Accessories

Every year without fail nautical accessories show up in the shops. For a knitted cushion cover you could easily spend between £ 15.- to £ 30.-. Why, when all you need is some wool and a cushion pad you want to cover?

Moss stitch keeps the shape better, but any pattern is possible.

This is knitted as a simple rectangle the width and twice the length of the pad plus a bit extra for the buttonholes.

Turn inside out and sew both sides together, leaving the extra flap for the buttonholes.
Turn back and attach buttons on the outside of the main body, just under the buttonholes.

These are a classic design in nautical or neutral colours.

Blanket

Winter is coming, the energy prices are going through the roof - so this is an alternative to cranking the heating higher in the evenings. And the colours are nice too. For those people who appreciate a warm wooly blanky...in my house my husband and daughter usually have a race over who can snatch one first.

Bathsalts

You need an airtight glass jar, some reused ribbon, some card for a tag....

...decorate and write instructions onto the tag ( 2 handfulls of salt per bath)...



...add seasalt and 2 drops of essential oil, close the jar and shake well.



You can add dried flower petals to the salt. For new mothers with stitches seasalt is a good (and healing) choice, just leave out the essential oil.

Beads

Different beads, silverwire, clasps and pliers.

Attach the clasps and choose your beads .

High Tech

Todays gift is somewhat different from the others. For this you need a video recording or photographs you want to share with family, a laptop that burns data to CDs or DVDs and said discs. It is a matter of minutes to locate the files, play them in Media Player and burn them to the disc, but family far away will have a nice time watching grandchildren performing Christmas plays and the likes or looking at a collection of photographs that would be far too expensive to send by post.

Just in case you would like some of those photos printed, try freephotoprinting.co.uk. It lists the adresses and the number of free prints per company.

Candles

Tealights, shells and essential oil.

Pull the wicks out of some tealights, cut to size and place in the middle of the shells.

Light tealights until the wax turns liquid and pour into the shells. Add two drops of oil.

This is a fast way to make some unusual candles. I used some shells this time but I have also used walnut shells in the past. Anything small, heatproof and stable can be filled with wax.

Penguin

While I had the knitting needles out I decided to quickly knit a mobile phone sock for my daughter. She happens to adore penguins in all shapes and forms. The main body of this is knitted in stocking stitch, the white parts are done in crochet and eyes and beak are embroidered. Multiple techniques...And I have got another stocking filler ready.

Tea Cozy

This is for a tea glass that would burn fingers otherwise: 40 stitches on a set of needles.

4 rows in rib on both ends and the rest in stocking stitch - done in no time.

Felt Fairy



This is a little felt fairy to hang up.



Roll a ball out of stuffing material, cover it in fabric and tie off at the bottom. Sew on some hair and a little cap.

The "body" is some felt cut in a strip, one edge straight and the other  with a "petal"edge. Zigzag some thread along the straight edge and pull. Sew around the neck of the head.

The buds are petalshapes cut out of felt and attached to ribbons, sewn onto the underside of the head.

Customize

This one's easy: Take something basic and jazz it up a bit. While Alice bands like this one are sold for £1.- for a pack of three in some shops, the decorated variety with all sorts of glitter on them are far more expensive. Get yourself a sheet of jewel stickers and have a go and you'll have a stocking filler for princesses in no time. In black, silver or gold also suitable for adults, of course.