Our Homemade Christmas

Christmas is done...in fact Christmas decorations were taken down yesterday.
But, I realized I hadn't shown the homemade gifts we gave each other on Christmas Eve.

Below: my husband made a puppet theater for all 3 girls. Chalkboard on the top to write the name of the show and curtains with stars. This has also been used already for a store.

Below: For Sophia, I found an unfinished dollhouse at Gordman's for $14.99! It came with all the furniture and 2 dolls! I just used paint and fabric I already had. Wall artwork came from gardening and a Land of Nod catalog!

2 Pictures below: The silk scarves that Ella (age 5)made for her sisters. We used the basic instructions here. Used the 22x 72" silk scarves from here. Used rubber bands to make the white lines that separated the colors.
Ella made one for Hannah and one for Sophia. I surprised her with one I made.

Something I did learn in making these:

I decided to do some in bright colors and some in pastels (example red and pink) I thought what was important was how long I left the scarves in the color (example: take the one I wanted pink out of the dye before the one I wanted red) What I learned was that whatever one you put in first will pick up the majority of the color immediately...making it the more intense one. So the one I wanted red went in first, and a little later went the one I wanted pink.

I also rinsed in my sink like the instructions said. But I also sent each scarf individually through the rinse cycle on my washer. Then I dried it on the absolute lowest setting in my dryer.

Below: Sophia (age 2 1/2) made these playsilks for her sisters. We used the same instructions we used above. I purchased the 35x 35 silk. I ended up leaving one un-dyed(white) to be used as a veil, snow, etc.

I had seen these around a lot the last few years...but never really thought my kids would use these. It was only until I started noticing that they had this one yard of scrape fabric that I was constantly tying for a dress, cape, skirt, baby blanket, the list goes on and on. This has been the most played with Christmas gift...one day the long scarves became hammocks for the all the (stuffed) animals at the rescue center.

Below: Hannah (age 8) made tied-fleece blankets for her sisters. She picked out the fabric (pattern on one side and solid on the other) I cut all the "fringe" for her to tie. The narrow fringe ties better than a thicker fringe. This was a perfect project for an 8 year old +.

Sophia's Blanket above

Below: I secretly made Hannah her own blanket. With the fabric that she liked when we were buying for her sisters.

Below:Ella's blanket.

These blankets are sooo warm...double thickness of fleece...so cozy!

Here's another example of a semi-homemade Christmas gift. I love the idea...but mostly the thoughtfulness, the knowing of that particular child, that went into it.

One more example from them.

Designmom is where I first came across the idea of the homemade Christmas gifts. Here is her list of some her kids have made in the past.