your cup of tea…) But my, oh my, it never in a million years occurred to me to try and craft one from an old sock.

I’m adding this one to the list of things to make for the sproglet’s next birthday. (It’s in July so there is plenty of time still to ~~make one~~ forget all about it…)

Full instructions at Cut Out + Keep by Lauren.

5. Sock snakes

To be honest, I could go on forever with cute stuffed animals made from socks, but I’m going to resist adding any more after showing you this last one. Surely the easiest sock creature ever to make: a stuffed snake.

There’s a full tutorial over on Craft Foxes, which claims it’s so easy a four-year-old can do it. Not having a four-year-old myself, I can’t verify this information, but I can say it certainly looks easy enough that I could make it even when weary and bleary-eyed with sleep deprivation after a night of combined baby teething and toddler nightmares. (Which is basically most of my days, at the moment.)

So this one is going straight to the top of the sock recycling to do list.

6. A “hard to reach places cleaner”

Sock cleaner | Wolves in London — © Wikihow

I nicked this idea from the insanely long list of ways to recycle socks on wikihow.

Tape the sock onto a long stick (or ruler) and use it to clean under sofas, cupboards and so on. Now, let’s face it, this is by far the least cute and attractive idea I’ve included here, but it is also, without doubt, the only one that I am sure I will definitely, definitely actually get round to doing.

7. Sock blanket

Sock blanket | Wolves in London — The greatest thing ever made from socks?!

This is perhaps my favourite idea of all: a sock blanket (or quilt, really…) Head over to the Flickr picture to find out all the details of how it is made, but apparently these argyle socks were first turned into scarves, which were then all knitted together to make this amazing-looking blanket.

This, my friends, is “upcycling” at its finest!

If my socks make it into some impressive new form, I will be sure to share some pics and info with you. (Well, not of the sock cleaner, I’m not convinced I could spin a bit of cleaning hard-to-reach-places into a fascinating blog post with scintillating photos, no matter how hard I tried…) And if you’ve seen or made anything else with old socks that I need to know about, please do drop me a comment below…

A snowflake bedroom

December 30, 2014 ~ Wolves in London ~ 6 Comments

Hello hello! Happy Tuesday-in-that-odd-bit-between-Christmas-and-New-Year. I hope you had wonderful Christmases and are ready for amazing 2015s.

I’d meant to post this in the run-up to Christmas but, of course, what with everything else, I got a bit sidetracked and it never managed to make it out of draft mode. Still, it’s not specifically about Christmas, just winter, I suppose, so hopefully still of some small interest in these last few breaths of December…

Paper snowflakes | Wolves in London — Scuse the graininess, there’s no blinking light at all up by the ceiling in the middle of winter…

Because my Mum lives 90 minutes away from us, whenever she looks after one of the boys for the day, she spends the night beforehand in our guest room.

The term “guest room” is a bit of a misnomer. It’s more like a “dump the junk that won’t fit anywhere else room,” stuffed full with car seats, concertinaed spare prams and teetering piles of craft supplies.

Ever since we renovated the house about a year ago (and then ran out of money before finishing the decorating, just like in every TV property show ever broadcast) it’s had some curtains tacked in place across the window, not able to open or close. It used to be the bathroom, before the big house reshuffle, and the window has been specifically designed to be permanently open a crack, an icy breeze filtering through at this time of year.

So my poor old Mum has spent many a night picking her way to a bed through a floor full of detritus, sleeping overlooked by stacks of boxes and, though mostly cosy under our warmest, thickest duvet, she has confessed to me that she sometimes puts a pillow over her head to try and keep her face warm from the draught.

As she spent Christmas with us this year she had five whole nights to enjoy the delights of our spare room. And, it being Christmas’n’all, I wanted to actually make it a pleasant experience for her.

The boxes and spare prams were banished to a desultory corner of our bedroom, the car seats stashed in her car on arrival and, most exciting of all, we actually put a curtain pole up, so the curtains could be opened in the morning, woohoo.

And then I thought, oh wouldn’t it be fun to make it like a proper white Christmas in there?

So, one evening, the hubby and I (well, mostly the hubby, really) made hundreds of snowflakes to hang from the ceiling.

Now she’s gone back home, I’ve brought them all down into the sitting room, where they sway endlessly in the breeze from the window and the heat from the radiator. What do you think? Quite festive, no?!

I think the overall effect is actually quite classy.

Okay, maybe only a little bit classy and a lot kitschy.

I followed various different templates and patterns I found on Pinterest (obvs) — but mostly just hacked out little shapes from folded triangles of paper to see how they would end up. If you feel like brightening up your room in January, you can find all the patterns saved in my Pinterest board Homemade Christmas.

But, even better than this veritable paper wonderland for my poor old Mum, I also made a draught excluder from an old pair of pyjamas to lie across the gaping hole in the window. Otherwise, she may well have woken on Christmas day, a glacial breeze wafting across her face and — yet to put her glasses on — glanced up to the ceiling and thought she had woken to a genuine white Christmas.

So on that icy note, happy 2015 to you all! I hope you’ve got something lovely planned for New Year’s Eve. Me, I’ll be digging something out of the freezer to eat, scoffing the odd mouthful, inbetween the wake up calls of my two never-great-sleeping children who have entered all manner of horrendous sleep regressions over the Christmas week, downing as much wine as I can manage when free to do so and possibly watching an episode of Modern Family before, most likely, flaking out on the sofa at about 10pm. I know, I know, I’ll stop now for fear of making whatever plans you’ve got seem completely anticlimactic in comparison.

xxx

On the mantel: December

December 23, 2014 ~ Wolves in London ~ 5 Comments

Ahhh, the Christmas mantelpiece.

It’s the one I remember most fondly from my childhood. Hundreds of cards jostling for space. An ever-growing nativity scene, ultimately boasting four baby Jesuses made out of clay, the child/sculptor’s name scrawled into the bottom and the constant pestering to my Mum to decide which of us had made the “best Jesus.” An advent calendar and advent candle hiding in there somewhere, the candle lit ceremoniously in the evening – though we’d frequently forget it for days on end, or leave it burning for longer than we should, so it rarely showed the right date.

Christmas is really all about creating traditions for kids, isn’t it? It’s something I look forward to with more excitement each year as the sproglets get older and more able to understand what’s going on.

December mantelpiece | Wolves in London — Oh so hard to take photos in these dark days!

My mantelpiece now is nowhere near as full, riotous or jolly as those we used to have when I was little, but I’ve got a nod to some of the same elements.

On the right, perhaps my favourite Christmas decoration of all time: an angel candle holder. The angels spin round and round when the tea light is lit… I’ve had it for four years now, but it was only when examining in closely with the sprog, that I realised each angel is carrying a different offering.

The beautiful poppy illustration to the left is an RHS 2014 calendar that I discovered in the attic just last week… I must have put it away when we moved out last Autumn for the building work and then forgotten about it once we moved back in. It is absolutely stunning, so I’m pleased to be enjoying it for the last few weeks of the year, anyhow, ha ha.

All is not lost, however, as I plan to cut out some of the illustrations and frame them, so they can have a more permanent position in the room.

RHS calendar | Wolves in London — This is a poppy illustration in festive Christmas colours…

Of course, we don’t only have one Christmas card, the rest are on the bookshelves in the alcoves surrounding the mantelpiece. But I am quite fond of this little polar bear in his woolly hat…

Polar bear card — It must get cold in the Arctic. I’d want a woolly hat too…

On the far left, a fabulously kitsch Mary, Joseph and Jesus, nestle next to an offcut of our Christmas tree and some pinecones. The little nativity trio were sent to me by one of my oldest friends a few Christmases ago when we were out in Hong Kong, as part of a fabulous Christmas bundle to bring a bit of the classic British Chrimbo to our little patch in China. (Also included, The Muppet’s Christmas Carol, a CD of Christmas songs and some Christmas tree hairclips.) It might well be the favourite parcel I’ve ever received.

Nativity | Wolves in London — Shiny shiny

In a slight aside, I’ve been pondering a lot this year how to explain the whole Christmas thing to the sproglet. I was raised (very loosely) CofE, but am not religious at all anymore.

(For anyone interested, the nutshell version of what I believe is that this short life we have here on Earth is all there is, so let’s all be nice to each other and try and make it as enjoyable and as much fun as we can. )

I’m not quite sure, though, what line to take with the sproglet when explaining various (mainly Christian) religious things. Obviously, we are actually celebrating Christmas, so do I just give him the story of Jesus, or do I preface everything with “some people believe that…”?

It seems like there’s quite a fine line to tread in there somewhere, explaining about all religious festivals, but why we only celebrate certain ones of them if we’re not, ourselves, actually of that religion. And why other people, such as friends or relatives, believe things different to what we (or rather I) do.

Anyway, he’s only two still, so perhaps I can worry about all that another year.

On a much lighter note, the ginkgo garland below is still hanging since last month (missing on a central leaf). I had planned to take it down and replace it with something more Christmassy, but I just love it so much, it’s stayed up there. I’ll leave it til Christmas Eve and then put some stockings up.

The fireplace remains unlit, again something for Christmas Eve, I think. Meanwhile, the wicker basket is full of blankets, for snuggling up under in these dark cold nights.

Candlelight, blankets and kitsch ornaments: I need nothing more from Christmas!

I’ve been showing you my mantelpiece each month since September, but have decided not to carry on in 2015. I’ve become aware that there are lots (and lots and lots!) of other bloggers out there showing beautifully styled, beautifully photographed vignettes from around their houses. Now, I’m not a stylist, nor an especially proficient photographer (see my struggle to get these images in gloomy winter weather) so I started to think I’m not really adding anything especially interesting to the mix…

I’m planning on sticking a bit more to what I’m good at: crafting, gardening and a lot of wittering, ha ha.

I’ll be popping back in tomorrow (Christmas preps all going well, at any rate) to show you a little crafty / papery project I made for my guest room and then it’s off to the mulled wine and mince pies and duck that we’ve got planned. Hope you’re all settling down to enjoy festivities…

Print your own Christmas wrapping paper {and free printable}

December 22, 2014December 1, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 3 Comments

Home-printed reindeer wrapping paper, free download I have to confess to suffering a little from blogger’s fatigue around Christmas time.

Scrolling through my feed on Bloglovin is a bit of a groundhog day experience. It starts sometime in November. Ah, a homemade advent calendar, another homemade advent calendar, oooh, that’s interesting, a homemade advent calendar.

And so on, through the month. Homemade wreath for the door. Mince pies. Christmas wish list. Homemade gift tags. Homemade baubles. Homemade wrapping paper.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone isn’t making lovely homemade wotnots (nor that I’m not joining in myself, I too have shared most of these ideas/tutorials) it’s just that it ends up a little… …samey.

Anyway, all of this is perhaps the oddest intro in the world to say: hey, look at my homemade wrapping paper!

Home printed Christmas wrapping paper — My wrapping paper this year

If you’re not bored stiff with people telling you how they’ve gone about Christmas this year, then I’ve got my latest contribution to add to the pile: home printed wrapping paper.

I tried out the idea of printing my own paper a while ago, and was pretty pleased with the results, with the (rather large) caveat that it only works if you’re wrapping something small that fits inside A4 paper.

Home printed penguin Christmas wrapping paper — Perhaps I should have added a ribbon or something here…

This Christmas I’ve added a few more designs, one with a rather wonderful reindeer, one with a little Christmas tree of birds and one with some penguins.

The file is attached here, with all three designs, if you like them and fancy using them yourselves:

Download Christmas wrapping paper file

And if you prefer to make your own, there is a more detailed tutorial on my older post: print your own wrapping paper. (But basically: get a design. Copy across the page. Print.)

The illustrations are found, as usual, from the wonderful Graphics Fairy website.

So, advent calendar made, baubles made, decorations up (more on that tomorrow…) and now the presents are wrapped. Well, the three small presents that fit inside the A4 paper, anyway.

Pretty much the perfect time to sink into a mulled wine haze, isn’t it?

5 free Christmas gift tag printables

December 12, 2014December 11, 2015 ~ Wolves in London ~ 9 Comments

Well, I might not have got round to actually buying any Christmas presents yet, but, let me tell you, I am all over my plans for wrapping them up…

I’m on an eco bent this year once again, and intend to make all my wrapping paper this weekend. Meanwhile, I’ve been building up a collection of really beautiful free downloadable gift tags for a few years now and though that – hey, with the Christmas spirit of sharing’n’all – you might like to see them as well.

Of course, if you just print these on normal printer paper, it’s not much more environmentally friendly than just buying gift tags (though still cheaper, which is always a bonus round this time of year). But if you use some of the endless (endless!) pieces of paper that come into the house and normally go straight out to recycling, this is not only a great money-saving idea, but a good ol’ planet saving (well, tree saving) idea too.

I’m cutting up the estate agent letters (no, thanks, I don’t want a free valuation on my home), the weekly special offers from Virgin Media, even the blank bits on the side of our veg box contents list and turning the scrap pieces of paper and card into my gift tags.

But, without further ado, here are the lovely tags themselves:

1. Graphics Fairy vintage images

Graphics Fairy vintage gift tags — Lovely Graphics Fairy tags

From the Graphics Fairy, these fabulous vintage image tags. Of course I love these, I even used some of the same images for my advent calendar last year. The Graphics Fairy site has hundreds (probably thousands) of amazing vintage Christmas images, but these tags use some of the nicest…

Find them here: Graphics Fairy

2. Decorator’s Notebook flora and fauna

Gift tags from Decorator's Notebook — Grouse, deer, the full range!

Last year’s gift tag from Decorator’s Notebook combined vintage with flora and fauna… Be still my beating heart! Not only are these utterly beautiful but the subjects are oh-so-very up my street right now as I am completely fixated with old horticultural drawings.

Find them here: Decorator’s Notebook.

3. Fellow Fellow’s acorns and leaves

More on the nature theme; of course, but of course, I love these acorns, leaves and pine cones.

Find them here: Fellow Fellow.

4. We Lived Happily Ever After’s hand drawn tags

We Lived Happily Ever After gift tags — Beautiful hand drawn vibes

I love the simplicity of these tags, which look stunning printed on brown craft paper. I’m hoping to make lots of my wrapping paper out of brown recycled (Amazon packaging) paper, so these would work a treat alongside…

Find them here: We Lived Happily Ever After

5. Sweet Paul’s animals

Sweet Paul gift tags — A safari of presents

One for the kids (perhaps?!) – I used these for the sproglet’s tags last year and he was absolutely delighted to have a lion and elephant give him presents…

Find them here: Sweet Paul.

Please do let me know if you’ve come across any other amazing printables. And for more of this sort of thing, plus everything homemade for Chrimbo, check out my Pinterest board Homemade Christmas.

5 lovely Letterpress Christmas cards

December 5, 2014December 5, 2014 ~ Wolves in London ~ 3 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that my sister set up her own Letterpress card business a year or so ago.

She’s super talented (and I don’t say that just because I’m her big sister) and her wedding invitations and cards are always beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that one of her Christmas cards was just featured in Elle Deco magazine. She’s going places that one…

Anyway, it got me thinking how nice it is to receive (and send) really special, unique, original, handmade cards. So I’ve done a little research and come up with five of my favourite Letterpress Christmas cards, and here they are, my lovely readers, just for you.

I’m a big fan of supporting independent makers, so this year I’m doing my best to avoid Amazon and to shop, instead with the likes of Etsy, Folksy, Not on the High Street, et al. And the cards are the perfect place to start, no?!

1. Penguins by Wolf & Ink

Wolf & Ink penguin Christmas card — Wolf & Ink penguin card

Of course, sis must have number one spot. She’s got a great selection of cards (and wedding invitations if you’re getting hitched and feeling classy!), but this amazing penguin tree is my personal favourite.

Available from Not on the High Street.

2. Tree by SteelPetalPress

Christmas card by SteelPetalPress — Tree by SteelPetalPress

I love trees, you know that, right? I’d put a tree on every card if I could, so this Christmas one is hugely appealing.

Available from Etsy

3. White Christmas card from dittodittoworks

I love this gorgeous reflection of a row of trees (oh goodness, I just realised the first three I’ve selected are all some form of tree!) with the stamped forms above and the green shadows below…

Available from Etsy

4. Happy Holidays by Artcadia

It doesn’t get more jolly than red stockings and snowflakes. I’m a sucker for the red-and-white Christmas colour combo (brings out the green of the tree, y’know) so this is close to my ideal card for the mantelpiece.

Available from Not on the High Street

5. Father Christmas by Rococo Rose

What’s that, you say? I’m ever predictable? Well, yes, I know, but I just can’t resist a good old vintage image at any time of year and at Christmas those old fashioned pictures just call to me even more strongly. This wonderful Father Christmas is from Rococo Rose made from a vintage engraving.

Available from Not on the High Street

My sister made my lovely business cards. (I really must get round to handing out a few more of these babies…)

Homemade Christmas decorations: 7 of the best

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014 ~ Wolves in London ~ 8 Comments

There’s something about Christmas that never fails to bring out my inner crafting obsessive.

Perhaps it’s memories of endless paper chains and papier mache bells and baubles as a child (the latter usually too heavy to actually be strung up anywhere in the house, for fear of head injuries if they pulled down the bit of string, or perhaps even the bit of plaster, to which they were attached…)

Whatever the reason, the minute I start thinking about Christmas, I start thinking about what I can make. Presents, food, wrapping paper, decorations… …someone stop me because I just want to make it all!

Sanity usually (usually!) prevails and I realise that – short of sending the kids down the mine for a few weeks to give myself a bit of peace and quiet – there’s no way I will find the time to make everything I would like to.

This year, rather than homemade presents, I think I’m going to focus on homemade decorations.

Here’s a round up of seven of my favourites from the wonderful world of the web (really, truth be told, the wonderful world of Pinterest…)

1. Snowflake garland

Homemade Christmas decorations | Wolves in London — © Martha Stewart

First of all, let’s revisit some childhood memories with a paper chain display. Not having an amazing clapboard porch, like this house in the Martha Stewart photo, I won’t need to make these snowflakes out of weatherproof paper as suggested, but some bog standard normal printer paper would do the trick, I’ll warrant, just as well.

I’ll also hang these horizontally, rather than vertically, and festoon them across my entire house I suspect…

Full tutorial here: Martha Stewart’s frosty banners

2. Christmas village window display

Okay, this isn’t a tutorial at all, but a set of stickers you can buy from Cox and Cox. However, I don’t think it would take a genius to make these from scratch. (I have yet to actually *try* and make these from scratch, so I may be later eating my words…)

Some stiff cardboard, a knife and a pencil is surely enough to get the same effect? (Though, I do wonder about combatting condensation on the window. Hmmm. Perhaps a white plastic bag would work better?)

At any rate, I had to include these because I definitely intend to replicate this on my window this year in some form or other.

3. Fabric baubles

I made these last year and was really very delighted with them. Now packed in a box somewhere, exact location unknown, I think I’d better whip up a few more before December strikes. Find more info on last year’s post: Liberty fabric baubles.

4. Paper baubles

Homemade Christmas decorations round-up | Wolves in London — © The Guardian

Last year, I also made a lovely collection of paper concertina baubles, following this tutorial in the Guardian.

I printed off lots of vintage sheet music (from the Graphics Fairy, of course) and then cut it all into circles and assembled into lots of lovely, pretty baubles. (I’m now trying to wonder why on earth I didn’t photograph them at the time…)

However, by the end of the festivities, they had got pretty crumpled and dirty and didn’t look very nice at all. I chucked them all in the bin.

This year, when I make them again, I will print the images out onto card and hope that they last a little better. Yes, I love making stuff, but I love it even more if it can actually last a year or two…

5. Snow village

Homemade Christmas decorations; a round-up | Wolves in London — © My Tiny Plot

I’ve been eyeing up this adorable winter snow village from My Tiny Plot for three years now. This year will be the one I finally make it!

I love the houses, the lights shining out from the windows, the idea of adding to the village, slowly, year-by-year, a house at a time and – most of all – the knowledge that this couldn’t fail to be something remembered by the kids as a pretty cool Christmas tradition.

You can read all about it on My Tiny Plot here: expanding snow village.

6. Snow globe

At Christmas, there is one thing that is absolutely essential. Yup, that’s the one, fake snow…

And this idea especially appeals to me. Fake snow inside a glass bauble with a teeny tiny tree. Ha! What’s not to love?

I was going to link you directly to the tutorial (from Allparenting.com), but the website has got a super annoying automatic pop-up showing some Marvel superheroes cartoon, which just took so long to load up it slowed down my entire laptop for about five minutes. Instead, here is the link to my Pin, and you can click through from there if you choose and have a few minutes to spare while you wait for the pop-up to appear and be closed again: DIY snow globe.

7. Cross-stitch crochet stocking

About once a week, I see something on Pinterest that makes me wish I could crochet. This is that project…

Okay, in order to make this I would not only have to learn how to crochet, but also develop considerably more patience in order to do the cross stitching nicely too (weirdly, I love to knit, but hate to hand sew) so the chances of this getting made, by me, this year, are really quite slim.

But then again; look at the glorious stocking! I would really, really like to have four of these hanging from my mantelpiece on December 24th. So perhaps I could give it a go…

The pattern, which is free, is available from Yarnspirations here: Cross stitch Christmas stockings.

Do you usually make your own decorations? Have you seen anything else equally amazing I should consider? Do leave me a comment and let me know…

Wolves in London

Making stuff and pootling in the garden

Craft