Tag Archives: starch

Christmas Presents 2013

SnowflakesFinally, here are the Christmas presents that I made for the family this past year.  I’ve been wanting to make these as Christmas gifts for several years now.

I made a set of 5 starched snowflake ornaments for each of my and my Husband’s Parents and each of our siblings’ families.  I made the same snowflake for everyone rather than using a different pattern for each set.  I had it memorized very shortly and was turning them out in 30 minutes each by the time I got them all done.

I used different thread from size 5 to 20, including one set of gold thread and two different sets of red thread – all of which I already had on hand.  I did have to buy some ribbon for the hangers and I also sprayed each set with glitter spray once they were starched to add a little sparkle.  (That was a lot of fun in the freezing cold temperatures we had this December.)

I picked up old Christmas tins at the thrift store to put these in instead of boxing and wrapping.  I lined the tins with tissue paper to which I added a few drops of scented oil so that you got a nice whiff of Christmas when you opened the them.  In the end it took me a lot of time to make, starch and finish these, but everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Starching and pinning to shape.

Starching and pinning to shape.

This is scented oil from Bath and Bodyworks. I added just a few drops to the tissue paper before putting the ornaments in their tins.

One of the tins I picked up at the thrift store.

One of the tins I picked up at the thrift store.

This is the gold snowflake which I gave to my Mom.

This is the gold snowflake which I gave to my Mom.

This is my favorite.  I love how delicate it came out using the smaller thread.  My Mother-in-law got this one.

This is my favorite. I love how delicate it came out using the smaller thread. My Mother-in-law got this one.

I plan to make a bunch of snowflakes for myself to put on a second tree in our home eventually.  I’m talking about making a few dozen different snowflakes.  That sure will be a project!

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Filed under Doilies, Gifts

Copy-Cat Angel

Remember the Copy-Cat Pansy doily that I made while at my In-laws place for a visit?  Well during our visit with them again earlier this month I saw a crocheted angel that my Mother-in-Law had and decided to copy that too.  I’ve been wanting to make an angel for the top of the tree and this one was just perfect for it.  The left is what I came up with, and the right is the original piece.  

The angel was finished by soaking it in fabric stiffener and then pinning it to a styrofoam cone for shaping and then using hot glue to attach the halo and wings.

I didn’t get the shaping of the wings quite right.  I wasn’t able to finish the wings while I was there and had to work from pictures.  It was hard to see exactly what needed to be done for the wings from those pictures.  But it generally came out pretty good.

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