Christmas Craftertime Part 6: Christmas Tree Bunting Tutorial

Hi all! Below is a pattern I've just made for some Christmas Tree bunting, enjoy!

Using green wool (this is dk and the crochet hook is 3.75mm)

Round 1: Chain 3, 2 double crochet (DC) in to first chain, 3 chain, 3 DC, 3 chain, 3 DC, 3 chain and join to first DC.
Round 2: Chain 5, *3DC in to next 3 chain space, 3 chain, 3DC in to same space, 2 chain*, repeat twice and join to initial chain
Round 3: Chain 3, 2 DC in to next space, *2 chain, 3DC in to next space, 3 chain, 3DC in same space, 2 chain, 3DC in to next space* repeat twice and join to initial chain
Round 4: Chain 5, *3 DC in to next space, 2 chain, 3DC in to next space, 2 chain, 3DC in to next space, 3 chain, 3DC in to same space, chain 2* repeat twice and finish off yarn, weave ends.

See pictures for more detail!

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Make as many as you need! I made three as the hanging place wasn't that wide.

Add decoration, I added sparkly white wool (kinda like snow?!), and  my partner said they needed baubles, but not till after they were hung and its too late now!

To hang as bunting either chain a long enough row of wool, or leave a length of wool, measure up your space and sew the trees on at the top point. I used pins to keep them in place when figuring out where they should go.

Yey!

And they are in action! 

Christmas has come to our windowsill!

Merry Christmas!

Ali

xx

Christmas Craftertime: Part 5 Wool and Buttons Christmas Wreath

Wool and Buttons Christmas Wreath

Polystyrene Ring + Big ball of red wool = wrap it up!

Finish off wrapping and weave your ends in so they are hidden.

Select buttons, I went with just white as they stand out against the red best.

Hanging ribbon just loops round

Sew buttons on the wool, be careful to not go through the polystyrene.

Ta da! All done!

 Merry almost Christmas!

Love Ali

xx

Christmas Craftertime: Part 4 Handmade Hand Warmers

Handmade Hand Warmers

Very simple little gift that works as a stocking filler and doesn't take too long to make. A few friends and family got these as gifts and went down OK, my mum got the most use out of hers until they were eaten by mice that had got in to the house! So popular with mice...

Cut two long rectangles of fabric and sew up the two external sides. Fill with rice (and lavender if you're in to that kind of thing) and turn in the edge and sew over.

Pop 2 little hand warmers into plastic bags, staple and add a Christmas message.

All done :)

Merry almost Christmas

Love Ali

xx

Christmas Craftertime: Part 3 Christmas Bunting

Christmas Funting (the fun name for bunting...)

Bunting is all over the place at the moment, and our house is no exception! I used up a load of Christmas left overs for these bad boys and am looking forward to them being put up on our bookcase this year - it was just being planned last year but is complete now!

I made double sided bunting to it will be more flexible, just cut lots of triangles, pin and sew along the edge

Red, green white.

They can go a bit wiggly, so give em a good iron

I used ribbon for the string, bit more luxurious than normal fabric and easy to use. To decide on spacings I  pinned the  ribbon to the wall and then pinned triangles to the ribbon, lots of measurements to make sure all was even!

Pretty!

Ta da! Not the best light in this photo, its always dark in winter, I may update this when  it goes up again this year.

Merry almost Christmas

Love Ali

xx

Christmas Craftertime: Part 2 Crochet Snowmen

Crochet Snowmen!

These adorable little snowmen were made last year when I had to spend the entire day on the train couriering artwork for work - led to an old man who had been sitting behind me for three hours to finally ask what it was I had been making all that time. When I told him I was making tiny snowmen he looked at me quizzically and wandered away.

Pattern totally curtesy of this ace blog with a fantastic name - The Dapper Toad.

Train crochet, and the little scarf is made with scrap wool from Laura S. I loved this wool and was excited to find a use for it!

One of the three little snowmen in the tree, isn't he sweet :)

Hello!

Tiny little baby snowman!

And now for a gratuitous tree shot! Here he is last year in all his glory.

Merry almost Christmas!

Love Ali

xx

Christmas Craftertime: Part 1 Gingerbread Wreath

Last year was mine and the boy's first Christmas in our newly purchased home and I got a little bit in to the decoration! This year is a bit of a different story, far too many weddings and birthdays to plan for, probably a good thing as the house probably can't cope with much more decoration!

So, as I wasn't blogging last year, but as always was taking many pictures I'm going to do a week run down of Christmas crafts each night this week! First up is - 

Gingerbread Wreath

First of you need to make salt dough, hundreds of recipes around and I added plentiful handfuls of cinnamon, ginger and other spices to give it a bit more Christmassyness!

Use a standard gingerbread man cutter and cut out lots of little men, numbers aren't important as long as you have enough to form a ring

Whack the oven on and cut some greaseproof paper for your oven tray. Lay out your little men making sure to overlap hands and feet.

This is what it should look like when put in the oven! Don't forget to put a little pressure on each of the joins so that  it won't break when baked.

Ta da! Thread some festive ribbon through their little bellies and hang like any wreath :)

All done!

 Merry almost Christmas!

Ali

xx

Creative Clutter Cross Stitch

CREATIVE CLUTTER IS BETTER THAN IDLE NEATNESS

New edition of Mollie Makes this month (Issue 20) had an apt cross stitch pattern for our house, which no matter how hard I try is always covered in the remnants of different projects in various stages of production. If there aren't scraps of wool, thread, fabric, card etc. then it just wouldn't be our house!

I particularly enjoy the crazy curly letters!

Back isn't too messy!

Easy pattern to follow and will eventually hang somewhere in our living room when we get round the mammoth framing project that awaits us after Christmas!

Favourite craft magazine :)

Love Ali

xx

Christmas Craft Night (Alternative title: "Smell my kitchen")

It's only a few months until Christmas, and it's now cold and dark outside. Lots of candles, lovely smells, tasty food and Christmas related craft books greeted us at Fiona's house. And wine and tea, all of us were looked after :)

Amy had lost her crochet circles from last time, and was struggling with  mountains of wool...

Nom, cranberry cookies from Laura - delicious

Gingerbread with buttercream icing - amazing and very festive!

I wasn't quite sure what to make this evening, just something involving my weirdly large amount of festive patterned fabric :)

Reindeer applique time

Fiona is knitting a mug cosy, Laura crocheting a complicated chevron blanket and Amy crocheting  circles for bunting

Becky is crocheting the very beginnings of a blanket, with a little bit of help from a lady on the internet...

Wonderful Fiona made us very alcoholic mince meat, which involved apple, cranberry, oranges and rum (brandy?) and smelt amazing. Going to have mine with ice cream I reckon!

Applique reindeer!

Gold and green

Little squares!

Circles!

Chevrons!

Cosy!

Reindeer with final red stitch around.

Wonderful crafterevening. Still have a lot of fabric to use up tho...

Ali

xx