Sew Ho Ho

When our children were born Stella, a friend of my mother-in-law's, would make them a Christmas stocking.  At this point I should post a cosy fireside picture but that would require me going up into the attic, opening up the Christmas decs bag and, quite frankly, its too early in December.

Plus I might be a bit scared there's a mouse up there.

Anyway, needless to say, now I am a Granny with a mild obsession with making stuff, I feel that our Little Love should have her own stocking, too.  

Ho ho ho

I'm not saying I can compete with Stella's amazing efforts but I felt inspired to give it a go after I found some lovely Christmas fabric during a browse around the Eternal Maker and an online tutorial here.

I'd love to be able to show some elegant, Instagram-lifestyle, Pinterest-ready version of how things turned out.  

But, as I may have alluded to before, there often seems to be a mis-match between what I imagine in my head and what I end up making.

No no no!

I mean, I KNOW how to do applique, for crying out loud.   

I've also watched tutorials, downloaded (and even read) a great little instruction e-book and practiced many plenty of times.  

However....  this was baaad.

I need to remember that the whole reason for the blog being named Fashionably Slow is to celebrate the creative process and to honour the time it takes to make things from scratch.   The problem is I get so excited about starting something new that I rush in and mess up.

Things I have learnt from my mistakes: the secret to Applique is to make sure you stabilise the front fabric with some iron-on vilene, and the back with stitch and tear paper.   Practice on scrap fabric first.  AND SLOW DOWN. 

Plenty of room for pressies.

I always underestimate how long its going to take to make something.  I always think that I can just 'run something up' on my sewing machine.  

This was just one of the things on my list to make today and it took me hours!  

I reckon the next one will be easier, though!