The Story
Friends, I love Christmas too. However one chooses to celebrate it, I love the idea that in the middle of darkest winter (in this hemisphere) we come together with friends and family to exchange gifts, eat, drink and make merry. Like many people I do get stressed and overwhelmed. I take on too much, I have over ambitious plans of making all my gifts and I seem to spend much of the run up feeling panicky and fraught. Each year I try to simplify, to put less pressure on myself, to focus on what really matters. Love, warmth, friendship and togetherness! How am I doing this year? Better for sure, but not quite there yet! As usual, things I had planned to make are dropping fast off the bottom of my To Do list........apart from one.
Every year for the past few, I have made a different decoration. I am trying to build a collection of handmade things for my own tree, and if I make several I can give some away. Here are some from years past......
This year I decided to make Angels. I thought and dreamed of how they would be, and finally came up with a plan. I love fabric yoyos. I am always amazed at how a simple circle of fabric can turn into such a pretty, flouncy thing. I decided to use yoyos for my angels' bodies, and I must say I love the way they look.
What you need is
Fabric
Thread
Double sided tape
A compass for drawing circles or circle templates
Wooden beads such as these
Wool, or string for hair, limbs and sewing together
Beads for hands and feet
Fine black marker for eyes
Blusher
What you do is
Prepare your templates. I used a compass to draw circles on an acrylic sheet such as this. I have also used old plastic folders such as these. It means you can use them over and over, but of course you could just draw your circles straight onto the fabric. I did 9 circles, the smallest had a diameter of 4cm, and I made each circle 0.5cm bigger than the last. Draw your circles onto your fabric. I used a silver pen as the line won't show once it's sewn. Cut out your circles.
Sew a running stitch around the edge of each circle. When you pull the thread ends tight, it magically makes these pretty, ruffled discs.
For my angel heads, I bought some 3cm wooden beads here. Because we are Brownies, I painted some of my heads brown and left some natural. I stuck strips of double sided tape on the beads, around the hairline and a couple more crisscrossing the head to stick the hair on. I used lengths of wool for the hair. For some I wound the wool round in circles, for others I laid it in straight lines. I used a marker to draw on the eyes, and blusher to give a little colour to the cheeks.
Find a needle that will fit through your beads. Make a loop of string through the largest yoyo for legs, and thread a shorter length through the sides of the third smallest for arms. Thread beads onto the string/wool for hands and feet, making a knot at the end to keep them on.
With a new piece of string/wool, take a stitch through the top of the largest yoyo, and then up through one side of each smaller one, through the head, back down the other side of all your circles, finishing with a knot between the two largest yoyos. Phew, you definitely deserve a nice pat on the back now (possibly accompanied by a g and t......)
If time is short, you could just sew a simple triangle, stuffed with some batting for a different body. You could also turn the yoyos into Christmas trees.
Well that's all from me, my lovelies. I do hope you feel inspired to make a little something for your tree too. Take care and be kind to yourselves in this hectic period!
Jenny xxx
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