Crafty As L

This Christmas has been a heart-wrenching one for my family as it was the first one without my Mum being present.   Sadly, her dementia has progressed such that Dad can’t care for her any longer and she is now being looked after in a local care home.   Mum doesn’t recognise any of us now and doesn’t know what Christmas even is.   We took the difficult decision to leave her in the home on Christmas Day, where she has familiar surroundings and people, rather than bringing her to our home to be in the company of “strangers” who love her.   It’s made for an emotionally-charged time for Dad, my sister and myself.   The past couple of times I’ve visited her, she’s not quite been herself, which has been very upsetting to see and it’s really made me miss my Mum.   She was a very creative lady and could knit anything!   Among other things, she taught me to sew and to use a sewing machine when I was a child so I thought that I could ‘reconnect’ with her thro...

  Whilst your decorated artificial Christmas tree may look stunning, the stand usually doesn’t, by virtue of it having to be practical rather than aesthetic.  I used to just lay sheets of cotton wool ‘snow’ around mine but then heard of a tree skirt and set about making my own.  We have two trees so I made one with Christmas trees on and one with snowman.  Here’s the snowman skirt.   A friend was admiring the skirts and asked where I’d bought them and subsequently commissioned me to make one for his tree.  His daughter then admired that one and requested one of her own so I thought it’d make the perfect Christmas project for the blog.  So, if you fancy having a go at making your own, here’s how I did mine.    First, draw a circle that will cover the legs of your stand plus an extra inch or two for the seams.  Cut out a section so that the skirt will form a cone shape and then cut this out from your main fabric and backing fa...