Progress on Christmas Gifts

It's been snowing and blowing all day. Despite being warmly dressed, I felt like the wind was blowing right through the house . . . some leftover Tomato Chicken Soup paired with tortilla chips helped. As I write, there has been a very temporary lull in the wind, but most of the time it blows and blows and blows. We are still under not only a high wind warning (winds up to 50 mph), but a continued winter storm warning which will last until midnight Tuesday night. With all the blowing and drifting, it's hard to say how much snow we've received so far, but overnight, we're expecting another 3 - 7 inches, and yet another 4 - 8 inches on Tuesday. On top of that, it's cold - it didn't get out of the mid-20's today, nor will it for the next few days.

What else is there to do on a day like today but work on Christmas projects? I've nearly finished the nightgown for Julia, having done some handwork today; all that is left is to open the buttonholes and sew on the buttons. I may add some bows to the front, but will get Sarah's opinion before make a final decision.

I also worked at enlarging the pattern for the cloth baby shoes I want to make for Julia's brother, Luke. At first I thought to use the scanner to enlarge the entire pattern by 20% or so, but then I realized that it was mostly the length that needed adjusting, so I cut the pattern in two, added the additional amount, and taped it back together. I also added the same amount to the "top" piece. I made a sample shoe, which is absolutely adorable, but unfortunately, it is too small, so I added more length to the pattern. My dear sister-in-law, Veronica, measured Luke's foot (not an easy task!), so I have some idea what measurements I'm after, plus I traced a shoe while at WalMart last week. I think it will work just fine now, so the next ones I make I will plan to send off. Despite my initial impression that these would be difficult to make, once I had all the pieces cut out, they went together relatively quickly and easily, thanks, in part, to the wonderful pictures in the tutorial.

If you are interested in making cloth slippers for yourself, try out this tutorial. I just downloaded it tonight, so I can't vouch for the instructions. The Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog has been featuring gift ideas since the beginning of November - check it out!

I managed to put half a dozen stitches into my cross stitch project before I felt too sleepy to continue. Oh, well.