Sew La Ti Embroidery:
handmade

 For my giveaway this time around I have a pretty little charm pack of  "Ruby" , the latest fabric collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. This collection is oh so gorgeous and I really need to get some myself now that I have seen it in person to touch and see the lovely colour palette they have used.

Along with the handmade gift making that is going on in my sewing attic lately I have whipped up a sweet little birdie pincushion and a matching needlebook. The Birdie pincushion was made using this free tutorial here and is really so easy and satisfying to make. I think I will be making more of these in the near future. The needle book cover is made up of tiny little 1" squares of shabby chic fabrics with some coordinating wool felt pages inside taken from my precious stash of Heather Bailey felts.

In order to be in to win this wee collection of pretty sewing supplies just leave me a comment sharing one or more of your handmade gifts for this holiday season or perhaps a link to your favourite tutorial.

This giveaway will be left open till 16th December when a winner will be drawn randomly.

Overseas comments are most welcome and also please make sure I can contact you via email :-)

No I'm not going to write a post on how we rarely hand write letters any more but it is something that we see less and less of which I think is a little sad since how special do we feel when we receive even just a handwritten note. Anyway with those thoughts in mind I designed this writing/journalling folder or "compendium" I think is the correct word for it. I used up some scraps of batiks leftover from the making of my 'Boho bag'. As you can see it has 2 pockets on the front for pens and closes with a fabric loop and handmade button (a miniature version of the button on the bag). Inside it has 4 large pockets for storing paper, journals and pens, 2 single pen pockets and 2 pockets for cards. Once again I used some African 'shwe shwe' fabrics for the inside. I really like the way these prints coordinate with the blue batiks plus the fact that they've been in my stash for a while now and it feels good to finally find the perfect items to use them in.

I know these pictures aren't great, but I'm being sneaky while my kids are busy doing other things, and I haven't played around with my new camera enough yet. My girls have been wanting me to make them new purses for awhile now, so I thought, perfect thing for Christmas! I had them each pick a fabric out for the outside because they are all pretty opinionated (hmmm, I wonder where they got that trait)?

I found the little owl coin purses at Pier 1 awhile ago and had to get them. The flower notebooks I purchased at one of the shows I was involved in they are from Vinylicious, my kids will be excited about those because everytime they would see them at Art Market they wanted one.

I made it!!!

The past month or so I have been running around like a crazy person (who am I kidding, I am a crazy person) getting ready for all my shows, I am finally done, I still have one more show on the 10th and 11th, but I am pretty much done getting ready for it. After getting past this weekend doing two shows at the same time, I finally feel like I can breath again. I usually am ready for Christmas by now, but I haven't really done much yet. I now have time to work on things for our handmade Christmas, but is that what I worked on tonight? Nope. This awesome vintage coat that I thrifted for $8 is what I played around with, started out a really cool blue grey coat.

Ended up an even more awesome coat that I think looks like something that would cost $250 at Anthropologie, but everything was thrifted, and probably cost me less than $15 total, couldn't really say, all the lace and doilies came from my stash. (I have quite an impressive lace stash if I do say so myself, thanks to thrifting.)

They are not finished yet, but my children are gone so I was able to take a picture. I am making a Black Apple Doll for my three girls and 2 other lucky girlies. I think I dig them without a face too, so that is how they will stay. I may even attempt to make clothes for them, we will see.

I am very happy with how they are turning out, this is my first real attempt at making anything stuffed. I'm getting very excited about this handmade Christmas!

I had a ton of projects to finish for August! First up, I participated in Oh Hello Friend's lovely package exchange. Here is the package I put together for my partner. I love doing these swaps, I have so much fun putting a package together. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the box I sent it in, it was super cute I thought, I taped patterned papers all over it. This picture really only gives you a peek at some of the contents. Here is what I sent: a basketful of vintage fabrics, ribbons and buttons, a jar of jelly bellies, the coolest leather journal with gold birds stamped all over from Anthropologie, a wooden stick pencil, a painted sea shell necklace, a couple of vintage flower hair pins, and a headband.

Here are my pretty packages I received from Oni! Brown paper packages tied up in strings, these are a few of my favorite things.

Here is what was inside! Vintage cards, handmade cards, vintage sewing patterns, buttons, and the coolest handmade necklace! Thanks Oni. I love everything!

So, what do you do when you are on a tight budget and realize that Easter is a week away?
Fill Easter baskets with handmade gifts! Which I think is better anyway.

I made these bunnies using this tutorial from My little mochi.
I just changed the face a bit. They are about 5 1/2 inches tall and I think I'm in love with them, I hope my daughters will be too.
I'll share all my other Easter basket filler projects this week too. Maybe if you are a procrastinator like I can be sometimes you'll get some ideas.