Watch our Inspiration VIDEO for Oh What Fun!
After weeks of sewing prep, we can tell you Oh What Fun it is to sew with our new holiday collection! Our cast of woodland characters returns with a couple of new furry feathered friends to join in the holiday festivities. Told in two color stories, Spruce and Sweet, the collection harkens back to candy colored Christmas trees and mid-century modern vibes. For this most festive photo shoot, we decked our halls to the delight of my daughter and three nieces. We surprised them with a Christmas tree decorated with plenty of baubles and gifts. In addition to sewn goods, there are so many fun ways to incorporate fabric into your holiday decor. We made some quick and easy fabric ornaments with some tiny embroidery hoops, and a little Mod Podge goes along way for those fabric covered gift boxes.
Behind that little pile of presents you can get a peek at our simple tree skirt featuring the Double Border design in Spruce. We just love how the animals encircle the tree, with the multi colored confetti radiating on the inside. Here's the scene before the big reveal, with the stocking all hung by the fireplace with care - not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse....
All that quickly changed when a flutter of sugar plum fairy's filled the room!
My daughter Annie and nieces Adelina, Annalise, and Ava bubbled over with excitement, clearly ready to jingle all the way to Christmas.
And once we rolled out the Christmas cookies, their excitement reached new heights of course!
Each girl was eager to claim her very own stocking, particularly because they featured various animals from the collection.
The stockings are a part of our quick-sew project panel option. Both the Spruce and Sweet panels yield six different stockings, each with their own woodland animal.
As one of four girls myself, I remember how important it was to have your own unique stocking in the family, and these project panels make it easy to have that individuality whilst still coordinating as a group. Whether you use a single color story or mix and match for a slightly more eclectic look, these make for a fast project if you are looking to brighten up your mantle. Line them with a bit of Minky like we did, or even some Faux Fur for a super plush look. See our Oh What Fun Fabric collection page and scroll to the bottom for the coordinating Minky colors for the collection.
And those nightgowns are of course an annual must make. Other than patchwork pillows and quilts, I can't think of another item you can get as much and enjoyment out of as we countdown to Christmas. The girls are already intent on wearing these pajamas every night - sounds like we may need a few more to add to their winter wardrobe.
For the nightgowns, we chose some classic silhouettes from Simplicity patterns, each with sweet a comfortable Knit flutter sleeve. The two sisters are coordinated in their Baubles in Glacier Blue and Baubles in Shell, leaving the two Sleigh Stripe designs for the biggest and littlest cousins.
The littlest two are wearing the Simplicity Baby Romper, modified to finish as a dress. Here's baby Ava in Sleighing Song in Sweet contrasted with Jingle Bells in Seaglass.
Some gilded trim at the bottom of the bodice adds a nice nostalgic touch to these vintage meets modern fabrics. And the Jolly Confetti bodice is just perfect!
Since we rolled out those cookies, I don't think there's a single shot of little Ava without at least one in her hand.
Looks like she's got this holiday thing down pat...
The two oldest cousins are wearing this Simplicity Dress pattern, generously sized for 3-6 or 7-14.
Once again the pattern has the same flutter sleeve option and a nearly identical bodice line. So if you are looking for coordinated pj's for your family photo this season, these are a great choice!
We made some good finds at our local trim shop using an overlay of a wider lacy one, and the narrower one we used in the the littlest gowns.
It's wonderful how little details can really elevate your projects!
And it's also wonderful to see kids learn both the joy of giving gifts...
as well as the gratitude for receiving them. Little Ava looks pretty grateful for hew new Polar Bear friend, not to mention her sugary treat!
And if you're wondering about that fun quilt, we used the Off The Rails pattern available in our shop from Jaybird. This modern take on a traditional favorite is a great way to fussy cut and show off those cute critter portraits. And as you can see, the rest of the line is scaled nicely for "rails" strips. We incorporated in some coordinating Stardust Basics as well.
The girls rather thought it looked like a dance floor.
We made the lap version, and even at this small scale it really shows off the full festive range of colors.
We also whipped up some quick whole cloth quilts with those Carolers in Spruce and Sweet.
The binding is Stardust in Seafoam and Marigold, and in this case it kind of looks like snowflurries so we thought it was the perfect touch. You can see a little bit of the quartz minky backing here.
And once the girls settled down for story time, those quilts were put to good use.
Feeling the Christmas spirit yet? We hope these projects will make you want to dash all the way through the holiday sewing season!
And if that's not enough to get you excited, Comment to Win some Oh What Fun fabric! Simply let us know what you'd like to make with any or all of the fabrics from this collection. We will select a winner at random on Tuesday November 22nd and that lucky person can select 3 yards worth of Oh What Fun fabric!
Be sure to check out these other stops on the Oh What Fun fabric Blog Hop!
Monday 11/14 - Sew Sophie Lynn
Tuesday 11/15 - Hawthorne Threads
Wednesday 11/16 - Olivia Jane Handcrafted
Thursday 11/17 - Holly Gets Quilty
Friday 11/18 - Lillyella
Monday 11/21 - Violette Field Threads
Finally, we will leave you with our behind the scenes video for this Oh What Fun shoot! Please tag your projects with #OhWhatFunFabric and #HawthorneThreads so we can share!
***UPDATE!***
Congrats to our lucky winner Susan Spiers! Please send us a quick email to claim your prize.
