Neice's Christmas Presents

I decided last year that I want as many of the gifts that I give away, particuarly at christmas to be handmade. Whether this is by myself or someone else is irrelevent although I will try to find something to make for everyone if I can.

The first skirt I made, the idea came to me just all of a sudden. I had some jeans that were done but I didnt want to throw out so I opened the seams and reclaimed the zips and buttons out of them with the intention of making patches for quilts/blankets. When I had done this I realised that the bottom legs of the jeans would look nice as a skirt but for someone small. I also had bought a job lot of fabric someone was getting rid of and it had a little bit of voile like fabric with strawberries on it which I hadnt been sure of how to use.

So I took one bottom of the leg off each pair of jeans, one light blue and one dark blue I cut it again on the seam and matched them alternately. I darted them in a bit at the top to shape it a bit nicer for her waist (my 9 year old neice has a 23 inch waist, the same as Victoria Beckham)I then ripped some of the strawberry fabric to give a frayed look at the bottom and hemmed it onto the bottom of the skirt.

I then took it as a big rectangle to plead with my mum to show me how to put a waistband in and a zip. We put in a hidden zip and used really wide elastic to make a waistband and thats pretty much it. I definately learned a lot from my mum through this project that I wouldnt have thought of, like the material being a wee bit higher at the back to compensate for the shape and other such tidbits.

Anyway enough rambling, here is the finished product:





I also made her this skirt:



which I think is absolutely gorgoues. My mum has a stash of vintage fabric in a cupboard in her room (when I say vintage I mean it has probably been in her stash for 20+ years). She pulled this one out and said I thought you might like to do something with this. I instantly though of a skirt because of the way the pattern runs at the bottom. This one was very simple. I sewed a seam up the two edges which would go at the back leaving just enough material to turn over to make a pocket for an elastic waistband. I used the same elastic as I used in the other skirt as my mum has a huge huge roll of it that she bought a while back. I used double the amount of material and 24 inches of elastic so that the fabric would be really floaty.

I used elastic in both skirts because I am frightened that she is going to take another growth spurt between now and christmas or just after christmas. She is huge!!! She is like 5" already.