Mandy's
Magical
Christmas
10 timeless sewing patterns for a handmade yule
Mandy Shaw
Contents
a touch of magic!
I absolutely love the build-up to Christmas, where I get to sew beautiful decorations to transform my home and gorgeous gifts for the people I love. This collection of gloriously Christmassy projects brings together the festive makes from my three books, Stitch with Love, Stitch at Home and Celebrate with a Stitch into a handy edition that you can whip out when you just feel the need for some festive sewing fun!
There are ten projects to choose from, including decorations, wreaths, bunting, tags and more and plenty of redwork stitching – my all-time favourite technique – which just works so perfectly for Christmas projects.
I’ve included a comprehensive guide to all the hand embroidery stitches you’ll need, as well as all the templates at full-size, so there’s nothing stopping you just tracing from the page and getting started today!
I hope you enjoy this collection and cherish the process of making your own magical Christmas.
Mandy xxx
Projects
Gingerbread House
The best bit about making this little gingerbread house is the decorating. You could go really mad with all the lovely festive buttons and ribbons you can buy. However, I have chosen a more subtle snow-and-ice inspired cream ric-rac braid and pearl button heart motif.
You will need
46cm × 30.5cm (18in × 12in) thick interfacing
46cm × 30.5cm (18in × 12in) thin cotton wadding
50cm (20in) of 106cm (42in) wide brown cotton fabric
25.5cm (10in) square fusible webbing
Red small dot, pink stripe and cream fabric offcuts
132cm (52in) cream narrow ric-rac
40.5cm (16in) cream wide ric-rac
18cm × 20cm (7in × 8in) cream felt
One skein cream embroidery thread
Fabric adhesive or tacking thread
Eight 1.3cm (1⁄2in) pearl buttons
35 6mm (1⁄4in) pearl buttons
Wooden kebab stick
Drinking straw
Two wooden beads*
Note: * choose beads to fit the end of the kebab stick.
Finished size: 15.5cm × 13cm × 15.5cm (6in × 5in × 6in) excluding chimney
Fast2Fuse – a thick, iron-on interfacing that is very easy to sew through – will save you time (see Suppliers).
Cut and prepare the house parts
1. From the interfacing and cotton wadding, cut the following: one base 15.5cm × 13cm (6in × 5in); two sides 15.5cm × 7.5cm (6in × 3in); and two roofs 10cm × 18cm (4in × 7in). Using the gable end template (see Templates), also cut two gable ends.
2. Glue the wadding to the interfacing with a light spray of fabric adhesive (see General Techniques). Alternatively, tack (baste) the layers together at step 4 below.
3. Fold the brown fabric in half. Lay the interfacing/wadding pieces on top, leaving a 5cm (2in) gap in between. Cut out the pieces 2.5cm (1in) bigger all around to give you two sets of brown fabrics pieces for each house part. Put one set aside.
4. Using spray fabric adhesive, glue the other set of brown fabric pieces to the wadding side of each house part, centring the pieces in the middle of the fabric. Alternatively, tack (baste) the layers together now.
Make the windows and doors
1. Draw one 5cm × 7.5cm (2in × 3in) rectangle and three 4cm (11⁄2in) squares onto the smooth side of the fusible webbing, and cut out roughly.
2. Iron the rectangle onto the wrong side of the dot fabric for the door, and the squares onto the stripe fabric for the windows. Cut out neatly.
3. Peel off the paper and iron the door to one of the gable ends, and a window on the other. Fuse a window on each side of the house, placing them about 2.5cm (1in) up from the bottom edge. Blanket stitch the doors and windows by hand or machine.
Complete the fabric pieces
1. Place the set-aside brown fabric pieces right sides together with the other set of prepared house parts. Stitch together all the way around the