Christine's Christmas Order - (Part 1)

Greetings dear friends & readers
It is a wet, rainy Monday here today in the Waikato 

 I am pleased I took the time yesterday to pick some flowers for inside the house as my roses are looking rather worse for wear from all the rain we have had (Sorry Willie !!)

Though I am not complaining as any rain at this time of year is So appreciated & saves alot of manual 
garden watering

My lovely friend Christine decorates her entire house every Christmas - she does something festive in every room, even the bathrooms !
This Christmas they have a new home over in the city - so Christine is changing her decorating a little to go with 
their new home.
She has placed a large Order with me which I have almost finished so I have decided to break it in to 2 parts
to share with you 

Her first request this year was for a "Winter Wonderland themed" Angel & Santa.  Her instructions were that "she wanted them to be in silver & white - to still look a bit country-ish & not look too modern"
I have been sewing for Chris for a number of years now & I think I know her taste fairly well.  Added to this is the fact that she just pretty much leaves me to do what I think ... so it's often quite a leap of faith on both our parts.

Once again I went back to the Rosalie Quinlan Pattern "Charlotte Angel" as I find this a good size at 73 cms tall 
plus her length matches well with the Santa Pattern I use.

The gorgeous silver snowflake & star fabrics were all found at Spotlight.  I took these doll bodies on my last trip 
to Mums & spent time sitting stuffing their looong skinny limbs.
While down at Mums I found the delightful glittery snowflake/tassel ornament in a Variety store 

The hair I use on these Angels is hand-dyed mohair yarn
I didn't gather her sleeves in, as the pattern stated, but left them billowy.
When the wings are sewn I always paint them with a watered down PVA glue mixture as this keeps them stiff

Her shoes were painted in silvery grey chalk paint that I found in my paint stash - trimmed with lazy daisies

I felt the large pom pom trim on her dress just helped give her that country look I was trying to achieve.

Next up came Santa - this is a pattern I have made several times for Christine - it is called "Prim Olde Santa" & 
is designed by Kerry Daly of Primitive Country Treasures  (this was published in a very old Homespun Magazine)

I repeated the silver & white theme using some soft fleece for his jacket trimmed with a silver lam'e fabric

I used the same fabric for Santa's hat as I used for the Angel's wings.
I also repeated the bobble trim on the hem of Santa's jacket

In Kerry's original pattern he holds a ragdoll but I decided against this as I wanted to keep to the white/silver colourway 
 This white teddy was sitting with some leftover stock in my Cottage so I removed his red bows/trims & dressed him 
in a silver/grey bowtie & fur trimmed hat.
He was the perfect size to tuck under Santa's arm

I made a patchwork stocking as per the pattern instructions & was lucky enough to find these silver & white sparkly berries & cones at Spotlight. 
The tin teddy had once-upon-a-time adorned a Greeting Card (Yes I really DO keep all sorts of junk!!) - Teddy had a fluoro pink bow which I dabbed with my white paint
I felt Teddy just finished off the stocking nicely.

I purchased the chunky wool yarn for Santa's beard from Spotlight

I must confess I had not been excited at all about bringing these Winter Wonderland folk to life but I just absolutely LoVe them 💕

I have sent photos to Christine & she adores them also & can't wait to hang them in her winter wonderland 
themed room 💗

I should mention that while I have been beavering away in my sewing room these past weeks, I often spot Miss Pippi tucked up in my fabric baskets - if she just moved 2 baskets to the right, she would be in the orange basket!

Last Saturday (9th) was my town's annual local Craft Fair.
Though I have had a stall for the past several years, I was so relieved I had not booked myself one this year - especially when all the issues unfolded with Mum

(Photo sourced from the local eventfinda page)

I did decide however, to go as a customer & get to have a proper look at all the different stalls - this year there were 100!
The weather was kind & the rain stayed away - there was a great atmosphere.
As I could feel a chesty cold coming on, I just had a relatively quick wander & chatted to a few stallholders, but I did manage some purchases while there.

I bought some lovely plants from two stalls & then some handmade soap from my friend Pauline who runs a wonderful homegrown business - Infused With Nature

This local lady was a new stallholder & I loved her ceramic work. I bought some herb labels which I will put in my garden when the rain stops ... along with this cute hanging cat which I plan to put on my sewing room wall ... it reminded me of a certain 4 legged girl that resides here 😉

Well dear friends - I will be back before the end of the week with Part 2 of Christines Christmas Order
Thanks So Much for your visits today 
I hope the coming week is good & kind to you all,
With much love & friendship,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0x