Making Gifts

Indigo Dyed Handmade Bag - Copyright A Little Sew and Sow

I really love to make gifts for my nearest and dearest and now that Christmas is over I can finally share some of the presents I made last year. Usually I don’t go for a theme but in 2017 I really felt inspired to dye my own fabrics so everyone pretty much ended up with gifts made of indigo dyed fabric. 

Back in the autumn I ordered an indigo dye kit (affiliate link) and one day when I was at home alone I set to the job of preparing the fabric and dying it.  This was a fairly simple process (which was well explained in the instruction manual that came with the kit) but it was a little messy.  I undertook this job outside so splashes didn’t matter. 

I would really recommend the kit but it didn’t contain many rubber bands so you will definitely need to grab some extra if you are thinking of trying this. 

Indigo Dyed Handmade Pouch - Copyright A Little Sew and Sow

 Once the fabric was dyed and washed I set about making a selection of bags and pouches for the lovely ladies in my family.  I didn’t manage to get photos of them all but I made a different design for my mum, sister, mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  I also made a couple of drawstring bags.  I used a bag-making book (affiliate link) for the larger bag designs plus tutorials by Jeni Baker of In Color Order for the drawstring bags and the make-up pouch.  

Indigo Dyed Handmade Drawstring Bags - Copyright A Little Sew and Sow

 On a different note I also gave an I.O.U to my brother-in-law for a new quilt.  He has been talking about a denim quilt for some time so I have promised to make him one over the next few months.  I could have made this for him before Christmas but I thought he would enjoy being involved in the design and planning phase.  He has a big quilt in mind so I will be interested to see how easy it will be to work with that amount of denim.  

Indigo Dyed Fabric - Copyright A Little Sew and Sow