A zig zag pillowcase for Christmas presents

A friend of mine Tash Judd recently asked me to make a pillowcase for her daughter. She had made her a wonderful advent calendar full of mini toys in little red and green zig zagged paper bags.

She wanted a large pillow case in a similar design for the 25th - Christmas Day presents!

I found some zig zag material on the Village Haberdashery site and Tash ordered two fat quarters of each which was delivered in very pretty spotty packaging. I made the pillowcase green on one side and red on the other, with a fold at the top to secure the pillow (if it ends up containing a pillow not presents in the end).

Here's the pillowcase filled by Father Christmas;

And here's an excited toddler looking forward to opening them;

Apparently now every time she sees the pillowcase, she says a hopeful 'More Santa?'. Maybe next year Isabella...

Tash and Matt gave me some lovely chocolates and a Village Haberdashery voucher as a Christmas thank you. I've yet to decide what fabric to spend it on but there's loads of pretty options to choose from. Thanks you two!

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.