#diy present

Like.

LOOK AT IT. I MADE THAT.

After some time I had to say: no more crocheted fruits! I just had too much fun making them, but the handmade advent calendar I made for swap should have some variety after all and not only crocheted fruits for pretend play.

This apple turned out kind of short and round. I was a bit sceptical about the instruction for the stem but then it went well and looks so cute!!

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Picture 1: An apple is in the process of being crocheted! For now it looks like a shallow red crochet bowl. Some black jersey thread is being used as a stitch marker. The apple-to-be is laying on the written down instructions on how to crochet it!

Picture 2: The red crochet apple has been finished and is laying next to some light brown and light green yarn, which will be the stem of the apple and the leaf of the apple respectively.

Picture 3: The red crocheted apple is finished, but the light-brown stem and green leaf are only just finished and have yarn tails still hanging off. They are only placed on the apple to see how it will look and have not yet been sewn together.

Picture 4: The red crochet apple viewed in a nice close-up from above, so you can see the shape of the green leaf nicely.

Remember that red linen and white & red cotton print? Last week I worked diligently on turning it into a cathedral window patchwork!

My friend @trasno-personal inspired the title as they called the acorn charm acorn shibari. Which is funny and fitting!

This is part of what I made for the handmade advent calendar swap I've participated in! I can finally show all the little (or not so little?) goodies here. Maybe you'll get some ideas for presents or things you can make for yourself!

I've used a picture on pinterest, plus my vague knowledge from watching some tutorials before to create the knotted string net encircling the acorn.

The dark green thread was a gift from a former friend of my mum's and the key ring comes from this loot of military ad key chains I've got as freebies at a convention some years back.

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Picture 1: A silver keyring with an acorn in a green knotted "net". There's a loop to connect it to the keyring and a little tassle of strings at the bottom.

Picture 2: A screenshot from pinterest. I've used the hand- drawn image on the top left on how to knot the net encompassing the acorn.

Picture 3: The acorn charm laying next to one of the military ad keyrings I've used. I cut the keyring off to attach it to this acorn charm.

One of my good friends has two daughters. For the birth of her first child I made her a little embroidery plate to commemorate the occasion.

My friends sews too and adores buttons so I represented the family with buttons. For the birth of her second daughter I asked her if she'd like another embroidery for her too and my friend said yes.

Her daughter was born last year but because we had no opportunity to see each other I only made the little present for her this summer. Just in time for the first birthday!

I made lots of wire and pearl stars last year. My mum wanted to gift them to a couple of relatives and friends. She reimbursed me for the materials used and I contributed the labour time.

I hadn't made those pearl stars in some years and it was really fun to pick that craft up again!

The pictures don't show all the stars I've made. I think overall there were about 20 stars 🌟

I absolutely love sewing for one of my best friends. She's always so happy to receive a handmade garment and treasures what clothes I make for her. Plus after all the years I've known her I've got a pretty good idea what she likes and usually wow her with whatever I come up with.

This year I sewed a 3-in-1 garment. You can wear it as a skirt, a dress and a poncho! It has long straps so you can tie/modify said possible wear opportunities. I forgot to take a picture of her wearing the skirt variant, but suffice to say that she kept wearing it the whole night of the birthday party immediately!

I also described the construction to another birthday party guest who was very intrigued and wanted to try sewing something similar.

The "pattern" is very simple: you take a rectangle and fold it in half (the folded half should be as long as you want the skirt to be). Then you measure the middle on that fold and cut 1/4 of your hip measurement in each direction thus creating the waist opening. Simply add a waistband (and ties if you want) and you're done!

Let me know if anyone wants to sew this skirt for themselves and got confused with my explanation. I could draw something to make it more clear.

This skirt consists of two rectangles on top of each other as the printed fabric is very sheer. Plus it's polyester and for those fabrics I always want a lining from natural fibers. The cotton fabric had a piece cut out already so I had to do a quick repair job before I could use it.