DIY Christmas Jumper How To

It's Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 16th December so I thought I'd re-share the How To for my DIY Christmas jumper! It's really simple to make using buttons and trimmings that you may already have in your sewing box and it gives a festive new lease of life to an old jumper. Find the how to here - if you make one, do share your photos in the comments, I'd love to see!

Happy making!

Handmade Christmas Gifts From Louise Dawson Design

This Christmas I'm trying to make and buy handmade gifts as much as possible to support fellow makers as well as to give more personal gifts. After Christmas I'm going to write a post on the handmade items I have given as gifts!

If you too are looking for unique, hand crafted Christmas gifts, I'm currently offering 20% off in my Etsy Shop until 18th December, just enter the code HAPPYCHRISTMAS20 at the checkout. All of my handmade jewellery pieces arrive beautifully presented in a hand decorated gift box, making them ideal for gifting. Check out my shop here

The last posting dates for Christmas are 7th December for Asia and the Far East, 10th December for Australia and New Zealand, 15th December for the USA and 18th December for the UK. Happy handmade Christmas shopping! 

Harris Tweed Button Brooches embellished with upcycled materials

All items arrive presented in a lovingly hand decorated box, making them ideal for gifting

Fair Isle Brooches, hand knitted to my own designs in beautiful British wool

The ideal gift for a knitter!

Blog and Buy Sale Christmas Wish List

Have you made a start on your Christmas shopping? If, like me, you like to seek out individual and handmade gifts for your loved ones, do check out the Blog and Buy Sale Christmas Wish List. It's packed with work from a talented bunch of artists/designers and makers so you are sure to find a special gift.

I'm super excited that three pieces from my Fair Isle jewellery collection were chosen to be included in the wish list this Christmas! I hand knit each piece using British wool and they make the ideal gift for a knitter.

Hand Knitted Fair Isle Triangle Necklace in Shetland Wool

Hand Knitted British Wool Fair Isle Brooch

Hand Knitted Fair Isle Triangle Necklace in Shetland Wool

There are some brilliant pieces featured in the wish list from a fab line up of Designers and Makers- I'm definitely going to be making some purchases!

I absolutely love this Laser Cut and Engraved Wooden Christmas Jumper Brooch by Hello Sunshine!

This Grey and Peach Geometric Sterling Silver Necklace by never spent is so elegant and each piece is made to order

How cute are these Christmas Sprout Tree Decorations from SewSew?! I can see them adorning many a Christmas tree this festive season- I definitely need one (or three) of these in my life!

I hope that gives you some festive gift inspiration! Check out the full Blog and Buy Sale 2015 Christmas Wishlist here!

On Instagram in December

Wow, how quickly did December go by? For me it was a whirl wind of work, Christmas dos and tinsel! Unfortunately I wasn't very well over Christmas, but it was still good fun and lovely to catch up with friends and family. In 2015 I aim to be more organised, so I'm hoping next Christmas can be taken a little easier! I hope you all had a great time. Here's what I got up to in December through my Instagram photos...

Every December Mr Writer and I try our hand at making Eggnog. We haven't managed to get it quite right yet, but our December 2014 attempt was a vast improvement on the year before! Still a bit on the thick side but what's not to like about drinking custard?! 

I love all the decorations at Christmas, I always feel sad when they have to come down. I'm thinking of knitting some Fair Isle decorations for next Christmas

I really enjoyed making my DIY Crafted Christmas Tree Jumper for a How To and happily spent the afternoon stitching and munching Toblerone. It was Christmas after all!

For Mr Writer's works Christmas Do I set myself a style challenge. I didn't want to buy anything new from a shop, so my dress and shoes were from Ebay, my bag is vintage, my jacket is my favourite that I already had from People Tree and I made a Swarovski Crystal and Freshwater Pearl necklace. I'm calling these "Half Moon Necklaces" and I'm going to make some to add to my Etsy shop in time for Valentines day

My new lunch boxes from ASOS are just so cute, I had to take a snap! I may be nearly 30 but that doesn't mean lunch times have to be dull..!

Lovely Nelson cat. He's had a cosy Christmas with a new bed and scratching post!

Lunch with Mr Writer at my favourite cafe in town

A friend sent me a Pin for this great Reindeer hair idea, so this is how I wore my hair to work on Christmas Eve!

Catching up with friends at our favourite pub

Mr Writer bought me a new camera for Christmas, which was a lovely surprise. I was planning to buy a new camera in the new year so it was a complete surprise- I nearly cried when I opened it! I'm now learning how to use it so I'll share that with you in the coming weeks

We celebrated new year with a meal at home and I made my first Roulade. My sister has to follow a gluten free diet so it was an ideal dessert as it's flour-less ( but still really yummy!)

What did you get up to in December?

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and looking forward to getting stuck into January!

Handmade Christmas gift idea: Earl Grey and Ginger Shortbread Recipe

I don't know about you but I love shortbread and it's a great handmade gift idea for Christmas. I may have mentioned a few times that I love Earl Grey tea and it was while enjoying a cup recently with a piece of shortbread I thought up the idea of combining the two! Mr Writer suggested adding the stem ginger for a Christmassy flavour. The Earl Grey flavour is subtle but you could leave it out if Earl Grey isn't for you. Enjoy!

I'm all ready for Santa!

Makes 8 pieces 

Ingredients:

150g Plain Flour

100g Butter cut into small cubes

50g Caster Sugar and a little extra for sprinkling

4 balls of Stem Ginger chopped into chunky pieces

4 Earl Grey tea bags- tea removed from tea bags

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees

1) Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the butter and sugar

2) Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs

3)Stir the ginger and Earl Grey tea through the mix

4) Bring the mixture together as a dough and add to a greased 8" round tin. Press the mixture down with the back of a spoon, ensuring an even layer. Sprinkle with caster sugar and lightly score slices with a knife

5) Bake at 190 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden

6) Leave the shortbread to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then slice, remove from the tin and leave to cool completely

These biscuits look lovely as gifts wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon. Make some for yourself too, they are really moreish! 

Christmas Fair festivities!

I can't believe there are only two weeks left until Christmas day! I've been getting in the spirit and had a very festive weekend! On Saturday I had a thoroughly enjoyable (and unseasonably warm) day taking part in The Minories Christmas Art and Design Fair in Colchester. I enjoyed chatting to lots of new people as well as catching up with some familiar faces! There was such a lovely atmosphere and The Minories is a beautiful building for events like this- my table was in the Ballroom.

My Bookmarks 

 My neighbor at The Minories fair was the lovely Lindsay from Slumbermonkey Designs. check out her lovely handbag mirrors- they feature Lindsay's own designs. I also loved her shrink plastic jewellery created using her own illustrations- check out her Etsy Shop here

Clare Sams quirky knitted pieces are right up my street! What a talented lady, check out her website to see more of her brilliantly subversive knitted pieces

Mary Lu had taken over the Garden Room with their vintage clothing and homewares- all very tempting! Both Mary and Lucy taught me at college so it was nice to chat to them

On Sunday, I wrapped up warm and traveled to London to share a stand at Spitalfields with my frien Louisa Dash who makes beautiful accessories.

A Christmassy Spitalfields Market

Louisa makes these beautiful statement leather flower brooches, i-pad cases,  key chains and bags. We had a lovely busy day and we did treat ourselves to some nice food from the market- it's very hard to resist!

Thank you if you came to say hi over the weekend. I'm happy to think that Louise Dawson Design pieces will be wrapped under some Christmas Trees :o) Merry Christmas to you all!

The Selvedge Winter Fair

On Saturday 10th November I will be taking part in the Selvedge Magazine Winter Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, King's Road, London. It's on from 10am-4pm, do come along and pop in if you're in the area. There will be over 60 exhibitors and I'll have a range of brooches, rings and necklaces on sale-it's a great opportunity to buy some lovely handmade gifts for Christmas, or just to treat yourself! Find out more at selvedge.org

A selection of knitted and felted necklaces I'm working on, embellished with found objects and broken jewellery

Detail of knitted necklace embellished with beads taken from broken jewellery

Hope to see you there!