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My 2020 Handmade Christmas

January 6, 2021 by Jessica 4 Comments

Last year has come and gone and as slow as it felt at times, I’m still surprised it’s over. Christmas flew by for me and I was looking back at all the handmade things I created for gifts/decor and wanted to compile them all in one place. I have lots to share and hopefully it can give you some inspiration for next year. It’s never too early to start creating when you plan to give handmade. I always find myself making things last minute even when I started far in advance. Above is a sweet little lovie I sewed up for my niece. It had been a while since I made something like this and I enjoyed spending the time to make her.

I started off with a really simple shape and then had my daughters help me decide on the finishing details. We ended up giving her a pink nose, naming her Ruby the Pink Nose Reindeer. I experimented with using this sheet of glitter I had found at Hobby Lobby forever ago (near the felt) for the antlers. It’s stiff and holds up pretty well, but I ended up gluing a pipe cleaner behind it and then a piece of felt over that so it was covered. I’m thinking this will be a cute pattern to share next Christmas so y’all can sew one up if you want to as well.

The next few handmade Christmas pics are of these ornaments I made. I found the acrylic ornaments at Michaels and went to town. I played around with this process a bit and still want to try a few other things next year. Little touches like gold around the edges takes them to another level and finishes them off nicely.

The horse ornaments were actually unicorns. I did some research and found that I could use a dremel rotary tool (like these) and cut the horn off. It worked really well and then I lightly sanded where I had cut it off to make sure it was smooth. My oldest loves horses so I wanted to make her one and then made some for her to hand out to others she knows at the barn where she takes lessons.

These little guys were a handmade gift I crocheted. They are so cute and small! They fit in your hand. I started by using this bubble seal amigurumi crochet pattern from i crochet things. Then I used this amigurumi whale crochet pattern from Yarnhild. I used the basic shape from that pattern to form the jellyfish and the octopus bodies so they would be the same size roughly. I was able to look at other crocheted creatures and determine how to add the little extra “ruffles” on the octopus and used the tentacle pattern from this crochet jellyfish pattern (also from Yarnhild) to get the right sizing I wanted for my jellyfish.

This handmade gift is great because I think it is fun to gift “life” when it’s winter. I grabbed these tall vases and the rocks from the dollar store and the paperwhite bulbs I found at a local nursery and Home Depot. You simply place the rocks in the bottom and add a bulb on top. Then fill with water so only the roots are wet. The tall vase helps support the plant as it gets pretty tall and it has an elegant look to it. It adds some greenery to a time of year when there isn’t as much.

I snuck in a project for the kids welcome center at our church last month as well. I made these floating shelves and decorated them with party supplies I had that had a Christmas party vibe to them.

I tried to make one more ornament to gift, but only got around to making one of them. I used an old deck board to cut out a Christmas star shape. Honestly, it just took too long to do with my jigsaw so I kind of put it away for another year. I think I might need to add a band saw to my tools for projects like this.

One of the biggest diy undertakings was making 40 foam snowflakes. I learned a lot from this! It took over my garage for a while, but they looked so pretty when they were up. I used my projector to trace snowflake silhouettes as big as I could (I would do half of the shape on one sheet and half on another so I could tape them together). Then I used a utility knife for all the straight edges and an exacto knife for the curved spots.

To add glitter, I sprayed a spray adhesives and then dumped glitter on it. It was a mess, but it was the best way I could think of. I tried a glitter spray, but it just wasn’t glittery enough. Also, to make this job easier for myself, I only used three different snowflake patterns. Once I had made one from each, I used it as a pattern to trace the rest.

The last item is a gift for a friend that loves Christmas. She had commented on the ones I had made before so I knew I needed to make her one too. I can’t wait to get it to her. Well, that’s everything for my 2020 handmade Christmas. I’m already scheming for what I might do for next year lol. Anyone else with me? Happy new year to you all! May it be full of creativity and love.

Free Heart Animals Pattern

February 12, 2016 by Jessica 3 Comments

Here is a free heart animals pattern for you to use in honor of Valentines Day, which is so close! Of course, these heart animals are for any time of the year really, but are inspired by this love filled holiday.

I picked some of my children’s favorite animals to create: a fox, cat, lamb, owl, and deer. They are an easy sew and if you have scrap fabrics these are a great project to use them on. To create your own heart animals, you will need the following:

Fabric (scraps or a fat quarter for each)
Felt or Other None Fraying Fabrics (like leather/faux leather, fleece, iron on vinyl, etc) for faces, noses, and ears.
Safety Eyes (or use felt circles or embroidery if these are for younger children)
Glue, Felt Scraps, Seam Ripper, and Marker (if using safety eyes)
Embroidery Thread and Needle
Stuffing
Sewing Machine
Coordinating Thread
Iron
Hand Sewing Needle
Scissors
Pins
Free Heart Animals Pattern PDF Download

Start by cutting out your pattern and using that to cut out the pieces from your chosen materials. The pattern pieces have how many of each you will need to cut. As you can see I used all kinds of stuff I had on hand. I use mostly cottons for the body but did use a linen fabric on the owl. I used acrylic felt mostly for faces and ears, but also used wool felt, fleece, faux leather from a purse I had cut up, and iron on vinyl.

Iron your main heart fabric. If you need to iron felt, I suggest placing fabric on top of it before pressing. Then place the heart face on top middle of a heart body piece and sew in place.

If you are using iron on vinyl, you can iron that on now.

Sew on the nose.

If your animal has ears, place them where you would like them.

Then fold them down and pin in place. Sew very close to the edge just to keep them in place.

Note: If you are making a deer, you will need to pinch the rounded bottom and sew in place.

Now place your eyes on. You can sew on felt circles or embroider eyes if this is for a little one. Other wise, add the safety eyes. Mark where they are to go.

Use a seam ripper to cut just enough of an opening for the eyes to go through. On the back, add some glue around the opening.

Cut a small piece of felt and cut a slit in the middle. Place the eye piece through the felt and let the glue dry this in place. Add the plastic eye backing. Note: I have used safety eyes a lot and find adding the glue and felt helps keep it even more secure.

Next embroider on any features you would like to add such as a mouth, eye lashes, whiskers, etc.

Take the face……

and place the heart back on top, right sides facing, and pin in place. I suggest doing it with the eyes up as it’s easier to sew and remove pins this way.

Sew all around the heart (1/4″ seam allowance, which is included in pattern) except to leave a small opening big enough to turn the heart right side out.

Trim notches around the curves of the heart shape.

Turn right side out and push at seams to make sure it is all out.

Fill the heart animal with stuffing until desired size is achieved.

Hand sew the opening shut.

Now you have a cute little heart animal! I hope you enjoy this free heart animals pattern. Share pics on the Happy Together facebook page or use #happytogetherbyjess on social media to share your creation.

-jess

DIY Pie Pan Package and Personalized Picture Frames

December 14, 2015 by Jessica 2 Comments

This post is sponsored by Cricut. See further down for full disclosure.

I find it really fun to create gifts and was looking forward to participating in a Secret DIY Santa Gift Exchange that is being hosted by Cricut. For each person who signed up, we were given the name of another blogger to come up with a special diy just for them that involved using our Cricut Explore machine. I created a gift package from a pie pan, personalized picture frames for the fridge, and a gift card holder for my giftee, Mariah of Giggles Galore.

I was thrilled when I saw her name because I know her blog and love it. I mean really, look at a few of these recent diy’s she’s shared on her blog lately.

Rustic + Glam Hot Cocoa Bar Cart; DIY Distressed Wooden Chalkboard; Chocolate Spider Cookies

Mariah shares a ton of stuff from recipes to parties and as she says on her blog she’s “an event stylist, creative consultant, blogger, social butterfly and multi-tasking mom.” Make sure to visit her blog to see a lot more creative goodness.

Winter Wonderland Party by Giggles Galore

Winter Onederland

Now for how to make your own pie pan package. It’s really simple to do and takes barely any time at all. You will need:

Pie Pan
Spray Paint (optional)
Cardstock (I used the Candy Shop pad)
Cricut Explore and Accessories
Glue (I used tacky glue, but hot glue would work too)

If you like, spray paint your pie pan. Just remember that you can’t put food in that isn’t packaged if you do paint.

Create a circle in Design Space that is the same size as the pie pan top. Make sure it is a cut file. Add any other design of choice on top that is in the written choice. You can find this specific file I created (for a 8 3/4″ pan size) here.

Use your Explore to cut and draw this file.

When it’s all done it will look like this.

The second part of this gift are these personalized picture frames. I found the refrigerator magnet frames at Target and knew they would be cute with some extra additions added to them.

To make your own you will need:

Frames
Vinyl (I used the Vinyl Sampler in Brights )
Cricut Explore and Accessories
Transfer Tape

You can find the three designs I used here: “you’re like, really pretty.”, confetti, and leaves. I simply used images in the Design Space library. That’s one of the great things about using these machines. I might not be able to create an image from scratch, but I can usually find pieces of what I want and put them together with what is already available. Once you have your design ready, use your Cricut to cut it out. I added the square cut around each design after I did the first one to make it easy to see what you needed. You can just peel off the unneeded area like above,

or you can cut out the area and then peel it. Whichever is easier for you. If anything has a hard time not staying put, use your tools to help hold things in place.

Next get your transfer tape.

Cut out a piece that is large enough to cover the area of the design. Peel off the backing and place the sticky side on top of the design. Rub over it with tool or something like an old gift card to make sure it really sticks to the transfer tape.

Grab a picture frame.

Place the transfer tape with vinyl right side up. Then place the frame on the side facing down that doesn’t have the magnet.

Rub over it again to help ensure it stays put when pulling off the paper.

Slowly pull off the paper and if anything doesn’t stick, just lay that area down flat again and rub over it again. If that doesn’t work, gently use the hook tool to help it unstick from the transfer tape onto the frame.

And I just had to add one more little thing so a little gift card to Target. I also created this little gift card holder using the Candy Shop card stock and this template. Then I glued the green to the blue for each side and then sewed both sides together leaving the one end open. It was such fun creating for a fellow craft blogger. I hope that this inspires you to create something special this month for a friend or family member.

I parterned with Cricut for this post and received compensation for doing so. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting businesses that support Happy Together.

A Baby Gingham Quilt

November 21, 2015 by Jessica 1 Comment

One of my good friends is about to have baby boy #4 and we went out last night to have a girls night out baby shower. Let me say, it was a lot of fun! It totally suited her more than a typical baby shower. I wanted to make at least one special thing to add to her gifts so when I stumbled upon a gingham quilt on Pinterest I knew that would be the perfect thing to make and reminds me of how she dresses/styles her little boys. (PS, those little shoes are from Michaels! They have some cute little baby shoes in the craft section.)

I went to Hobby Lobby and decided to use shades of gray for this quilt. I used a dark, medium, and light tone. I got a half yard of each, but in hindsight should have gotten a whole yard of the lighter color so I could have done one more row to have it end on the same colors on the sides. I cut out 6 inch squares and lined them up in the order shown above.

Since it was so gray I wanted to add some color pops. I found a plaid fabric, from Hancock Fabric, that played along with the grays and had some yellow. This allowed me to grab some pre-made yellow binding at the fabric store for the edges. I didn’t use any batting in between the two layers since it is usually on the hot side here in Louisiana. It makes for a nice lightweight quilt.

To save even more time, I did a simple curved edge so I could just sew the binding all the way around without stopping until the end when I needed to overlap the ends. I was surprised how quickly this went together and love how perfectly “boy” it is. I threw it in the washer to get that wrinkled fabric look I love. I can’t wait to see little man all wrapped up in this quilt made from love.

-jess

Anthropologie Inspired Fur Ascot DIY

December 26, 2014 by Jessica 4 Comments

One of my most favorite times of the year is when I can start wearing scarves. I just love the coziness of them and the warmth they bring. Faux fur scarves have been popular this year and I wanted to make one myself.

I spotted the Jolana Ascot online at Anthropologie and it looked like a super easy sew.

Anthropologie Inspired Fur Ascot DIY | happy together

pictures from www.anthropologie.com

I liked how you could style it in a few different ways as well. And doesn’t it just look so cozy? I have not seen this in person, so I recreated it in a way to save on some fur material. I also went by measurements they had online for length and width.

To make your own you will need:

1/2 yard of faux fur (but I will share how I used a smaller piece to make it happen in directions below)
1/4 yard of fleece
sewing machine with coordinating thread
hand sewing needle
pins
scissors
optional: seam ripper

You will want to cut a piece from the faux fur that measures 39″ by 14″ and cut a 39″ by 4.5″ piece from the fleece. { I actually had this precut piece of fur that was 18″ by 30″ and cut two pieces of about 19.5″ by 10″ and sewed them together. The fur is stretchy so it was actually a bit more than stated on the package, just in case you did the math and was like that wouldn’t work 😉 haha If you have to do something similar you can get a pretty seamless look by using a large straight stitch when sewing and then pulling fur out of the seam to help cover up the seam. }

Place fleece on one side of fur, right sides facing. Pin together and sew.

Pin other side of fleece to other side of fur and sew together.

Turn right side out. Making sure the fleece is in the middle, push in edges on both ends and pin. I made the fleece sides a little lower than the other side so it doesn’t peek over.

Hand sew in place. This material is very forgiving for hand stitching. I just went through the top of fleece fold and then through top of fur fold for each stitch.

Once done sewing both ends, pull fur out a little bit to add to fullness and hide stitches.

Now you will need to sew two slits. It’s kind of like making big button holes. My machine will not do a button hole this large so I used a very small and tight zig zag stitch to sew one. I started on one end and went down 3.5″. Then sewed over to side a little and did another line and finished by sewing across other end. If your machine does not zig zag, you could do this with a straight line. Just sew a very skinny rectangular box and go over it a few times to build up strength.

Use scissors or a seam ripper to cut in the middle of the slit you created. That is where you will slide the opposite side of ascot through. This would make a great gift and it really is very comfy!

-Jess