I always have to laugh a bit when people bring up that myth of eight nights of Chanukah gifts. Seriously? I don't know of anyone who does that. We usually stick with one night of gifts and I like to have as many as possible be homemade. The teen boys, of course, would be happier with cash or video games, but they smiled politely at their freezer paper stenciled shirts. Tovah, on the other hand, is a maker and as a maker she's still delighted by home made gifts.
She's currently in a big cat phase: lions, tigers, pumas, you name it. She will confidently list the differences between cheetah and leopards (who knew?) and fill you in on all the details of diet, habitat, and more. So it was easy to pick a design for her stenciled shirt.
She's currently in a big cat phase: lions, tigers, pumas, you name it. She will confidently list the differences between cheetah and leopards (who knew?) and fill you in on all the details of diet, habitat, and more. So it was easy to pick a design for her stenciled shirt.
I can't quite remember where I came up with the idea of this skirt, but I really liked the idea of a pieced border near the hem of a full, swingy skirt. It all made sense in my head but when I started putting it together I had trouble securing the top edge of the border neatly and that's when I began rummaging through my stash of old trims. I was delighted to find I had enough of the cherry red to trim both edges. I find sewing rickrack to be somewhat harrowing, but it came out well enough with a bit of hand sewing here and there.
I'm not sure how long my sweet girl will enjoy mama made gifts but she appeared to be delighted with this one.
4 comments:
It came out beautiful. Both the shirt and the skirt look great. I hope to make more of our holiday gifts in the future.
It does look beautiful. But I have to tell you that we do eight nights of gifts - not all large, of course. And the sixth night their gift consisted of Kiva gift certificates and they got to choose whom to donate to.
I tried to get the teenager to accept money instead but he was not having any. He still loves to search for his gift all over the living room!
I've never stopped appreciating handmade gifts from my mom.
Growing up, my best friend's family did 8 nights of gifts--one little gift each night, like what we would consider stocking stuffers. They didn't do big gifts at all.
Our nights have evolved into nights with different activities, for example: making green-chile latke night, Jewish music night, Hannukah history discussion night, friends-to-dinner night. And then the never-to-be repeated them, like the Chem Geek Princess Wedding Night which was on the second night this year. Everybody gets and give presents, but not all of us get and give on the same night. I thought we were weird. But maybe not!
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