Every year I vow to make Christmas gifts and for the most part, I would run out of time and end up scrambling to the nearest shopping center in a fit of panic.

This go around, I fared a little better. I started planning in October and though I was still burning the midnight oil to get things done, it was a significantly handmade gift-giving season.

I made about a hundred bear hats (actually six) in different colors. The cookies and caramels were a hit and will become an annual staple. And for a couple of my dearest and nearest, I whipped up a little tea towel set. As always, I had more elaborate plans than I was able to execute, and I am obviously going through a Sashiko phase. And linen. Always linen. This particular natural linen is very luxurious. But those little stitches took surprisingly forever. I had to abandon the complicated floral pattern I had in mind since I wanted to get at least a little bit of sleep.

The little bag was actually supposed to be a fabric box, but the interfacing wasn’t stiff enough so it ended up a cute tote instead. I referenced a few books and made up the pattern, and the tea towel is a no-brainer. I added a darling round container filled with the recipient’s favorite tea (pictured here is rooibos). I also included empty tea bags like these. I was going to sew up the bags into shapes like I’ve seen on the interwebs (I was yearning to make tea bags shaped like stars or trees), but again, my goals were too ambitious. Maybe next time.

Back to Art Walk prep! I’ll have some more sneak peeks to show you in a day or two….