Hello, Christmas makes!! To be honest though my output is quite modest this year, I haven’t gone overboard with the making of Christmas gifts unlike previous years. Just a few little things…
I’d mostly made this black felt bunny a few years ago, using the Luna Lapin pattern book. He was kinda my first test of the pattern before making a camel brown bunny for Arthur, blogged here, but I didn’t do too bad a job if I say so myself. So this year I decided to complete him as a present for Gilbert.
I made his outfit using various bits and pieces as usual; the shirt and buttons were an old shirt of Tim’s… and I used the same buttons for his eyes, the chinos are a nice piece of cotton twill that I plan to use for a pair for myself sometime… hopefully I didn’t cut too large a chunk for that to happen! and his little waistcoat was from a small scrap of fabric that I discovered in a bag of leftovers given to me by my mother-in-law.
I also made Arthur’s bunny a new outfit. I didn’t have his here to model it so Gilbert’s bunny has been roped in for the job. It’s a summer outfit; comprising a Hawaiian shirt and board shorts.
I had to include this picture of the shirt-making burrito! the instructions don’t have this but I figured why not make it as neat as possible. I used sew-in press studs for the shirt in lieu of buttons; they’re just easier and you don’t have to worry about ruining your tiny little shirt with a bad buttonhole. The fabric is leftover from my first Myosotis dress. The board shorts are white linen and blue linen that I dyed myself using a natural indigo dye bath. Actually, the leftovers from my recently made Mestre shirt.
Every year my family always exchanges some sort of homemade food treat too… my effort this year is gingerbread star biscuits to be dunked into tea or coffee. I made a little more that 160ish gingerbread stars and pondered how to decorate them, finally deciding upon an easy option of polka dots. Yes, I’m super into polka dots at the moment for some reason. Oh, and did I say “easy”? haha. For some reason this very simple concept took an entire afternoon and I’ve still got a numb spot on my finger from the pressure of operating the icing contraption thingie. I’m low key disappointed that so much work resulted in actually quite ordinary results, hmff. They are sadly not at all spectacular, but are definitely very yummy and I hope everyone likes them!
In other making news, not related to Christmas pressies; remember this dress? I made it using our own Karijini pattern and a doona cover. yes I still love it in principal, but had tired a little of its soft inoffensive colourway and last month subjected it to the unforgiving depths of the dye pot. It now looks a bit more eye-catching, ahem. I actually love it, and it feels like a new dress in my wardrobe, which is nice.
I could have sewn new covers, however… well, why not knit up some of my wool stash instead? You might recognise this orange-y coral pink cushion cover as my 
This bright unicorn-pastel one was from a stash given to me by my daughter-in-law Lainey… anyone remember the Flurry yarn? I don’t know about outside Australia, but here there was a short-lived fashion for wearing scarves made from this type of wool. There was actually just over three balls of the same colour way in the box Lainey gave to me, which I thought could be enough for a cushion cover. I felt it looked quite nice with the other cushion too. The gods were smiling upon me, because there was the perfect amount for a second cover, with zero leftovers. I knitting in the round, then grafted with Kitchener stitch at the bottom end, I then stuffed in the old cushion insert and stitched up the top end with the leftover wool. So no, you can’t get the cushion inserts out again without undoing a seam, but I’ll probably just hand wash the cover and insert all together and I’m sure it will be fine.
I sealed the seams on both raincoats using 
Kelly found the design and Tim suggested it be a joint project between us, with me making the swing and Tim taking care of the woodwork etc… Kelly and Arthur and I went to Spotlight together and bought the stuff… apart from the fact that it was like 41C that day it was fun!
Arthur’s first trip to Spotlight!
Here is my (amended) pattern…
I think it all turned out super pretty! Also, delicious, obviously! btw, this quantity pictured looks a bit mean but is really just for “pretty” photographic purposes, because everyone got at least four times this amount in little reusable lunchboxes. I used 
