Draught excluder snake - with a buttonhole fastening

Al's sister Liv asked for a draft excluder with a removable cover for Christmas, so I had a go at making one with a big piece of blue corduroy from Our Patterned Hand. I got the inners from Lancashire Textiles online.

His stuffed felt forked tail appears to be slightly folded under here. Oops.

As well as buttons for eyes, I used a button to fasten him together at the bottom end. This is the first time I have used the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. It's very clever, you put the button into the foot and it creates a hole to fit it.

Button hole foot in action.

Here's the finished button hole and button.

And here is Liv enjoying her snake :)

Mug jumpers

My only foray into knitting beyond scarves, I made these mug jumpers from some leftover wool on 10mm needles. To add the handle hole, I cast off five stitches in the middle, then cast back on again next row. The button I attached with wool. No need for an extra buttonhole as the knitting itself was loose enough to poke a button through wherever you needed it.

Personalised bags for Ivy and Poppy

I decided to use some left over corduroy to make little handbags for Alex's neices Ivy, aged 5 and Poppy aged 3. They were simple little things, with pink binding and a wooden button. I appliquéd the letters I and P onto the flap and added some butterfly, ladybird and flower buttons. 

Photographed under the Christmas tree at home.

The flower bag was a prototype

 I wanted to get pictures of the girls wearing them, but in the chaos of Christmas with small people, it wasn't easy and all the ones I took were blurred.