Handmade Holidays GenQ Style!

Christmas from the Hand: Making It Through the Giving Season

Like most Americans, my husband and I are more than a little concerned about the economy. We’ve been watching our pennies carefully this year and with more of the great unknown facing us, we’ll continue to be frugal with what we have. Which means Christmas is gonna be lean around here.

Unlike most Americans, I have fabric. Lots of fabric. Big pieces. Little pieces. I have fabric popping outta drawers, doors and bags. Don’t believe me? Just ask everyone who shovels his or her way through my office!

I also am blessed with tons of supporting materials: thread, interfacing, ribbons, trims, patterns, books and hey, just a few magazines or two. So, guess what’s on my to-do list for the coming weeks? That’s right! Sewing!

Maybe I’m not the only one of us fabric-holics out there who wants to prairie it through Christmas. And I’m already frustrated by the plethora of patterns and projects available that don’t quite make the mark. But I really feel the call to make as many of our gifts as possible. Oh, and it’s how many days until Christmas? Don’t ever say that I take the easy way out.

So first I have to determine my criteria for a Handmade Holiday. The projects I choose must:

• Have fast and simple construction techniques;
• Be attractive in design;
• Use mostly smaller pieces of fabrics;
• Be able to be constructed production-line style;
• Be useful and appreciated by the recipient;
• Make me proud to give to somebody.

I’m guessing that some of you might share the same thoughts and goals this year. So in a small series of posts my GenQ buds and I will share our ideas and inspiration for a Homemade Holiday. And this first post will outline some of the outstanding FREE resources I’ve come across on the great Internet for potential projects.

Well hello, Handmade!

With the advent of downloadable PDF patterns, several of our more savvy online retailers have begun to offer free patterns of the download version. In a later post, we’ll offer a selection of paid patterns—print and PDF download—that we think might fit the above criteria, and then books that fit the bill. For now, scour the web pages of these shops and bloggers for some free-spiration, and if you have your own blog or worship another’s that’s chock full of sewn gifty thingies, add it to the comments below and improve the resource for all of us. There’s no way we can cite all of the wonderful websites and blogs out there, but you all can!

Connecting Threads: Connecting Threads has many downloadable patterns, some of which are free and unique to them. Check out the great variety of quilts, bags and small gifty items here.

The Long Thread: Ellen Baker’s excellent blog on all things crafty has a five year history and with it quite the comprehensive list of tutorials gathered from near and far that feature gifty-type items. I very well might be able to cover my entire gift list because of Ellen, but I’ll hold back that final opinion until I cull through all of the other sources.

Pattern Spot: C&T Publishing’s most recent brainchild is a wonder-filled website of downloadable sewing and craft patterns. Most are for purchase, and we’re happy to support some of our favorite designers, but there are free offerings here as well and it’s worth your time to check it out.

The Fat Quarter Shop: Another one of our fave online retailers, Kimberly Jolly offers us a one-stop-shop for all of the free quilt patterns offered by our best fabric houses. From Moda to FreeSpirit and Riley Blake, patterns for quilts and some projects are given away for nothing right here. Of course, they all hope you’ll want the fabrics the projects were designed with, but even if that line is not available, you can certainly recreate the project with what you have at home. And if you’re not up to making a full-sized bed quilt (we aren’t) adapt the pattern to a smaller wall quilt, set of placemats or table runner.

Martha Stewart Crafts: Martha, Martha, Martha. You’d think we’d be tired of the Maven of all things Made at Home. But, nope, not yet. Her craft site offers a ton of different goodies to make, some complicated and completely not meeting the above criteria, but others that are great. Take a look, when you have more than five minutes, because you’ll be here for a while. It’s that rich.

Skip to My Lou: Another wonderful blogger who shares our philosophy on handmade is always better, Cindy Hopper has collected scads of handmade gift ideas, and then sorted them into mucho categories to take all of the guesswork out of our efforts. Need a girlie gift? There’s a category. What about a family? There’s one of those sections also. Need a gift for someone sick? There are actually two categories covering this. All that’s missing is a category for Picky Mothers-in-Law. Where’s that one, Cindy? Huh?

The Domestic Diva: Yet another incredible blogger who speaks to our soul, Lisa Carroccio provides tons of tutorials and projects under the heading of Handmade Holidays (I swear I thought I came up with this name first!).

HEY GUYS: I got some clarity on something that was confusing me about the Domestic Diva link above. Kristin Link from SewMamaSew reached out and explained that The Domestic Diva is actually linking back to the SewMamaSew site. It’s Kristin, Lauren and their talented team who actually developed the list of projects found in the Ultimate Handmade Holidays. They’ve been doing this every year since 2007 and their links by year are here:

2010

2009

2008

2007

They are working on 2011 as we speak. What’s really cool about these lists of projects, pictures and tutorials is that every project listed is gathered and included with the permission of the original designer/blogger/website. The links for each and every one will take you back to the original source. Check it out and pay homage to an incredible body of work presented just for us! Thanks SewMamaSew!!

Craft Bits: At this site, you’ll find instructions for all kinds of crafty items. And yes, they do have a section just for sewing crafts. Some of them are tres kitsch, but hey, if my avant garde sister will like them, I’m sure someone in your family will as well. (Check out the Kitsch Poodle Door Stop for one.)

Now remember, we certainly aren’t trying to cover everything here. Instead we’re trying to cast the smallest net the grab the largest haul. If you have some sites and blogs that you worship for your Handmade Holiday sources, please share. We want to know!!