Hello all, I'm new to your forum. I have previously spent most of my time at the vegetable garden forum but winter is coming... time to get caught up on months of mending! I love to sew for holiday gifts. A lot of my inspirations come from things I see in the store or catalogs that I'd love to buy but I find myself muttering "I could make it so much cheaper!" For the little girl in the family - a barbie doll organizer. take clear vinyl and sew in over a fashion fabic forming little pockets to keep dolls in clothes in. (Think of a shoe storage device that you would hang on the back of your closet door) I saw one in a catalog for $30 and made mine for only $4. I inserted a 'placet' at the top to insert a plastic hanger. Big hit with my daughter. How about decorating plain towels? Add lace, trims, beads, monograms, to accent a bathroom. Know those towels that cost $20 each in the stores? Lingerie pouches, scented potpourri pouches, robes, and aprons are all nice items that don't have to be sized like fashion garments do. Gift bags for wine or office gifts, or even family, are a nice use for scrap velvet and satin. Little kids in the family? Make a how-to-dress-myself book. Use squares of felt (inexpensive and colorful) to make practice pages for buttons, zippers, buckles, snaps, tying shoes, etc. Great for boys who don't want a doll to practice on. Bean bags are a huge hit, especialy when made from fun fabrics. I made some before a hurricane several years ago and they are still playing with them. (Well, that is until the dogs figured out there were beans inside and ate them a month ago.) Well, I've spewed out enough ideas for one post. But if you need more, just spend an hour strolling through the mall or Target and you'll get plenty of ideas to replicate. I actually keep a book of clippings and ideas that I see so that I have an inspirational spot to revert back to when i'm out of ideas. Have fun!

I would love to know what all you are making for Christmas gifts!

I only made one mistake this year. I gave all the kids a digital frame. I bought a 2 gig memory stick for each frame. I have all their pictures and their kids pictures on the computer so for each frame I put all the pictures of them as kids for each one and a few group pictures of their kids and their cousins. I also put all the pictures that I have of just their own kids. I labeled each memory stick so I could keep them straight. After I wrapped each gift I put the appropriate stick in the box and put a tag on each gift as it was being wrapped. When I wrapped the last box I took the stick to put in the box and saw it had Robert and Shannon's name on it. Well, that could't be, because I already wrapped their gift. I didn't want to unwrap the gifts I had already wrapped so I put that stick in the gift and put the name tag on it that I thought it was supposed to go to. They all opened their gifts last Saturday anyway while they were together, so it was an easy mistake to fix. They have all called since getting the gifts to let us know how much they like the digital frames with all those family memories in them. That's quite a compliment. They have never thanked us twice for anything previously. Linda

I was just thinking of kitchen gifts. I am doing some sewing for a couple of gifts -- a phone wallet as a gift card/cash holder, a tech bag, possibly a couple of other bags. I think I'm going to make a new lanyard for my son's work ID. He had a school specific one before, but had a pretty plain one when I saw it yesterday. And I will probably be making a couple pair of PJ pants -- special fabric and extra length. Allison, I have ordered from Bouqs also. I have sent some gifts and got a couple here, including the ranunculus. I really enjoyed those and they lasted longer than I expected. I have not made full use of the other discounts though.