Take four....

Take four of these....

and four of these....

Insert them into four of these....

And this is what you end up with...four of these.

These are the sewing kits I made my nieces this year...one of them needed a sewing kit for her military-type training so I decided all 4 sisters could have one..they're all at that leaving home/left home stage.
The pattern came from a British Patchwork and Quilting magazine and was quite straight forward and fun to make, although there was more hand sewing involved I realised. The outer edge is hand stitched around 3 times (one for the binding and a double row for the zip)(!!)-- however it did give it a neat finish so I was happy to do it that way rather than short-cut it with the machine.

More sewing I did for this Christmas was this kitchen set.  I used some gorgeous New Zealand Pohutakawa fabric and was pleased with how it went with the striped border fabric. I also decorated a kitchen hand towel to go with it, but it's not in the photo.

Oven mitts with a plastic bag holder.

I used one layer of Insul Bright and one of cotton batting in the mitts. Initially I thought the two layers might be a bit bulky but they weren't - and hopefully will be nice and protective.
We have a wet day here today so I think I will be able to spend a bit of time in my sewing cave sorting out my scraps from my Christmas projects and organising myself for more sewing :-) Fun fun fun nothing better than rummaging and rolling in fabric!
Thanks for visiting,
happy stitching,