Crafting for the Other Budge Brood

There is something about homemade gifts. I feel like I'm giving a piece of myself or in return, receiving a piece of someone else. I love that feeling and I find myself trying more and more to make homemade gifts. This wonderful family also got a manacala set from Togo, but I wanted to give them each something and stay in budget. Here is what I created for each of them: For the ever so talented mom and manager of 6--an apron made from the embroidered portion of a pillowcase my grandmother had embroidered (my oldest sister got one of these as well, I just forgot to take pictures of everything I made for their family). The pillowcase was beyond repair and I wanted to somehow use the embroidered part. I thought it made a nice apron bottom because the lace was already in tact. Plus she got two felt ornaments.

The oldest, who happens to be a boy, got a book cover. While my oldest put his to use right away, I'm not sure what the nephew thought of his.
Next comes 4 girls so I made them each a skirt and matching hair accessory. I had a bunch of tan poplin sitting around, but I wanted to make them each individualized as well and keep it simple, using up what I had around (successful, except the elastic--4 skirts uses a lot). I used the lazy day skirt idea in a couple of different ways and then added some fun embellishments. First up, elegant and refined meets up with a little girly--after all she is turning 12 this year. The bottom of hers is a black on white print, cut on the bias, trimmed with pinking shears (an early Christmas present to myself which I found many uses for during my holiday crafting crunch), and then gathered using 2 different runs of a gathering stitch. You just gather, pin, sew in between the 2 runs using the lazy day concept (treat the ruffle as the ribbon) and then pull out the gathering stitches. I ran the extra up the side of the skirt a little and put a black velvet bow on the top of it (lousy picture, I know). It also has another velvet bow on the upper right leg area. Her hair accessory is a length of brown bias tape with a flower on it made out of little circles pinched/gathered together and then tacked on(I got this idea from Valerie, so if she passes on the link I'll pass it on too). I used some more of the black on white fabric and plain black. I then added a little black button in the middle of the flower.
Second was for the very classy and stylish minded sister. She's usually the one out jumping on the trampoline with the boy cousins, but she's the one that likes to have her hair done and asks if things match. I think polka dots over flowers when I think of her, so polka dots it was. I just used the lazy day ribbon idea with 2 inch wide brown with pink polka dots gross grain ribbon and then made a bow to put on the upper right leg area. The hair thing is some of the extra pink polka dot ribbon turned into a head band. I just used one of the clear, rubber bands that get kind of stretchy and sewed it to the ends of the ribbon.
For the third I went with simple but elegant. This girl has one of those Audrey Hepburn faces and she is a simple kind of girl. I took purple lining fabric, cut out strips on the bias and did the same thing as I did for skirt #1. I then used smaller strips to make the rosettes. They turned out a little harder than I thought they would be, so they are a little wonky, but still pretty. Her hair thing is a purple flower glued to a ribbon covered clip with a glittering stone/brad stuck in the middle (scrap booking brads are great for this kind of thing).
Finally the youngest, something really girly. I used light green brocade trim instead of ribbon and then ran it up the side for the flowers stem. The petals are various pink and white scraps cut out with pinking shears and then sewn on to resemble a flower. I added a button in the middle and the hair clip is covered with the same green trim and a matching button attached.

Here's a close up of the flower.Finally for the youngest, a very active 2 year old boy. He got an eye spy beanbag with a lot of stuff to find. Hopefully that will keep him still for a couple of minutes.

Here's the list. I really liked the orange on grey look.