Red Brolly

Make | Free Christmas Gift bag pattern

Remember this cookie bag pattern I gave you awhile ago? Well, I've jooshed it up a little and made it look a little more Christmassy. You can make it in under 30 mins and is a great little project for you to sew to put all of you home baked treats in. It's a perfect size for some yummy cranberry shortbread, Christmas Florentines,  fudgy rocky road, fruit mince puffs, or perhaps some lovely handmade soaps or assemble together "A baker's delight bag-" include some cookie cutters, a mini recipe book, a mini rolling pin, perhaps some vanilla bean pods, a piping bag and nozzle.

If the size isn't right for what you need it's very easy to just change it around to make it smaller or larger.

Here's what you'll need to make 1 bag:-

• 1 x fabric 13" long by 4" wide for the base
• 1 x netting 13" long by 9" wide for the top half of bag
• 1 x matching fabric 8 " long by 4" wide for fabric strips on base of bag
• 2 x ribbon 9" long
• 1 x wide ric rac 13" long, strand of pom-poms
• Iron on adhesive- I used Heat 'n' Bond

Seam allowance 1/4"

Step 1: Iron adhesive paper onto back of fabric for strips- paper side up. Cut strips. Peel off paper backing.

Step 2: Position strips evenly along base piece of fabric.

Step 3: Iron strips into place with a hot iron.

Step 4: Pin pom pom strand into place along the top of the base piece.

Step 5: Sew into place with a quick straight stitch.

Step 6: Place netting along the top of base piece- right sides facing (not that netting has a right side)- and pin.

Step 7: Sew with straight stitch. Fold fabric pieces open. Press seams. You should now have one piece.

Step 8: Along the right side of the fabric, measure 3" down from the top and pin the ribbon. Fold piece in half lengthways- right sides facing. Pin. Make sure ribbon is on the inside. Straight stitch along base and up side.

Click here for more detailed instructions.

You can either finish here or you can add in a gusset. Gusset's are very easy and will make your bag sit by itself and have a flat bottom (Something we all want!)

 

Here is a brief tutorial on how to sew a gusset, or you can go to an earlier tutorial.

Easy! Fill with all of your lovely goodies.

 

In the Red Brolly shop

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Paper Craft | How to get reindeers to stop at your house

Here's a fun Christmas craft activity to do with the kids.

Plus you will also need your free pattern (click here to download PDF version)

OR, click on the image below and then save.

 

1. Download and print your free PDF pattern.

2. Trace around pieces onto coloured card and cut out as shown on pattern. To make the head piece, fold brown card in half and place head piece along fold where indicated.

3. Glue pieces into place as shown below.

4. Cut out antlers from corrugated card and glue into place.

5. Cut out poem and glue inside the reindeer head on the top half.

6. Put reindeer food into plastic bag, roll bag over several times and staple onto the inside of the bag topper on the bottom half.

Finished!!

These would make great gifts for little children. Imagine seeing the delight on their little faces on Christmas Eve as they dance around on the lawn sprinkling reindeer food as they go.

Would you like to know how to make reindeer food? It's really easy, you could make up your own, or you could do it with your children and have them come up with a recipe of their own. But glitter is a definite MUST!

Mix all of the above into a bowl and then spoon into plastic bags or mini jars if you didn't want to make the reindeer bag topper.

Just a magical idea. I can't wait to do it.

Buy Red Brolly patterns now

    

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Fun with felt | Easy Candy cane antler Rudolph

Here's a quick and simple pattern which would make an easy gift idea. It takes no longer than 30 mins to make. These little Rudolph candy cane antlers could also be made from paper should you wish.

1 piece good quality brown felt/paper 27cm x 15 cm (10.5" x 6")

1 piece white felt/paper 7cm x 7cm (2.5" x 2.5")

2 goggly eyes- 1cm (7/8") diameter

1 red bead (could also make it using red felt)

2 candy canes

 

1. Download and print your free  PDF Rudolph candy cane holder pattern and cut out. If you'd like you can click on the image below and then right click and save.

Cut out pieces as shown from either paper or felt.
2. Fold in half along fold line and pin into place (don’t use pins if making from paper).
3. Slightly curl the ears in half. Place ears where shown and pin.
4.Straight stitch around edges starting and ending at the 2 dots, as indicated.
5. Glue mouth into position, then eyes.
6. Glue goggly eyes at the dotted circles and then  either glue or carefully stitch a red bead into place
for nose.
7. Insert candy canes in top. Finished.

(note- I used blue thread so you can see it easier in the photo and help with instructions.)

Finished!

Easy...!! Now only 25 more to make.....

 

Shop Red Brolly patterns for Christmas

 

                  

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Quick lace doily decoration ideas for Christmas

Here's a few ideas to use lace/crochet doilies for decorations. I love lace doilies as I think they look like snowflakes. Now remember...I am focussing on doing things quickly as we're doing last minute decoration ideas.

For using lace doilies as decorations you need to make them stiff. There are 2 ways to do this. One really quick and one not so. The first way to make your doilies stiff is to spray them with fabric stiffener and then iron them. This is a really quick way, though I have found that they tend to lose their stiffness after a few days. The advantage of this way is that you can use them again for something else.

If you have a day up your sleeve, I've found that by ironing them, then painting them with slightly diluted PVC glue and leaving them to dry on clingfilm overnight, makes them really strong and hold really well. (If doing is this way, make sure you try and flip them over when the glue has dried on the top side so that the doilies will dry both sides).

I've even quickly embroidered a few Christmassy words onto some of the doilies.

Idea #1

Use them as decorations on your Christmas tree. I've found that they look really effective on a "Stick" tree as shown here. Tie fishing line to the doilies and hang them from the tree. I even wrapped a large doily around the jar at the bottom.

Idea #2

Hang them in your window to make a lovely display (cough, cough...please excuse the photo...the background is really awful, but I had little options...but you get the idea)

Hope you have a lovely weekend preparing for the Christmas holidays. Don't forget that as of Monday you can post your Christmas mantlepieces and sideboards to my facebook page and share with us all.

Tutorial :: Quick Scandinavian Christmas garland

Ok, Christmas is fast upon us and we need a few little extra bits and pieces to jazz up the place, but we are running out of time. Here's a quick Scandinavian inspired star garland to make in no time at all.

Materials

-Air drying Fimo- This stuff is great, a polymer clay that air dries...particularly good when the oven is overcrowded with Christmas goodies.

-Cookie cutters

-Ribbon

-Glue gun or strong glue if you don't have a glue gun

-a few little extra sequins and beads to make it more exciting

Instructions

1. Roll out the Fimo

2. Cut desired shapes, as many as you need. Leave to dry overnight, turning over at least once. This is the part that takes the longest.

3. Heat up your glue gun, take your ribbon and lay it on the table-face up. Work out where you are going to place your shapes. Remember to allow a little space at each ens to allow for attaching to tree etc.

4. Take your shapes-which are now dry and hard- and using the glue gun, attach them to your ribbon.

5. Take your beads, sequins and jazzy bits and glue onto your shapes. I chose red and white as that's my colour theme for Christmas this year.

Super quick and finished in no time.

Now all you need to do is decide where to put it.

Here ???

or here???

-Bronwyn...

Psst...look at my bare looking sideboard. Must get a wriggle on. Stay tuned for my next posting on a TO DIE FOR Christmas sideboard...drool!

 

A Christmas Card For Stitchers!

 


I thought you might like a special Christmas card to give to your stitching friends.

  So here it is.  Print the image out onto A4 photo card for best results.

The colours look a bit funny onscreen- but I think your printer will translate the colours- and hopefully they'll be the colours I painted the Stitchers Christmas card in.

Download Red brolly PDF christmas card file

Download Red Brolly JPEG christmas card

 

   Here's a pic of what the card looks like.

 

 

 

 

 

You get two cards to an A4 page. 

Use your rotary cutter to cut along the line to separate the two cards.

Fold in half- and Le Voila! Two yummy Christmas Cards to send to your stitching friends.

 

    Keep tuned in for more exciting Christmas projects!

 

                     

Tutorial :: Mini-Christmas bunting

In the lead up to Christmas, I'm going to be doing a few mini-tutorials. Little crafty ideas that can be whipped up in a flash and finished in only a few hours.

   


So today, I'll be showing you how to make a cute little Christmas bunting to have on top of your Christmas cake, or hang as a garland from a mini-Christmas tree.

What you'll need:-

Fabric scraps

Needle, thread and scissors

Fishing line, or some ribbon or twine to attach the pieces to

Skewers (if making the bunting)

Double sided tissue tape- This stuff is fabulous (in Australia you can get it from Officeworks and ships within the week)

A small piece of cardboard- to make a template

Fabric pen/marker for transfering patterns

 

HOW TO:

1.Using your cardboard make a template of the bunting pieces. I chose to make mine 4 cm long and 2 cm wide, with a scalloped edge. Remember, it has to be folded in half, so take this into consideration when making. Cut out.

2. Take your double sided tape and fabric scraps. Unroll the tape and press the sticky side onto the wrong side of the fabric.

3. Cut the tape, but still leave the plastic layer attached to the tape. Don't peel this off just yet. Make lots of different strips, as many as you think you'll need.

4. Using the template and your pen, on the right side of the fabric (you'll have to take a bit of care), trace around your template onto the fabric. Make as many as you need...one for each letter. Cut them out.

5. When ready, take your fishing line and fabric bunting pieces, fold each piece in half cross-ways. This will help you when placing the fishing line. Unfold the piece of bunting and peel the plastic layer off. Take your fishing line and place on the sticky side in the crease you made when you folded it in half. This should be in the middle. Fold over and stick. Repeat with all the pieces.

6. You should now have a pretty little bunting. You can use it just as it is, or you can embroider a special Christmas message. Mine should say "Joyeux Noel" (minus the spelling mistake...not concentrating!!) You could either use your fabric marker and carefully write your letters on each piece, or if you want a more rustic look, you could just free-hand it.

7. Thread your needle (I used 2 strands) and carefully sew each letter. I ran out of time, but I also thought you could sew around the border of each piece.

8. TA-DA! Finished! Should be completed in under 2 hours, depending on how fast a sewer you are. If using for a gorgeous cake bunting, tie the ends to some skewers and place on top of your Christmas cake.

Next mini-Christmas craft tutorial...something with lace doilies.

Bronwyn...

           

Christmas Cookies..using rubber stamps!

Would you like to learn how to make these?

Aren't they effective?

I was talking on my facebook page during the week that I was busy working in the "Red Brolly test kitchen", and I was experimenting with different Christmas cookie ideas...anyway...these were what I came up with. They are so easy!

                    (opps...spelling mistake in the photo!)

 

Ready?

(A good idea is to read through the instructions first as there are several options that you could do.)

First you'll need a batch of your favourite Vanilla Sugar cookies. You can use my favourite recipe.

 

You'll also need:-

Fondant icing

Christmas rubber stamps

food colouring

a small dish and maybe a paint brush

 

Once you have your biscuits/cookies made and they are cooled, you'll need a batch of fondant icing. I favour the ready made fondant icing, but you could go as far as to make your own.

Roll your fondant icing out to a thickness of about 3mm. Not too thin as when you press the stamp into the icing, you don't want to go right through.

Next using the cookie cutter that matches your choosen cookie shape, cut out the icing.

Option 1: You could use some sugar paste (mix alot of sugar, with a little bit of boiling water to make a liquid-or even a quick brush of water) and stick the icing onto your biscuits at this stage, OR you could do this later.

Next, take your food dye and squeeze some into your dish. Take your paintbrush and your rubber stamp, dip your paint brush into the dye and paint it onto your rubber stamp. I must admit, that I ended up not using the paintbrush and just found my finger much more effective.

Next, carefully place your stamp on top of the icing and press down evenly. Practice a few times first on some test pieces as it takes a few goes to work out the right amount of food dye and the right amount of pressure.

Once you've had a few test goes, it's time to start.

As already mentioned, there are 2 options. Option 1 is to put the icing on the cookie and then stamp it with an image. Option 2 is....

Option 2: To ensure that you get perfect images stamped onto your icing is to stamp the cut-out icing first, discard any that have smudged or bled, and then place the perfect stamped icing on top of the cookie.

The downside to option 2 is that the stamped image may smudge when placing the icing on top of the biscuit, the downside to option 1 is, that if you make a mistake, you'll waste a biscuit. You can decide!

By the way...thank you for all the positive feedback about my new quilt,if you haven't seen it yet you can see images on my facebook page, or you can read a lovely review on Bari J's blog, We Love French Knots.

           

Red Brolly Christmas card free printables.

Free for your Christmas packaging, I've made some Christmas card printables. Easy to download- I hope, and then just adjust to the size you need. Great to make Christmas cards, gift tags, place card settings, table decorations...even as labels for your homemade goodies.

There's 3 different Christmas card designs to choose from. I've included the designs in 3 different formats (covering all bases). You can choose to download them as a jpeg, photoshop file or as a PDF.

Enjoy them, and use them to your hearts content. Download them, enlarge them, shrink them, print them onto card stock-or just print them, cut them out and glue onto a coloured card. Lots of ideas!

 

Red Brolly printable Christmas Card 1: "Have a jolly Christmas."

Click to download the JPEG file

Click to download PDF file

Click to download PSD file

Red Brolly printable Christmas Card 2: "Merry and Bright."

Click to download JPEG file

Click to download PDF file

Click to download PSD file

 

Finally, I made this one using the last Red Brolly free Christmas sampler pattern. In case, you decided to give it as a present you could have a matching Christmas card to go with it.

Red Brolly printable Christmas Card 3: "Our little Christmas Home."

  Click to download JPEG file

Click to download PDF file

Click to download PSD file

           

The Final Sampler.

 

 

Here's the last of the Samplers for you to stitch for Christmas.

This one is my favourite.

I'd love to see any finished photos of any of the samplers.

 

I've included the pattern and instructions in two different ways for you to download.

You can either:-

1.  Click on the image for it to come up in a separate window which can then be printed out.

2. Click on "download" to download the image in a PDF file which can then be printed out.

  Hopefully this works for everyone.

                                              Download Christmas Home-PDF pattern

 

                                  

Download Christmas Home PDF Instructions-Part 1

 

                           Download Christmas Home PDF Instructions-Part 2

 

                           Download Christmas Home PDF Instructions-Part 3

 

 

 Hopefully you can print out your free Red Brolly Christmas Sampler pattern,

         BUT-

  if you've tried and tried and tried.... and still can't print the pages out:

  please send me a distress signal at:

   bronwyn@red-brolly.com.au

 

And I'll email the design and instructions to you!

 

   Happy stitching-