Presents

It's very hard to write blog posts about crafts you make when those crafts are presents for people, and you can't have them reading about their presents on the internet. It's a terrible pickle I'm in, my blog only has like three readers (I'm looking at you, Grandma!), but if I advertise it on facebook then everyone will see what they're getting for Christmas.

But I'm currently in Nashville at my mom's house and getting my sew on. I'm working on the baby quilts right now, and I've been sewing wonky blocks ALL. DAY. 

It'll look fantastic when it's all done, but I'm just tired right now. Tired of getting all of those darn seams to line up, it's a pain in the butt. My (mom's) seam ripper has been seeing a lot of action this evening.

After Christmanukkah and before I left for Nashville (aka during exam week), I got a bit crafty. I made a lovely rice neck warmer for myself out of some mermaid fabric. I can't for the life of me find which tutorial I used to make it, but just google "rice neck warmer" and about 50 million hits will pop up.

ABRIDGED INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut a piece of fabric 5x19 inches

2. Fold in half, sew long end and one short end

3. Fill 2/3 of the way with rice

4. Sew end

5. Sew lines at 1/3 and 2/3 up the bag, dividing the rice into 3 sections (so it stays evenly distributed in the neck warmer as you use it)

KEY NOTE: DON'T SEW ON A PIECE OF RICE. I broke Flash's sister's machine's needle that way. Man, she needs a name. I'll think on it. 

6. Put in microwave for 1:30 minutes

7. Put around neck

8. ???

9. Profit!

It is ineligant, but it sure felt nice during exam week.

Next, I made Flash's christmas present- He's gotten into rock climbing this year, and he's been using all of my gear because he doesn't have any. Namely, he uses my chalk bag and chalk. I figured he could use a nice chalk bag of his own, so I made him one!

I used The Handy Hippie's guide to make the bag. It's very roomy and I think he will enjoy it very much. I'm used to sewing flat things, like blankets, so a bag with about 7 layers of fabric at some points was a little out of my comfort zone.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. I messed up a couple of times, and it doesn't close very well, but it has his mustaches on it! One of my friends in studio took screenprinting this semester and helped me print the image on the fabric. Each of the mustaches are his own, taken from photos of the year and so many months that that thing has been on his face. 

Shelob the spider is helping to model the bag.

He's actually going to freak out when he opens his christmas present when he comes to visit Nashville at New Year's. I'm very excited to see how he likes it!