A Birthday Gift Make

It was my brother's girlfriend Sarah's birthday today so I can now show you what I made for her gift.

Being so close to Christmas it was a perfect opportunity to make her some special Christmas decorations. All three are made from silk and here are the results.

The first is a heart is worked with goldwork leaves and ribbon roses on front and stuffed with fluff:

The second is a pointy oval cigar shape (if anyone knows the correct name it could settle an argument in our house):

This is also decorated with goldwork leaves and roses.

The third (taught by Anne Stacey at Art & Stitch) is a polystyrene ball covered in silk and decorated with gold braid and finished with sequins:

The first 2 took much longer than expected (at least 2 nights in front of the telly each!) and so I felt that they deserved special wrapping attention.

I wrapped them first in black tissue followed by red sparkly netting (because you always need a little sparkle on a birthday!)

I used wired ribbon to tie a bow, but decided that this was still not enough so had to go a step further - and make a ribbon flower to go on the front:

Once I made the flower I thought that it was a shame to use it once and then then throw it away, so I wrapped ribbon around the wires and added a brooch backing, and now it is a Christmas brooch!

This is the brooch off of the gift, though I don't think the picture really does it justice.

I love the results but it all took a couple of hours to complete so I am not sure that I will have the time to complete any more before Christmas!

Sarah seemed to love it and that is what really counts!