I began my Christmas sewing with a stocking for my granddaughter, which I posted about here.

When I delivered the new and improved stocking I did notice that the red stocking didn’t coordinate well with the ones that Tom and Bridgette have, so I set about making some for them. I had run out of red linen so used some cotton I had bought to make red trousers.

I used different images and again used felt that I had made, the red knit and a piece of black from a jacket accidentally felted by a friend. I used three misshapen beads for the “coal” buttons on the snowman and the orange nose is three-dimensional to represent a carrot.

I so love these and the three look really good on their mantlepiece. Can you tell that Bridgette loves Christmas??

After all this I thought that Mark and I should have nice stockings, so whipped up a couple more, fiddling with Santa’s hat. I did sew the “Sue” on back to front and had to unpick it, but that was my only drama.

You’ll be pleased to know that that is the end of the stocking saga!

Bridgette and I had had a chat about my making Miss G a Christmas decoration every year, so I thought I’d give needle felting a try. This was my first attempt, which probably wasn’t too bad for a first go.

So I made another Father Christmas and a reindeer, but I seemed to get worse at it. My reindeer looks like he’s been up to no good and the Father Christmas has a really squishy body.

I did what I always do under these circumstances and bought a book! If you want to understand needles and processes quickly I can really recommend this book, and it has some lovely projects in it.

I decided I wanted to make a snowman for G’s first Christmas so got going.

I decided to needle felt the year on the bottom, so she can see when she received each decoration. I initially did it upside down, not realising that it would make a difference, but it did so I pulled it off and redid it. I think this will be a lovely tradition.

Then I had another go at the Father Christmas and feel much happier. I’ve learned a lot! The new one is on the right.

On the left is a little jointed teddy bear that I made with the instructions from the book, using wool that I blended myself.

Next came the Christmas wreaths. I used materials foraged from the ground at our holiday place. Mostly honky nuts from the Marri trees, gumnuts from the Jarrah trees, and pincushion hakea seeds.

I think a natural wreath looks really nice on a gate leading into the bush.

I am now making all the presents, which I’ll post after Christmas, but I thought I’d show you the book I made last year for my granddaughter. I notice that I’ve never posted it, and it’s quite cute so here it is. It’s all wool felt sourced from My Felt Lady in Queensland.

The little pieces of floral ribbon came from my Mum’s stash, which I think is quite special, and some of it is velvet.. I added a ribbon and a clip so it can be attached to the pram.

I have now started one for the next grand baby which I’ll show you in due course. I really enjoy making baby books!