Gifting handmade

I’d love to give handmade gifts to everyone I know. But a) I have a big family, never mind friends and b) as much as I love them all, many don’t realise how much time and effort goes into a handmade gift.

A friend of my sister’s once spent hours and hours making a beautiful beaded mobile for her nephew, only to find it crammed into the back of a cupboard on her next visit. And I never saw my (step) niece in the pink baby booties I made her.

My mom, sister and mom-in-law are the exceptions. The way their faces light up as they peel back the wrapping to see a handmade gift – and they way my mom-in-law shows it to everyone she sees for the next month – makes it totally worthwhile.

I don’t always give my mom and sister handmade as they’re extremely capable in this department and often prefer books, supplies or things for their homes. But I do make something for my mom-in-law’s birthday each year. So I hope she likes her latest gift, which I’ll be finishing off today. I can only post a picture once she’s opened it on 11 November, but here are two things I’ve made her in the past:


Bible holder, 2007.
She’s extremely active in the running of her small church and this has pockets inside for pens, notepads, leaflets... The pattern is from Inspirations issue 51, but the beaded and embroidered design is my own.


Crochet cushions, 2006.
Made from Erika Knight’s Essential Crochet, these cushions sit on a wooden “riempie” bench at the front door of my in-laws’ home.

Other gifts include cream embroidered bolster cushions, a make-up bag featuring an embroidered thistle (my mom-in-law is Scottish), a rust-coloured handbag with embroidered detailing… all of which she uses, much to my delight.

My mom has a hunter green pair of crocheted cushions, which she uses on their bed, and a black velvet jewellery box with ribbon blooms and embroidered stems. My sister has a stylised tulip cushion, appliquéd, and will no doubt be receiving more handmade gifts now that she and her fiancé have finally moved into their first home and her bottom drawer is empty.

The credit cloud’s metallic thread lining

The financial world has been slowly crumbling in past weeks. And it’s having a knock-on effect on other sectors of industry, affecting jobs and job availability. Which eventually finds most of us either a little or a lot out of pocket. So while the rich bankers, traders and hedge fund managers get richer and the poor recently repossessed get poorer, the crafty get craftier. Well I have, at any rate.

I’m not a big spender. I was simply not born with a shopping gene and retail therapy is my version of hell. Unless, of course, it involves a quilt/embroidery/fabric store or haberdashery. There is always that piece of fabric that I just have to have a fat quarter of for my stash. And my thread box needs to have enough options to inspire new projects. I’ve gotten better at buying only what I need, but under present conditions I am so grateful for my past indulges.

While dinners out are few and travel is non-existent, there is a world of opportunity waiting in my fabrics and threads. Instead of conjuring up ideas based on what I could go out and buy, I find myself coming up with designs that incorporate what I already have. That piece of fabric I bought three years ago finally has a purpose. And new colour combinations are opening up exciting new avenues to explore.

The best part of all, though, is that I find ideas simply exploding into my head at any given moment – on the train, in my dreams, mid-conversation. It’s as though my imagination has been prodded into action by necessity and discovered that it actually has something to offer. It’s quite a liberating, if somewhat surreal, feeling.

The other positive spin-off is that immersing yourself in fabric and thread and delicious new ideas doesn’t leave much time for worrying about the state of the economy.