Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Gift Giving

I'll admit it, I have had to take a step back. As I always do. Every year, I tell myself that this is the year that I will finally handmake every single present I gift. It hasn't happened yet. Life gets in the way, and somehow taking the time to watch my children perform at the mall, help them decorate gingerbread men or encourage them in making their own handmade gifts prevails. I still do handmake as many of my gifts as I can though and those are always my very favorite gifts to give.

My 5-year-old working on a hand-painted backpack to give as a gift

Speaking of giving, I'm in the mood to give away fabric, so I thought a little contest might be fun. Reply to this post with the best handmade gift you have ever given or received. The 3 most original, interesting, unique entries will each win a $10 gift certificate to The Fabric Fairy. :-) I can't wait to hear everyones stories!

33 comments:

  1. I love Fabric Fairy!! You have the most helpful team and the best customer service!!!


    would love to win the 10%off!!!

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  2. the best handmade gift i have received was a first grade project at my eldest childrens' school. they make a fancy top for a ball jar and inside are pieces of paper with nice things that they think about me, their mama, so when i feel sad or upset i can pull one or more out and read their wonderful thoughts.
    i have three of them so far :)

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  3. The best handmade gift I ever got was DEFINITELY the pretty, bright quilt my great aunt made my husband and I for our wedding... Such a great keepsake!

    Also, I love your blog background!

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  4. This year, I am making my older neice felt food for her play kitchen, and my younger neice I knit her a little jacket with a matching hat! A friend of mine just had a baby, so I made her a cute little pant set with a matching kimono top and a hat

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  5. This year all the family is getting organic bamboo velour pillowcases YUMMY

    I think the best/worst gift I have ever given was from elementray school, we made pillows, I overstuffed it, felt like laying on a rock, but mom loved it all the same :)

    Erin Kimmons

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  6. The best home made present I ever got was a homemade cookbook made by my best friend. She typed up all the recipes that I had tried and loved at her house, put them together in a notebook with a beautiful poem bout how friends are forever and how much she loved me and cared for our friendship. I cried when i recieved it and I cry just bout everytime i pull it out to use it.

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  7. I think the best handmade gift I've ever gotten would be the christmas decoration that my son made for me at preschool this year. It had the most adorable picture of him wearing a santa hat and sporting a big fake smile.

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  8. When I was in college and dating my now husband, I learned how to crochet. I crocheted a huge blanket for him and trimmed it with satin edging. I gave it to him for his birthday that year and he wanted it even bigger. So I didn't finish it until we had been married about a year. It will be 10 yrs on friday that we have been married and the blanket is still going strong a favorite for the kids to snuggle daddy with in his chair. Most college students are wild, I sat in my apartment and crocheted, lol.

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  9. When I was about 5 or 6 I made my mother a beaded necklace for Christmas. I chose some lovely shiny pink beads and thought it was the most beautiful piece of jewelry ever created. I was so excited to give it to her. She wore that necklace all the time and made me feel so special and proud even though it was fairly hideous!

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  10. The best handmade presents that i ever made is a pouch bag that i hand sew it. I gave it to my good friend to put her handphone..My stitches are inconsistent but then she likes it. She said that's masterpiece of art..hahaha...^__^

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  11. For my youngest daughter's first birthday, I put together an I Spy quilt. Even sewed in some "secret code" (used some novelty fabric to "write" Happy Birthday (cupcakes and packages), Love (hearts) and Kisses (candy kisses) from Mommy (crowns) and Daddy (Superman)). It was one of my earliest quilts, so it's rather imperfect, but we all love it anyway!

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  12. best handmade gift received is a collage from my boyfriend picturing a couple (us), he holding his arms around her, she leaning against him. I think he used a young dustin hoffman and dito monica vitti as raw models, that might have helped the result. my favorite handmade gift to give at the moment is baby clothes made of traditional japanese asanoha star/ hemp leaf pattern print fabric. "Since the hemp is hardy and grow straight, this pattern was often used for childrens wear". The clean design and colours are really becoming compared to more common choices for childrens clothes. Plus I like the traditional, almost superstitous, use of the print.

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  13. Can I amend mine? I posted about the necklace that I made my Mom... Well, today I received a beautiful beaded bracelet (on a pipe cleaner) from my 5 year old daughter. She was soooo proud, just like I was years ago. I love it and will treasure it forever!

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  14. Oh so many handmade gifts! One I made for my husband this year will prob be the best! I traced the kids hands onto a t-shirt and traced them with fabric paint then painted on "World's Best Dad 2009". I know that he is going to love it and treasure it always!

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  15. When the kids were little I made them matching or coordinating pajamas every year for Christmas. It was our tradition to open one prezzie on Christmas Eve and it was always the pj's!

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  16. Sneaking in a coupon code for my sweet friends who bothered to read everyone's blog responses...Use coupon code heresahug to take 15% off of your purchase now through midnight on Saturday... :-)

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  17. I've made a lot of handmade gifts, but the one I made for my 5 year old this year really takes the cake. If you ask her what her favorite color is, she usually replies with either "rainbow" or "pink" and she just loves dresses (perhaps loves is an understatement). I've been wanting to make her a patchwork rainbow twirly dress for over a year now. I collected a bunch of fabric, but never did get quite the right colors or the right amount of each color to start on it, so decided I'd just design my own fabric, have it printed at Spoonflower.com and then sew it up. It ended up being an inordinate amount of work. I just finished the design, received the fabric and sewed it up last week and the dress is absolutely perfect in every way. I couldn't even wait until Christmas to give it to her. I call it the 100 Dreams rainbow patchwork twirly dress. I strategically designed it with 100 squares of fabric (each 3" x 3") and each with it's own slight color variation and different design. And the best part of all - it fits her perfectly!! And she loves it! I actually sized it so it would fit both of my girls. I just crisscross the straps in the back to get a nice fit on my 2 year old.

    I have photos here (along with a step by step of how I made it):
    www.SewMeAGarden.com/100dreams

    I also have it available as a public design on Spoonflower, so if anyone is interested in making one of these dresses, here's the link to the design on Spoonflower, you're welcome to purchase a yard from them and make your own:
    http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/125142

    I also just entered it in Spoonflower's weekly design contest, which you can read more about on their blog:
    http://blog.spoonflower.com/

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  18. One of the best that I've given was a blanket. My friend's wife was having a little girl, so I decided to crochet a baby blanket. I bought some yarn and went to town, without a pattern, and I used all the yarn I had purchased. The baby blanket ended up being queen size! My friend loved it because he used it while he slept in the hospital with his wife.

    My mama-made gifts for my children this year include Waldorf dolls and knit sweaters. I love creating things for my children...it gives me great joy to see them surrounded by objects made with much love, especially clothing. I feel like it's almost a protective layer when I see them wearing a physical representation of my love for them.

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  19. Best hand made present was the Chef's hat I made for my younger brother last year. It had a hard hat underneath it, to keep him from hitting his head on the corner of the stove hood. He had split it open twice while cooking, and my dh and I thought it would be an appropiate gift, and it was also amusing. He was very appreciative, LOL!

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  20. Best handmade gift I ever received was a quilt made by my sister. It contains fabric from some of the tops we wore back in the '70's as well as suspicious round burn marks from an outdoor concert in the '80's. I've appreciated it more and more the past few years, and would never consider taking it to a concert now!

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  21. For my now 9yo baby I made a quilt for her to tummy lay on with 9 felt shapes that then turned into something (like a square became a present and the tag was 'from mom' & a tree with a squirrel and two sister shapes holding hands with her older sister)...it was the most special gift and she still loves it despite the fact that I had never made a quilt before

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  22. Last year I made Flax Seed Neck heat/ice packs for our family and some friends. They all loved them. They still tell me how great they are.

    The best gift I received was a quilt my mom made when I was in middle school. It is now on my 3 yr old daughters bed.

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  23. The best handmade gift I received was technically not for me. It was a dress for my daughter. It was made of a dress I wore when I was a baby. That dress was re-fashioned from a dress my mother wore as a baby. Her dress was made out of one of my grandmother's mother's blouses. So the dress my daughter wore for her 1st birthday was passed down through 5 generations of her maternal line!

    I held my breath as I handwashed it after my daughter's birthday party, but it held up just fine. Now it's in her hope chest. Maybe someday she'll refashion it into a dress (or dress shirt; it's blue) for her child. :-)

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  24. My favorite handmade gift is from my mom. My mom designed and built a special cutting table for me. It's sized for a full size cutting mat and has lots os storage underneath the back side. It's the perfect height. I LOVE it and use it ALL the time.

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  25. Well the best would be my son who was born on christmas day almost 13 years ago but guess he isnt handmade...I have so many my best I ever received are the handmade gifts my kids have made me ..My favorite is this red glass ornament that my daughter made in 1st grade she glued cotton and sprinkles on it so it would be a santa that was 30 years ago and still every year I take it out and hang on the tree bringing back the memories of my first born little girl...My treee is filled with memories from all three kids :)
    Rene

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  26. I saw that sneak coupon too :)

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  27. The best handmade gifts I have made/received would be the stuffed "monsters" we made at my baby shower. It was a co-ed shower on Halloween called "baby, brew, and boo!" Our friend who owns a local brewery supplied the beer and we all sat around and made our own versions of "Ugly Dolls". They were then our gifts (my daughter's gifts, really) to take home and decorate the nursery with. Super cool that Clover's first stuffed animals were "ugly" little monsters made by all of our friends ;)

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  28. The best homemade gifts I give, I think, are matching nursing covers and pouch slings for mamas of newborns. I think they really appreciate it, and I feel like I am encouraging baby carrying and nursing in moms who might otherwise not realize how great that style of parenting is!

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  29. The best handmaade gift I ever gave was a queen size quilt (the first quilt I had ever made) to my best friend of 20 years. She had been having a very difficult time with her health and her family and I wanted to give her something to show her I was always there for her.

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  30. Allright, how on earth am I ever going to choose? I think I need to think about the comments tonight and I'll post the 3 winners tomorrow...

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  31. when i was in 7th grade, i wanted this amazing sweater, all wild intarsial knit, intricate old-country patterns and in every color under the sun. i had seen it on a cover of a womens magazine at the grocery store, and i wanted my mother to knit it for me. my mother did not know how to knit. christmas was 3.5 months away. i opened that package on christmas morning, and i swear, that was the bestest gift i have ever had. she had learned it, knit it, and it was perfect. she died 11 years later on mother's day, and i retired the sweater with her at the grave, in one of those late winter michigan blizzards. i have never seen a sweater like that, and i hope to see it still safe with my mother when i move on from this life! --- laurel

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  32. And the winners are: Dina, Kate, Jane, and the Christine who posted at 10:49 PM on December 20th. Yes, that is 4 gift certificates, and I had only planned on 3, but we really couldn't break down the 4 way tie any further. Congratulations ladies, and thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

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  33. By the way, I don't have your email addresses, so if you won, please contact me at contact@thefabricfairydotcom. :-)

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