Christmas sewing (and not much else)

Hello! It's been a while hasn't it? I've been dealing with a really bad back and haven't been able to sew (or sit, or walk) much at all.

But Christmas is my favourite time of year, and one I associate with sewing and baking. I wasn't up to any large projects this year, but I was able to make a couple of handmade Christmas gifts.

The first is for my parents and father-in-law. We made them a set of personalised tea towels. They were super simple - the kids painted with watercolour onto regular paper, which I then scanned and uploaded to Spoonflower.

I had them printed onto a cotton-linen blend, which was kind of pricey, but worthwhile in terms of durability. I fit four images onto a yard of fabric, and when it arrived I cut and hemmed. Voila! So simple and very popular on Christmas morning.
 

Three tea-towels from three budding little artists. Even the baby got in on the act!

I also created a few silhouette tea-towels. I've been wanting to make silhouettes of the kids for ages, and it was much simpler than I thought it would be. The silhouettes below were created in photoshop (using the pen tool) but I've also seen some great tutorials for making them with paper.

These were also printed by Spoonflower onto cotton-linen blend. I have made a lot of fabric with Spoonflower lately, and will post about it very soon. I'm especially excited about one of the projects in particular.

I just adore the finished product, and have kept a couple of these for myself. Baby A is growing so fast (she's nearly 16 months) and I really wanted to capture the last of her sweet baby shape.

The silhouettes seem to capture their personalities perfectly.

Next up is a gift for my eldest's preschool teacher. I have to admit I wasn't too sure about the teacher when I first met her, but she has been fabulous. We were sad to say goodbye on the last day of preschool.

Miss E drew a card for her teacher, which I then copied and embroidered onto some linen, and then stitched into a journal cover. 

The colours are kind of hard to see, E used metallic ink and it reflected the light.

Detail

Miss E and her teacher, holding hands under a rainbow. Yep... it's good to be 4 and have such a rosey view of the world.