Homemade Christmas Gifts

 I wanted to share some of the Christmas gifts I made for our daughters this year.  Although making gifts adds to the to-do's I have to accomplish during an already busy time of year, I love giving the kids gifts I/we have made.  

This year for Christmas I painted two more wooden dolls.  First was the promised uncle who is a priest.  He was challenging since his attire is all black, forcing me to outline objects to set them apart, but I think this figure turned out great.  My daughters were very excited!

I also added to our saint doll collection and painted a St. Clare of Assisi holding the monstrance with Our Lord.

 The next Christmas project I tackled was making a set of paper dolls for the girls.  I had previously printed the dolls at a different time, but as can happen with paper dolls, they were not holding up well with use.  I decided to try to make them more durable.  I printed them again from this website.  I remember my sister and I having a set like this when we were growing up, but they are out of print now, so you can print them for free from that site.

After printing them and cutting them out, I traced their outline on a piece of 1/4" plywood, and my husband kindly cut out the shapes for me.  He did such a great job!  I then glued the dolls to the wooden cutouts, modge podged them, and let them dry.  

Meanwhile, I cut out all of the clothing pieces, cutting off the tabs, laminated them at our teacher resource center, and cut them out again.

After the dolls were completely dry, I super glued a small velcro dot on the chest of each doll, again allowing the glue to dry completely.  You can see the white velcro circle on the doll, but it is not a big deal since the dolls generally have clothing covering it.  I placed the opposite side of the velcro to the corresponding spot on the back of the dolls clothes.  This allowed me to get rid of the tabs.  My girls can simply push the velcro pieces together to keep the clothes in place.  They like it so much better than trying to hold the clothes in place, since the tabs never work well.  They do need to remove the clothes from the dolls gently to ensure the velcro on the doll holds up, but otherwise the dolls are now easy to use and durable.  I really like them and so do the girls!

I also undertook a few sewing projects for them this year, including a new apron for Erin, my youngest daughter, but I think the girls like this gift the best out of those I sewed.  Last year I purchased two bonnets, one purple and one yellow, although I probably could have made them.  To match the bonnets, I made Moira a purple colonial dress, and Erin a yellow one.  I love watching them dress in these and play together.  They are so cute!

I hope you are having a blessed Christmas season!  God bless!

+JMJ+