Belated Merry Christmas!

Well, the holidays are coming to a close, and I'm gearing up to get things in shape around here and go back to work next week.  Our Christmas weekend was full of baking cookies...

...sitting by our tree...

...and hanging out in our pajamas.

But, this isn't just a post of holiday stills - I am excited to finally share a few gifts I was busy working on the last month, but haven't posted due to keeping them a surprise for the recipient.  Hopefully you may get a few fun gift ideas for other occasions - I have a whole folder full of ideas I found for the future.


For my expectant sister-in-law who is also an amazing photographer, I put together a few things (although, I didn't get that great of pictures, so please overlook my somewhat blurry and over-exposed photos):


Using Skip to my Lou's Camera Strap Tutorial, I whipped this together in no time (really, it took so little fabric and probably took less than 20 minutes to cut and sew together!).  This is a really easy and fun project if you are new to sewing - you basically just have to be able to sew straight lines and be patient when turning (if you use the fusible fleece, like I did (turned out much nicer that way, I think), it gets really thick and a little tricky to turn. 

And, its probably no surprise from the majority of my posts that the project that took the most work and I had the most fun making, was this diaper bag:

I modified my Overnight Bag and added some details from my Messenger Bag pattern to make this.  I feel like every time I make a bag, I learn a lot of new things about bag making.  This turned out so much better than I thought it would - definitely not perfect, but I was happy with the result.  

I used just a quilting cotton for the main and contrast fabrics of the bag.  I also used some heavyweight fusible interfacing to make the bag more sturdy.  On the strap, I added some fusible fleece to give it a little padding and make it a little more heavy-weight.

I added a snap closure on the inside of the flap,

 

and a zipper to keep everything nice and snug inside.

Here is a picture of the lining of the front pocket:

For the inside lining, I used a vintage pillowcase I picked up at a thrift store - I love the fun, floral look it gives it:

For other hardware, I bought some small D rings to attach the straps, and also added two more larger D rings (not shown) and made the strap adjustable.  I wanted to get a slider adjuster, but couldn't find one in the store and had no time to order one online, so thats why I went with the D rings.  Next time, I'll probably order some sliders instead.

My diaper bag has been falling apart for a while, so I might take on making a new one for myself, now that I have something I really love.   I didn't take enough notes while making it though, so size-wise, I'm going to have to start from scratch, but I'll definitely be writing it down and maybe I'll turn it into a tutorial at some point to pass on some bag making love.

How about you guys?  Did you do any sewing/crafting this year for the Holidays?  I would love to hear about it in the comments!  I have a few more items I made to show you, but they'll have to wait for another post!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from ours to yours!