Xmas leftovers

No, not turkey -- flannelette! This year, I made pillowcases for Christmas gifts, for my parents, aunts, and brother, all out of flannelette except for my brother's. (I followed Mariko's instructions to end up with lovely French seams, which was a first for me, and they turned out perfectly.) The pillowcases were a big hit. I didn't photograph them because, well, they were just big rectangles. I ended up with some leftover strips of flannelette, which I put to good use around the house:




The first two photos show my new draft snakes, instructions for which can be found in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. The first one is in a living room window, and the snake stops what was a very cold draft and has the added feature of holding up Xmas cards. The second one is in my office, where there was also a cold draft coming in between the windows. These are just tubes of fabric filled with rice, and they really work!

The third photo shows Mooky's newest blanket, on a chair in Bill's office. Does it seem like I make Mooky a lot of blankets? That's because it's cuter to say they are blankies for the cat than to say they are protecting the furniture from the cat. I just sewed some strips of fabric together, and the other side is one solid piece; there's no batting between them. I sewed them together (wrong sides together) and zipped back and forth across the middle a couple of times to hold the two layers together, and then pinked the edges. (I love pink as a verb.) Easy peasy. Not only will it keep the cat hair off the chair, but now we won't have to turn on the light just to see if Mooky's sleeping on that black chair.

I had a nice Christmas day -- opening lots of prezzies, because I'm very lucky; talking on the phone to family; going to a matinee of Juno and then back home to stuff and roast a little chicken; eating like there was no tomorrow; slipping happily into a gravy-and-pie coma while watching The Sound of Music on TV. Perfect. Christmas is awesome.