Two many; Begins with B;   huisjeboompjeboefje; Falafel and the Bee; Fouxdufafafashions; Nutta; Nearest the Pin;  The Sewing Stash Challenge;  Sewing Mama Raeanna,; Five and counting; Tutto Ricaclible Handmade; Sweeter than cupcakes; Wombat hole sew; Sew Delicious; Sweeter than Cupcakes;   Sarah;  As it Seams;  Polkadotelefant; Five and counting;  Nutta.

 

Thanks guys!!!  Your kids will all look fab on Christmas day:)

- Laura and Suz.

Hello everyone. I am here today to share a round up of Laura and my recent series, The 12 Days of Christmas.  I found it such a great way to begin the festive season and really got me excited about Christmas.  We have visited several different countries and learned more about the different traditions everyone follows around the world. I loved hearing everyone's personal stories and the lovely traditions people treasure. I, like Laura, am pondering over the traditions I would like to foster and also the value and meaning of Christmas I would like to instil in my children.  When I asked Isabella today what Christmas is all about, she replied, "It's about sharing, giving and loving each other."  Impressed!  Laura has done a beautiful job of creating a montage of each of our guest lists....

Sewpony guests
In the this collage, you can see all of my wonderful guests. You can click on each image to be taken to the post.


Craftstorming Guests
Below you can see all of the amazing outfits that were featured on Laura's blog, Craftstorming at a glance. Again, you can click on each image to go directly to the post.

 

Thank you so much to all of the guests that took part for the time and effort they put into all their outfits. Laura and I will return on Thursday to show you some of the wonderful creations in 'The 12 Days of Christmas' Flickr group. There's still time to add yours if you've been sewing for your children and you don't need to have a blog to join in. See you on Thursday then!

Today is the twelfth and final day of Christmas in Laura and my The 12 Days of Christmas sewing series.  Laura and I have been so impressed with all the guest posts - everyone has put in so much effort.  We have also been thrilled to see lots of lovely festive sewing popping up in our flickr group.  If you plan on adding a festive creation, please do!  We will do a round up on each of our blogs on the 19th.

Today's guest is the lovely Abby from Things for boys.  Abby lives in Melbourne too and we have met a few times - she is lovely! She sews for her two gorgeous sons and also herself. I guess my all time favourite thing I love that Abby has sewn is her Peter Rabbit jacket.  Amazingly cute no? Abby is also just and all round crafty girl - HEAPS of great sewing 101, tutorials and an amazing number of easy to read yummy recipes are on her blog too.  She has also very recently collaborated on this great e-book! Today is she is sharing a creation she put together for her youngest boy, Ted.

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Hi Sewpony readers! I'm Abby and you can find me blogging at Things for Boys where I blog about all the sewing, crafting and baking I get up to for the boys in my life.

A big thank you to Suz for asking me to take part in the series. I have had such fun reading about everyone's holiday traditions and seeing what they've made.

The forces of nature were really against me on this project for some reason. Last week everyone in our house came down with a cold and I even managed to develop bronchitis...not fun! With all the down time between me and the boys, not a lot of sewing got done. I decided to change my original plan and go for something a bit quicker to put together. I must admit my post relies heavily on baby cuteness to disguise the fact I didn't do a whole lot of sewing.

With my post being on the last day of the series, I really wanted to incorporate the 12 drummer's drumming. I was thinking a fun vintage iron on transfer would be quick, simple and perfect. I was wrong on all counts! The graphic of a drummer was easy enough to find (you can get it here) and easy enough to print, but I really lucked out on the transfer part. I almost cried when I peeled off the paper and half of the image came with it! Hubby convinced me that it was just part of the 'vintage' look, but I was pretty devastated. Of course, I'd only printed the one, so couldn't have another go.

Thankfully, the cute elf shoes came to my rescue! The pattern isn't actually for baby shoes, but the size was perfect for Ted! I'm normally not one for such cheesy outfits, but they're only babies for such a short time, I couldn't resist! The shoes were really quick to make and are made from wool blend felt. I sewed the seams on the machine for an extra quick finish. You can find the pattern for the shoes here.

I added the little red pom poms to complete the elf look. Ted was quite fascinated by them and thought they tasted quite good! Ok, enough about my little elf and time for some talk of traditions...

Since having kids, I've thought a lot more about creating traditions within our little family. I don't remember much in the way of Christmas traditions from when I was a kid. I remember that we got a lot of presents, with big sacks appearing at the end of our beds. There was often a Super Soaker (giant water pistol), because Christmas is usually hot here in Melbourne. I don't remember putting up the tree or watching any Christmas movies, but these are things I love as an adult and would really love to create traditions around. I'm thinking of claiming Christmas Eve just for us to hang about in our pyjamas, watching movies and having some family fun. If you've got any great ideas for me, please leave a comment!

Hubby's family is Russian Orthodox, so they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. One of the things this means for us, is that a fake Christmas Tree is a necessity. Using a fake tree means I can put it up on the 1st of December and it will easily last until the 7th of January. A real cut Christmas Tree would not last too well for 6 weeks in the Melbourne Summer heat.

I do feel pretty lucky being able to have two Christmas dinners every year. We do Christmas with my family on the 25th and then 2 weeks later do it all again with hubby's family. With New Year's Eve sandwiched in the middle, it's very much party time!

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I love this Abby! I agree with your husband, the faded look of the sweet little drummers makes the romper look tres vintage!  And the shoes are adorable as is little Ted.  Lovely photos too! Thanks so much for joining in our series and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night for our Christmas catch up!!

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To see Laura's last guest post by the talented Trine from Groovybaby...and mama, head over to Craftstorming - click on the picture below to take you there.

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On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me,
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a milking,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six geese a laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree!

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Thank you so much to our amazing guest bloggers...please come back on Monday to see a round up of all the lovely posts in this series.

PS.  If you are interested in seeing how I made my origami collar on Isabella's Christmas dress, I have my tutorial scheduled and ready to go for tomorrow - so please pop back to say hi!

My second last guest in our festive sewing series, is the super creative and talented Celina from petit à petit and family.  Celina lives in Montreal, Canada with her husband and two children.  Celina is a former children's wear designer and has a unique sense of style that always impresses!  The clothes she makes her kids are just amazing.  Have a look at this outfit she made in the most recent Kids Clothes Week.  And how amazing is this collection of clothes she made for both of her children?  Celina has some great tutorials on her blog too.  On top of that, Celina is embarking on her own pattern design adventure with Willow and Co and her own company she will contribute to which she has named inseam patterns. Celina has been offering sneak peaks of her pieces for this post over on instagram....so perhaps you have already had a few hints...


Hello! I'm Celina and I blog over at Petit a Petit and family where I talk mostly about kids fashion design and do some sewing for my kids from time to time. When Laura & Suz asked me to be  part of their series, I just couldn't refuse and I am truly excited to share what I made with you today. I happen to be jewish but I also happen to celebrate christmas- I guess it's a little complicated! I was brought up in a home where the jewish traditions and the protestant ones went hand in hand, with my mom being jewish and my dad being protestant we celebrated all the holidays. It was more of a traditional thing than a religious one. My husband is also jewish, so we do tend to do more of the jewish holidays, however christmas I never miss. We also happen to celebrate on the 24th- a late night dinner with friends and family followed by the opening of gifts and a good time. The 25th is spent lounging around and doing nothing.  I have to say I love dressing up for christmas, so I decided to go all out for the kids this year and make them a little something special.


I grew up dancing and for me the holidays means it's time for the lovely ballet The Nutcracker. I dreamt of being part of the ballet, of being Clara or even one of the mice. Of course I dreamt of being the Sugar Plum fairy or the snow Queen too! One year my mom surprised me with tickets- I will always remember being mesmerized by the costumes, the set, the story and of course the ballerinas. I decided to get inspired by The Nutcracker and created an outfit for my little Sugar Plum Fairy and my nutty Nutcracker.


Since I was on the eleventh day, I decide to make 11 items! I actually made 12 if you count the snowflakes made from pipe cleaners- since the pipers are piping!

Here you see the little bolero I made my daughter. It's the loveliest silk shantung with the tiniest little white sequins. It's a pattern I made myself and you can't really see but the vest is padded.


For the dress is used the Sally Dress pattern by Very Shannon- I just love that neckline. The dress is a little see through but I like the way it looks more like a ballerina dress. I do realize I might have to add a lining though. I also need to make a new leotard with a wider neckline to match the sally dress one perfectly.


I also topstitched a satin ribbon with the cutest polka dots to the waistline.


My daughter was over the moon to finally have a fairy/princess dress. It's the first I have ever made for her.






I couldn't leave out my son! and so I made him a Nutcracker outfit. 5 items head to toe.



Next is the jacket. I have been wanting to make one of these since the Stella McCartney Collection for Gap about ummm 6 years ago. It's a remix of the french pattern Pearl by Papillon & Mandarine . I used some stretch denim and a lot of gold cording. I just love the way it turned out.

I also had a chance to make some Small Fry Skinny Jeans by Titchy Threads. Oh I will be making many many more of these, perfect fit and pretty simple to make to. I also up-cycled some leather pants into these slipper booties. I need to work on my pattern a little more- but my Nutcracker needed booties.


And finally, inspired by Laura's awesome t-shirt I made this one with some freezer paper and fabric paint which I applied on a t-shirt I already had.


The kids are super excited about their new christmas outfits. I love that we can break up the pieces and wear them on almost any given day. We might have to wear them on New Years too!

Wishing Everyone Some Very Merry and Happy Holidays!!! And an amazing year in 2014.

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Wow Celina! This is so special!! I have not seen the Nutcracker but I know I really should one day.  How amazing that you recreated both characters.  I'm glad you had lots of fun creating these outfits because they are so great!!! The jacket, the shoes, the hat, the tutu...And I love that you incorporated the pipers piping into your pipe cleaner snowflakes!!  Thanks so much for this lovely post and for sharing with us:)

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Today at Craftstorming, the lovely Ana Sofia from S is for Sewing is guest posting.  Click on the picture below to take you there!

 

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On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a milking,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six geese a laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Hi everyone! I'm Yeka and I blog about my sewing at Lollipop Garden Crafts. Thank you Suz and Laura for inviting me to join this fun series. I'm glad to be part of this and enjoy reading every participant's story about Christmas tradition and their amazing creations.

I'm using Japanese patterns most for my sewing projects, not because it's better than other patterns but simply because I get used to it. The measurement is in centimetre and pattern without seam allowances make me easy to visualize and adapt to my children's measurement.

For this festive sewing series, I chose simple design, yet created different look than my daughter's everyday dresses. I decided to make balloon dress for the 6 y.o and asked her to select one of three fabrics I took from my stash. I think she made right choice, the fabric is soft and it drapes well.

I used pattern from Girls Style Book, Japanese version (English version of this book was published in April this year). Lining of bodice is using main fabric and skirt's lining is white cotton. I tempted to sew red and green pom-pom trim on front bodice but I omitted it as the fabric speaks itself. So, I added green ribbon instead. For comfort and more secure, I changed back closure of dress from bias tape ribbon to button loop closure. The dress is turned out good and my daughter is so excited to get new dress that she will wear for winter concert at school next week.

More details:

Pattern: Girls Style Book pattern I, size 120cm.

Fabric: Lecien fabric, Woodland Fairies by Nathalie Lyner bought from JAQS Fabrics.

As I don't celebrate Christmas, there's nothing special at home. In the past years, I usually spent my Christmas holidays out of town for short vacations or went downtown to see decorations, windows shopping and dinner out. Christmas is holiday that I always look forward, I feel glad about it, maybe being influenced by the joy of festivity. One of memorable holidays when first time I went abroad on Christmas eve, first time experienced sunny days around 8pm while in my origin country, Indonesia, days are getting dark by 6pm all years. I had short trip to Australia and have had wonderful Christmas holidays there. Joined a group tour, I visited beautiful Gold Coast beach, Brisbane, Melbourne, Parliament House Canberra, Blue Mountains and Sydney downtown. Years later, I chose Australia again as our honeymoon destination. We travelled to same cities but with different kind of attractions, this time we visited Phillip Island to watch penguin parade day. The world's smallest penguins waddle ashore after spending the day fishing out at sea. How cute they are!

This Christmas is our second year in Canada. Last year I brought my children to see decorations at downtown area. Here, I share pictures I took last year at Eaton Centre. Merry Christmas everyone, hope you enjoy your season holidays!

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On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me,
Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a milking,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six geese a laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Aside from myself, our next guest is the first from the Southern Hemisphere.  Although, she is not literally from the Southern Hemisphere,  she calls Australia home now.  Jenya from While she was sleeping is here to share a gorgeous summer outfit inspired by her daughter.  Jenya makes gorgeous clothes for her sweet and funny little daughter.  Have a look at this gorgeous Mara dress and bolero she made for the Secret Squirrel challenge this month.  Jenya loves making dresses in particular.  I love this floral one  and this Debbie's birthday dress.  Jenya only lives a couple of hours away from me and we have become good blogging friends over the past couple of months.  We are looking forward to a zoo catch up one day soon! 

 

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Hi, my name is Jenya. I am a sewaholic and I blog over at While she was sleeping. It is a huge privilege to be here today.  The 12 Days of Christmas is such a fun series, don't you think? I love all the gorgeousness the girls have made!

After the Revolution, Christmas was scrapped. Celebrating the birth of Christ was not encouraged in the Atheist state. There were no more Christmas trees either. Traditions that made Christmas special for centuries we no longer observed. This meant that New Year's Eve became the main celebration. A few years later, Christmas trees returned, but they became known as New Year Trees. An angel was replaced with a star. Not the star that lead the wise men to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus that we read about in the Bible, but the star you can see on the Kremlin towers. Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) and his granddaughter Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden) bring presents to the children. People gather with their families and friends, enjoy delicious meals and exchange presents on New Year's Eve. And of course everyone loves the fireworks.

I loved New Year's Eve as a child. There was always something very magical about it. I remember when I was little and my brother even littler, our parents hired actors dressed up as Ded Moroz and Snegurochka. They came to our flat, and my brother and I had to do cute little things like perform a dance or recite a poem in exchange for our presents. One of the gifts from Ded Moroz that year was a pyrograthy set. We spent hours turning pieces of wood into pieces of art. Mum says she still has this set! I remember that I was very worried that Ded Moroz and Snegurochka might melt in the car after they left us.

So, I was born in the USSR, grew up in Russia, and I now live in Australia with my husband and our little girl. Christmas in Australia is celebrated on the 25th of December, and it is summer. We usually spend Christmas day with my husband's family in sunny Mildura, which is about 4 hours drive from us. We get together with the rest of the family and at first it gets a little crazy while we exchange gifts, but it sure is good crazy. We eat a beautiful hot lunch (as you do on a 40-something degree day) and just enjoy each other's company. It truly is a relaxing time with the loved ones. It is also a good opportunity to reflect on what I believe occurred many centuries ago - the birth of Jesus Christ.

My mum is coming over for a visit just before Christmas this year, which will make this special time of year even more special!

A special occasion calls for a special outfit. I have been wondering what I could make for Little Monkey this year, and then I got an e-mail from Suz inviting me to be a part of this series. Perfect!

I usually make practical things for my daughter, something she can wear anywhere any day. However this year I wanted to step out of my 'practical sewing' box and make her a party dress... but Little Monkey had other ideas.  She wanted a dinosaur dress.

You see, a few weeks ago we went fabric shopping together and she spotted fabric with dinosaurs printed on it. She grabbed the roll declaring it was her 'dinosaur dress', she carried it around the shop. The fabric was so cute I bought a metre of it. When we were at the cutting counter Little Monkey told the shop assistant the fabric was hers. She asked me to put it in her wardrobe when we got home. As soon as my husband returned from work she showed him the fabric. Every day after that she asked for her special dinosaur dress.

I could not disappoint my sweet little girl, so While she was sleeping, I made Little Monkey a tunic out of her special dinosaur fabric. I didn't think a white dress would be practical (see I slipped right back into my 'practical sewing' box).

It took me just about forever to find a pattern that would allow to showcase this fabulous print. In the end I settled on New Look 6016. It is a cute pattern with lovely rounded yoke with button closures and pleats on the front and the back.

This tunic is perfect for hot summer days. When it gets cooler Little Monkey can layer it with a short or long sleeve tee. I made it extra long so the tunic can grow with Little Monkey for quite a while.

OK, maybe this is not the party outfit I was going to make, but I am so glad I followed my daughter's lead and made her a 'dinosaur dress' and tulip shorts. She has already worn this outfit a number of times, and we received a lot of compliments. Besides, this outfit is heaps more suitable for what little people do best - monkeying around!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone or as I like to say "С Рождеством и Новым годом"!

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Thank you Jenya!! Sewing for our kids is so much more meaningful when they have some input!  I love this ensemble and definitely would love to give both patterns a try.  Your sewing is beautiful and talk about neat buttonholes!! Thank you for sharing your personal stories too!  You and Olga have a lot in common!!

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On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me,

Eight maids a milking,

Seven swans a swimming,

Six geese a laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.