Cross-stitch Christmas Cover | Making Christmas Tutorial {Upcycling}

Welcome to the Making Christmas blog hop! I hope you have made much more progress with your Making Christmas list! Today I will show you some of my home decorations. I am going for a chocolate brown and tartan theme this year - no I did not make it easy on myself, but it means you become much more creative suddenly!

Which leads me on nicely to today's tutorial - a knitted jumper turned into a cross-stitched fancy Christmas cushion. 

1. Get yourself a cheap (second-hand?) knitted jumper - with quite distinct stitches (so you can easily count the stitches - it is in fact even easier to have a jumper with some interesting stitch for ease of reference - you will see later). 

2. Measure the cushion - and 'trace' (with masking tape) the cushion.

3. Cut out the top cushion cover and (if you want to make it easier and more even - but it is a really time consuming task) make a grid, much like a cross-stitching fabric. 

 4. Start cross-stitching

I used a thread of cotton yarn and 4 threads of Rowan Kidsilk Aura (what I had in my stash)

I drafted my pattern from a  picture I found on Pinterest - it is quite an easy pattern (also not too big so it can fit nicely in the middle of the cushion cover). I also had a Christmas tree pattern in mind but it was too long for this cushion cover. 

5. Get rid of the grid (be careful of not undoing all your beautiful cross-stitching work), and there you have it a handmade cross-stitched cushion cover - made from a jumper.

I also made a second one. It was so much easier with the knitting fabric as I had a reference all the way through (it took a third of the time to make it, even though it is much more cross-stitched). I tried in this one to make the most of the brown against the white, it works pretty well. You can easily draft the pattern from my pictures - let me know if you have problems. 

In case you wonder about the back, to continue to chic winter theme, I got some felt fabric from John Lewis and grosgrain ribbon - all matching. Just a tip for the sewing: sew felt side on top. I used the sew mama sew tutorial as per usual - it works great with ribbon too!

And here we are - styled with Latte (one of my knitted blankets).

So who is up for making one (or two, or more) this Christmas? For an even easier version you could buy a fair isle jumper and just make a cushion cover out of it (no cross stitching unless you want to emboss some of the pattern) - it will look great too! Let me know if you are making one, I would love to see your version!

Apart from that, I have nearly made nothing of my list - but there is still time... and evenings to knit, sew and crochet! So now is your turn, link up your updates on your list!

Making Christmas Blog Hop

You've seen it everywhere, Christmas is here, at least according to every single shop I go to. Yes, it is early but with the shorter and rainy days coming our way, it makes me happy to be thinking about Christmas. If you have been following my blog, you will know that I LOVE Christmas. It is in fact my birthday (22nd) and Christmas, it is also Baby MiH's birthday (well nearly 14th), and this year I will not have to recover from child birth - whoohoo! Houses look amazing everywhere.  And you get to give (and receive) presents from your favourite people. 

So when Janine and Rebecca asked me to be part of the Making Christmas Blog Hop this year, I was so excited I responded straight away. And maybe this year is the year when I get to make things for Christmas and be organised about it. 

To join the party, all you need to do is to make a list of things you want to get done before Christmas. You can include things that are specifically Christmassy, such as gifts and Christmas decorations, but you can also add in your intended Halloween and Thanksgiving makes and any other handmade projects you want to get finished by December 25th at the very latest!

The Making Christmas Blog Hop Hosts will be posting each week with either a Brainstorming Holiday Themed Post or a Tutorial for Gifts, Home decoration or Christmas ornaments and every week you can link up with your updated list and your makes from the past week.

Here are the talented ladies hosting.. 

October 19th - REBECCA Making Rebecca Lynne
October 26th - KRISTY Quiet Play
November 2nd - M-R Quilt Matters
November 9th - SOMA Whims and Fancies
November 16th - FIONA Celtic Thistle Stitches
November 23rd - NAT Made in Home (that's me!!!)
November 30th - ERIN Missy Mac Creations 
December 2nd - LUCY Charm About You
December 14th - SUSAN The Bored Zombie
December 21st - To be confirmed

January 11th 2014 - A winner will be randomly selected from the link ups for a small prize. 

Your list needn't be set in stone - you can tick off your makes and add new ones as you go. The main thing is to encourage each other and to have fun! 

So here is my list (in a land where I don't have to go back to work soon and I have elves to help me out):

- knit a new jumper and a new hat for Baby MiH

- knit a shawl for my grandma

- make Christmas cushions for living room

- make a Christmas cushion for our shoe bench

- make a quilt to hang (somewhere to be determined) in the house

- make tree decorations

- make some garlands

- make my first Christmas cake (that no one will eat in France)

There is knitting, quilting, probably a bit of cross-stitching involved... I am not sure I will make progress every week but I will certainly keep you updated. To take part, you link up your list here! And of course, come back on 23 November when I am hosting. So are you in?