Handmade Gifts

This month I’ve been on a pretty tight budget due to solicitor’s fees and my expensive taste in curtains, and slight panic set in when I realised I had three friends birthday’s to buy for. So, I decided to get my sewing box out and mix small bought gifts with handmade birthday badges. Why birthday badges? Well, on my birthday I always feel the need to announce it to the world, particularly on a drunken night out, but have never seen a nice birthday badge, ever. So I decided that since my friends are ‘announce my birthday to the world’ kind of people too, I’d attempt to make them pretty, non plastic, birthday badges. For my best friend Jess I made a circular pink felt badge, covered in sequins, with ‘25’ embroidered on it. She’s Indian and loved the sequin detailing as she said it had a very ‘Indian’ influence. I wrapped the badge up in tissue paper along with a pack of glow sticks (she has a strange love of them), some punky style bangles that she’s been jingle jangling about in since she opened them, and a cute friendship bracelet from Ebay, handmade by the seller and beautifully presented.

From ebay seller once-upon-a-wish.

After making my first badge I felt a bit more creative and decided to make my next one a star. I embroidered ‘22’ on to it and then gave it a sprinkling of sequins. On Jess’s badge I couldn’t decide how to cover up my stitching on the back and in the end decided to leave it as it was, but on this one I decided to back it with contrasting felt. This made the general look of the badge much neater and meant that the brooch fitting was much more secure. Here’s a pic of the finished product. My stitching is definitely not perfect, but as my Mum says, if it was perfect it may have well been made in a factory somewhere.

For Mother’s Day I not only saved some pennies, but gave handmade gifts that meant much more than shop bought ones. I hope so anyway, since my hands and arms were about to fall off by the time I’d finished them! For my Mum I made a felt star, covered in sequins and embroidered with ‘I Love You’ on the back, and embroidered a cotton handkerchief with a cute Scottie from my Sublime Stitching book. For my Nan I also embroidered a handkerchief with a Sublime Stitching design, this time an orange lily, as they’re associated with the 12th July Orange parades (My Nan having been part of the Orange Lodge and an Orange Queen when she was younger).