I made a few things for Christmas presents, including a pair of pillow cases for my grandmother and a purse for my sister-in-law. Then I forgot to take pictures. Drat. The pillow cases were super easy – I used the tutorial found here. I used a Moda silky woven for the body of the pillowcase, which made them unbelievably soft. It’s a nice tutorial, if a little wordy. Mom told me about sewing enclosed seams, so it looks much nicer than plain, unfinished seams. When you sew the side and bottom seam together, first sew a small (1/8″ – 1/4″) seam with the wrong sides together, then turn it inside out and sew a larger (1/4″ – 1/2″) seam with the right sides together. When you turn it right side out, the raw edges of the seam will be encased in fabric rather than exposed. Just be sure to make the second seam large enough that the edges of the fabric don’t poke through the second seam!

The bag I made for my sister-in-law was supposed to be a nice little dressy bag that she could take to her sister’s wedding/commitment ceremony. It wasn’t until yesterday that they realized that the ceremony has a hippie theme, and they’re supposed to dress accordingly. Tidy little black, white and red purse out – hippie costumes in. I dug through my fabric stash and found quite possibly the most hideous fabric ever printed. It is truly grotesque, and I bought five yards of it. In my defense, I only paid $3 for the whole thing at a fund raiser. I put together a quick vest for my brother, then used the same fabric to sew flare inserts into the outside seams of some old jeans. My sister in law found a top and skirt that worked, and I made another vest for her to finish it all off.

As for the pickles – well, my December STUD (Swap Til You Drop) mini quilt isn’t finished. It’s started, at least, and Kimmie is very understanding about it. I can’t go into too much detail about the quilt because she might be reading. All I can tell you is the name comes from my color choices – greens, with some brown thrown in – and the fabrics look like this:

Finally, here’s a photo of the package I sent to imagingermonkey for the STUD Secret Santa gift:

The pillowcases are similar to the ones I made for my grandmother (except I hadn’t yet figured out the enclosed seam thing).