Stashbusting Sewalong: December theme "Christmas Mayhem"

To end the year off, the theme for December in the Stashbusting Sewalong, is Christmas mayhem! Whether it be sewing presents for gifts, or making those finishing touches to your own Christmas, it's all covered this month!

For my December on theme sewing, I was also desperately trying to meet my stashbusting goals for the year. I had planned on making curtains this year which would have easily taken me past the finish line, but time got away from me, so here I am in December counting up every little bit of fabric that I've been using, and rechecking totals all the time.

I had a few things in mind to make for Christmas. The first was a Christmas wreath. The pattern that I used is a free download from Pat Sloan, the page to download it from is here. This pattern came to my attention on the Sew-A-Longs and Sewing Contests group on Facebook. I managed to stashbust 5 metres of fabric on this, as I provided fabric for 6 wreaths! I got together with the women from my Bible study and we all started our wreaths together. I managed to forget to take any photos at all, on the night, but just picture this: One of us was cutting strips of fabric and turning them into squares, someone else was ironing the squares into triangles, and the other three of us started on sewing up the triangles into leaves! We didn't get that much finished on the night, but I had mine all done and hanging on my front door within a week.

The instructions call for a wreath that is 12 inches across, and you use 60 x 16.5cm squares. As our wreaths measured approx 10 inches across, we experimented with a few sizes, and settled on 12cm squares, and figured that 40 of them would be enough. My wreath has exactly 40 leaves on it, but I could have easily used more.

I hand-stitched the edge of the leaves and just pulled up the thread, then whip stitched over the ends. Easy! And portable. Great for taking to the kids swimming lessons.

The fun bit was getting out the glue gun, once I'd manage to locate the spare glue sticks. If you're thinking of doing one, be prepared with lots of glue at the ready, I used 3 sticks!

I glued some red spotty ribbon on my wreath first, then got to work on the fun bit! Before I stuck all my leaves down, I traced the inside and outside of the wreath onto paper, and laid out where I wanted all my leaves to go. Every now and then, I compared my wreath to what I had left to make sure the spacing was about right.

I probably could have put more leaves on this, but as it isn't a large wreath, I didn't want to overwhelm it. I ended up with one spare wreath, and lots of squares that we had cut out, so I am making up another wreath, but as it won't be finished before Christmas, I'll have to remember it next year to give away. I'm thinking that I'll put more leaves on that one.

For my other Christmas project, I went for something quick and easy, with minimal fuss, and maximum stash busting. What could be easier than tablecloths?

The first fits my table when it is at is smallest, and the second when it is fully extended. I finished them off with a rolled overlocked hem. After a suggestion from a fellow stashbuster, I also made 12 matching napkins (thanks for the suggestion Belinda).

To come up with the size, I divided the width of the fabric in 3, and cut squares, so they ended up approximately 37 cm square.

So, with a minimum of fuss, there's another 6 metres down! I'm racing towards my goal. And I have more to show you before the end of the year, I just need to find some time to write about them. Please tell me I'm not the only crazy person trying to squeeze in some last minute sewing before the end of the year!