I really wish I had taken the time to get progress pictures today while making the latest of my Christmas crafts.  First, a little back story:  My family (sisters and parents) has decided to draw names for Christmas this year.  Along with drawing names, each person actually made a wish list that was emailed to everyone because we're keeping the names secret until Christmas.  This pretty much stinks for me since I live so far away and don't get to share in the fun on Christmas Eve when they're all together, but it makes it easier since I just have one set of people for whom to buy gifts (we decided to draw couples and then buy for the family or the individual, buyer's choice).

Some of the choices we all put on our wish lists were gift cards.  Since gift cards travel well, this is what our giftees will be receiving.  One of the cards came in a nifty little box that pops the card out of the opposite side that's being opened.  I didn't want the other recipient to feel left out, so I decided to make a quick gift card holder.  It isn't anything fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it turned out very well, better than I expected, even.

gift card mitten Today, I sewed my first cuffed mitten without a pattern.  The gift card fits in the mitten perfectly.  I'm still rather amazed I managed to do this without any sort of instructions, to be perfectly honest.  I wish I had taken the time to take notes while making the mitten since I would be able to write my own directions then.  I'm pretty impressed with myself for figuring this out, however, I'm slightly annoyed with myself for second guessing my original design since I think I created extra work for myself.  It's all part of learning, I know.

I think my sewing machine hates me now, though.  I used fuzzy felt and it was pretty thick going through the feeder.  Some of the fuzz wanted to catch every now and then, but for the most part I made it through without too many problems.  What's even more amazing about the entire project is that my seam actually managed to remain even!  Yay, me!  My sewing is improving!  Now I need to remember how to thread the silly thing so I can change the color of the thread.  Thank heavens for the manual!

I really do wish I could be there for the recipient to open this gift.  I think it will be much better received now that there is a little gift card holder made by yours truly, or at least I hope that's the case.