Busy being Christmasy

I'm still busy being all Christmasy here.  Mr Crafty Shenanigans is confused by it all but that's ok 'coz I'm having fun!  I've decided that my mother-in-law shall be getting one of these in her overseas Christmas maily this year. 

Christmas Hanging Tea Towel

This hangs on the handle right under the kitchen sink - this makes a really handy kitchen hand towel!

Or hang it from the oven door handle (please excuse my smudgy oven glass door)!

I purchased a pack of three tea towels from Dunelm yesterday and used one of them to make these two hanging dish towels - or hanging tea towels as I prefer to call them.  I pre-washed them and they shrunk from originally being 28"x20" down to 22"x16" so I am glad I shrunk them BEFORE sewing them up!  I don't normally pre-wash my quilting fabric but on this occasion I did because these will be used-and-washed-and-used-and-washed lots so it is better to have all the shrinking done before construction!  However, this has made the tea towel look all used and wrinkly so perhaps I should have ironed them before I took the photo!!  Iron - what's an iron!???

I used a lovely and VERY easy tutorial from a blog called Kleios Belly.  She has lots of good stuff on her blog so check it out!!  And my favourite bit - these were super easy to do and very very quick to make.  More instant gratification which I LOVE!!  These two useful festive items are part of my Christmas in July sewing/crafting spree which so far includes:

1. Smiling Snowman Notebook/Journal cover
2. Five Christmas Thank You cards
3. Ten scrappy gift tags
4. One Mug Rug (not completely finished yet)
5. Christmas Stocking cross-stitch (not completely finished yet - might become a pin cushion or door ornament)
6. Two Christmas Hanging Tea Towels and a
7. Partridge in a Pear Tree Large Christmas Stocking

Maybe this is turning in to "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" for me...or the twelve projects of Christmas??!  I shall post some pictures of the other items soon.  My Christmas in July inspiration comes from four blogs and their Christmas sewing events - more about those another day!

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You know I love buttons.  I have three tins {nearly} full of them.  I could sit and colour-sort them for hours and make piles of my favourites or the interesting ones or just the red ones...  hmmmm -- buttons!

So it may come as a shock to you that I have NEVER actually made a button hole before.  Tonight, just a few hours ago, I made my first ever button holes!  Yay for me!  Here are my first five attempts on scraps before I went and did the real thing on my two hanging tea towels (and the holes on the hanging tea towels turned out pretty good for an amateur I may add, obviously leaving me with loads of room for improvement!):

Left to right - you can see my progress as I slowly get the hang of it!

Not perfect looking but they work a treat!  With the buttons in them they look great!

Ok, back to the sewing!  I still have lots and lots of Christmasy things I want to make so I will report back soon! 

Linking up with Manic Monday, Sew What Monday, Made by You Monday, Making Monday Marvelous and July Finishes - and no doubt TNT Thursday later this week.