Some more Christmas gifts...

 I finally got round to using the fantastic templates from "Freya and Fred" by Janet Clare that I bought a while ago & blogged about.  I rather enjoyed the fiddlyness (is that a word??) of cutting out the shapes & then doing the free-motion applique.  It reminded me of the little paper dolls that I would trace & cut out of Bunty magazine. (I was never allowed to cut the dolls out of the actual comic/annual)

I still need to practice my free-motion skills, as my stitches are far too small.  All the advice I read said to set stitch length to zero (including the instructions in my old Bernina manual) but I think I need to set my stitch length to 1 or 2 next time.  I used a grey guttermans top thread and white bobbin (as I only have 2 bobbins that Miss Nina will allow me to use and can not always be bothered or want to waste a ton of thread just to change colour, on this occasion both bobbins had plenty of white thread on them).  The stitching came out like pencil drawing and I am actually pretty pleased with my pretty ballerinas! Kirsty eat your heart out lol!

Anyway, the ballerinas were stitched onto some lovely ballerina fabric that I bought at The Ally Pally show last month, which I then turned into little drawstring bags using this tutorial from Kitcshycoo blog.  Although I added a front pocket and the first bag that I made seemed a bit small so I added 2 inches to all the measurements for the bigger sister.  I bought some cheap poly cotton for the lining and managed to find the EXACT shade of green cord - both from Fabricland.  The only problem I had was with the cord unravelling, so I enclosed the ends in little squares of the ballerina fabric (losing two needles in the process!)

I must have taken over 10 photos of this pair of models - they were not happy at having their photo taken whilst wearing a "girl" on their back, anyway after a sweetie (or 2) it was a (slightly) different story!

The bags are Christmas pressies for my Goddaughter and her little sister (5 and 2 yrs old)

And these are aprons that I have made for my Nieces. 

They have lots of toys & clothes so I am making them each a little baking hamper for Christmas.  The aprons I bought in the Summer at a  "strawberry fayre" in my Aunt's Wawickshire village.  They were brand new with tags, from Laura Ashley and I think cost me 50p each!! I added their names by using Word Art in MS word/office and a cursive font.  I then traced the (reversed) names onto bonda web and ironed it onto my fabric before cutting out.  The names were then free-motion appliqued onto the apron/pockets.