Our Homemade Christmas Presents

The kids and I made all of the cousin presents this year. They actually had a lot of fun, and for the most part the presents didn't turn out too bad. We might try it again next year--we just need to start sooner. We did every thing in just a couple days this time and it was a little too hectic.



Azia hasn't ever really used the sewing machine before. She was pretty excited to use it to make the clothes she was designing. It was also a bit scary--she's slightly out of control but incredibly enthusiastic. Kind of how she approaches everything. The second morning we were working on things she got up before me and tried to rethread the machine after it went off track. It took me like a 1/2 hour to get it re-threaded and all the tension straightened out.

We made Paisley a doll. I think I forgot to take a picture of it, but Azia also made herself one (in this photo) while we were working on Paisleys. Azia then made all the clothes for both of them.

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My herd of reindeer...after I'd already mailed a dozen or so...

Dev & Israel were so excited I turned their TV room into the craft room for a couple days, especially when the kids did project like this...sticking all 350 pins from the package into the carpet. (Zoran's actually picking them up in this photo. After I realized what he was doing he cleaned them up pretty well. Zoran's kind of meticulous.)

All Lettie told me she wanted for Christmas was "ballerina stuff" so Azia made her a skirt--almost completely by herself. It turned out VERY fluffy!



Lettie's finished ballerina skirt and flower headband.



I also used the little drawstring bags my kids have as a pattern & made Lettie this bag to put all her ballerina stuff in. We did buy her a new leotard (the only thing we actually bought) & then also gave her Azia's small ballet shoes to complete her outfit.

Zoran threading his needle. Everyone knows that koolaid mustaches improve concentration, right?



Azia made a necklace for Paisley and matching earrings and necklace for Kenzie. Zoran made a necklace for Lettie.

Finished product: the necklace Zoran made (all by himself) for Lettie--all I did to help was tie the last knot to attach it to the clasp.


The blanket I made for Aiden. I actually liked how it turned out colorwise (for just digging through my scrap material) but I really wish I would've given myself more than a day to do it all. I knew I wasn't going to have time to quilt it, but I wish I could've at least done the binding by hand. It looks so much better than doing it on the machine.


J
ack & Azia constructing Kenzie's cover for her body pillow.

The finished product.