This year's Christmas Sewing

I love new clothes for Christmas ... for me, but especially for the girls.  This year, with planning Hannah's birthday party (post to come) for just a couple of days before Christmas, I didn't have a whole lot of time for designing a new idea, so I found some cute Christmassy-but-not fabrics and used my Elephant Skirt design.  For Hannah's I used this red and white star fabric, with some white piping to really make it pop.  I then did a matching applique star top, edged with some silver sequins.  I think she can probably get away with wearing this when it's not Christmas ... what do you think?

This pic is actually not of Hannah's outfit (I haven't managed to find a chance to get a nice pic of her outfit in good lighting yet).  This pic is of a baby outfit for sale at my shop.  It's a skirt and matching onesie.  Have you visited my shop yet? ... Pop over and have a look! (OK, End shameless plugging!)

For Bethany, I did the exact same outfit ... gasp ... matching sisters ... but in true What's Mummy Up To style, it's a "matching-but-not" outfit.  Bethany's fabric is definitely a Christmas fabric, but I loved that it doesn't SCREAM Christmas.  It's got a beautiful aqua colour in there with the reds and greens which just breaks it up, and the baubles are really subtle I reckon!

Anyway, Bethany's skirt has a row of silver sequins instead of piping, and is coupled with a red lace-trimmed singlet which I found for a whole $4 at Big W.  I used a coffee cup to trace a circle of the skirt fabric to applique to the singlet, then edged it with the silver sequins and made a loop of sequins at the top to make this look a little bauble-like itself.

I can't tell you how many comments we got from people about the girls' outfits this year.  From strangers on the street to ladies at church and family, all in all a winner I think!  I even had a stranger at the local shops come up and ask me where I got the girls' outfits, and the "elf" helping Santa when we braved the annual Santa photo spent quite a few minutes trying to convince me to start an Etsy Shop, before I could tell her that in fact I already have one .... did I mention my shop?!?  (OK, so I might have lied about the end of the shameless plugging!)

So that was my sewing for the girls this Christmas.  I'm hoping Hannah will get some more wear out of her outfit before the summer weather leaves us, and maybe in a couple of years she'll get some wear out of Bethany's outfit too!

Oh, and remember my post with the gorgeous beanbag tutorial from Mummy's Mummy (aka Nanna)?  Well, here's the absolutely beautiful set of beanbags that Hannah received for Christmas.  They're my favourite of all the ones Mummy's Mummy made.  Aren't they beautiful!  Oh, and at the risk of overdoing the shop-talk ... check out my shop if you like these, 'cause Mummy's Mummy has some beanbag sets for sale too!

Stay tuned for a tutorial post on the way about how to make several different bag styles, including this drawstring bag, from Mummy's Mummy.  She's been working hard!