With Christmas FAST approaching it is time to start panicking about if it is acceptable to buy your Dad socks for the 4th year in a row.

To put it bluntly, NO! Gone are the days of buying pointless (often expensive) gifts that your loved ones might not even need.

With the word BREXIT bringing fear into peoples eyes and the thought of climate change ending the world by 2020, Colette & Jenny are here to tell you the best ways to save some pennies while still supplying the best Christmas gifts in the family and maybe saving a wee bit of the planet too!

Colette

For me, homemade gifts are a win-win! There are so many benefits to making your own such as;

1. You often save some money because lets face it, we all have TONS of fabric lying around that we could use up.
2. You have an excuse to take time out to sew/be creative
3. No need to stress that the personal already has this item as it is one of a kind!
4. People LOVE thoughtful, handmade gifts & even something like a simple tote bag is impressive to those who can’t sew.
5. It can be good for the planet; This Christmas I want to create more eco-friendly, re-usable gifts!

When it comes to gift giving you should always play to your strengths (e.g. Sewing, knitting, painting etc) and if you haven’t yet found your creative strength there is still plenty of time. At our overlocker class you not only learn how to use these amazing machines, you also leave with a wear-able top – all in one night!! (I plan on making one of these for my cousin in a Harry Potter print since she is a BIG fan).

Time depending, I have made a rough list of what gifts I hope to make everyone, for example:

• Travel bag set for Dad, similar to the one I done for the blog ‘sew-along’!
• Cosy Jumper for my Mum
• Toys for the dogs made from old denim jeans
• Basic coat for my Gran
• Tie/pocket square for Grandad

I am even hoping to make my own gift tags. This will allow me to use up any scraps made from my projects and a good excuse to do some fun machine embroidery. The tags can then be kept and used as Christmas tree decorations for the following year!

The ONE gift I will be buying is a small beginners sewing machine for my 5 year old cousin Summer who can’t wait to ‘be a fashion designer like her big cousin Coly’. I am already looking forward to what homemade gifts I will be receiving from her in a few years time…!

Jenny

Well how do I follow on from Colette? I’ll give it a bash!

I’m definitely feeling more inclined to put more thought into this years Christmas gifts and not just because my favourite Martin Lewis told us to! Maybe it’s because I’m getting older(ripe old age of 31) but I’m starting to value peoples time more and more, whether they choose to spend it with me or if they use it to make me something lovely – so that’s what I plan to do this year!

In my household I am the crafty one – no suprises there but my partner is an amazing cook so as far as gifts go we’re actually a good team! He’s going to make loads of lovely foody things like chutneys, jams, fancy olive oils and flavoured alcohols. On the cooking front I might make some biscuits because I am pretty obsessed with the videos that keep popping up on my instagram of people decorating them…watch this space to see whether the decorating ACTUALLY goes to plan, or if any of them actually make it out of the kitchen without me or Steve eating them ourselves!

Sewing wise I’m going to be utilising my favourite machine – the embroidery machine – to customise some bits and bobs! Just like our Personalised Christmas Pressie class! I’m also planning some hand embroidery embellished items because I have been LOVING doing hand embroidery all cosy on the sofa in the evening! There’s definitely still time for you to get involved with our Hand Embroidery classes in November and December!

I’m keeping this brief because I don’t want to give away TOO much incase any of my gift recipients are actually reading this :p

Whatever you end up doing, make sure you crank up the Christmas tunes and have a lovely festive time while you do it. And if like me you make biscuits and end up eating them all before they make it into the gift bag then make sure you take an Instagram of it before the get demolished so at least people know you tried!