Sew, It's A Handmade Christmas!

#craftblogclub Secret Santa!

I love Christmas. I think it's the perfect time to share what you love with others and nothing says 'I care' more than a hand made gift- wouldn't you agree?
So when #craftblogclub invited me to take part in their secret santa, I just couldn't resist!

I knew that I wanted my secret santa gift to be something upcycled as it is something that im very passionate about for many reasons.
one that it means we are not wasting anything but mainly because I think it is a fantastic way for beginners to get into sewing. So in order to share the love, i'm sharing my #sewingrevolution ethos.

I had recently held a christmas knits workshop and was completely inspired further by my students makes. I thought I would make my secret santa a pair of gloves and a matching scarf too, using a lovely purple jumper and Korbond embroidery threads.
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I firstly got to work on the gloves as I knew that they would take the longest to make, but to be honest the whole project is a nice quick make and is perfect for Christmas when wanting to make a few hand made gifts for friends and family.
I used the arms of the jumpers for my gloves as the cuff's of the sleeve just work perfectly and reduces the amount of hand sewing that you have to do. I also loved the detail in the knit and wanted this to be the main feature of the gloves. Roughly pinning my hand in place, I cut out a mitten shape and used this as a template for the other glove by placing this over the top of the other sleeve.

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After hand sewing the glove with normal sewing thread inside out. I then pulling the glove the right way out and stitched it again, but this time using Korbond embroidery thread and using a chain stitch to add a little extra detail.
I also wanted to add a few cute pink buttons as I thought it complimented the threads I was using as well as the purple of the wool.

I then got to work on the matching scarf. 

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Using the body of the jumper I simply cut across from armpit to armpit, giving me a large tube to work with.
Folding this tube in half, I then single hemmed the cut side and joined it to what was once the original hem of the jumper.
Pinning these edges together I then ladder stitched the seams together, giving you a nice chunky scarf.

To bring the designs together, I added two pink buttons to the detailed side of the scarf. 

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My Upcycled Winter Warmer gift was now ready for the post just in time for Christmas!
It was so lovely to see Kay gets Crafty ​post a picture on her blog and twitter!  
It looked just perfect for her, so I was so glad that she liked it! 
Not forgetting that it wouldn't be Christmas without a gift in return.  I received an awesome fabric wreath made from fabric left overs! AWESOME UPCYCLE Katie!
You can check out how she made it over on her blog 'Katie gets crafty'.
I had to put it up straight away on my sewing room door. I need to ask though, is it bad luck to keep up Christmas decorations as I don't want to take it down!?

Thank you #craftblogclub for organising an awesome Secret Santa.​
Check out #craftblogclub which runs every Tuesday from 7-8.30pm  on twitter for Craft Bloggers and lovers everywhere!

Happy new year everyone and Viva La #Sewingrevolution!