Today was the last day of term (yaay) and so today was when I handed out everyone's presents. It was all a bit last minute as usual (I definitely wasn't slip-stitching the stuffing into the pillows in the common room before school started, panicking when the person who the present is intended for enters, prompting me to lie on the table in an unnatural position to cover their present-in-progress...)
You'll notice a distinct them for this years presents. Pillows. I don't know why, but that's what happened. They were really easy to make personal for each of my friends. I backed all of the pillows with fleece to make them super cozy.  If you want to know how I made any of these please let me know and I'll write up a tutorial on the process :)

Catherine's Ninja Pillow:
(She does martial arts)


Emmas Chow Chow Pillow:
There's a bit of a story to this one which I'll explain to you all. Our AS Drama group decided to do a Secret Santa. However, there was a catch. We could only spend 94p!

As I only moved to the school this year I don't know Emma very well so I asked one of her friends a few questions (thanks Hollie!) and came away with the key facts; likes chow chows and bright colours. Cue a chow chow pillow using the complimentary colours yellow and purple! Boom!












I can hear you all thinking, "but she's forgot about the 94p!!" and "why is there a load of white candyfloss in a washing basket on my scales in the kitchen!?". Patience my friends! I will explain now. You see I bought 1kg of stuffing for $6.50 so my little brain thought "Ooh I can work out 1g and find out how much 94 cents worth would cost!" oh if only it was that simple. After many calculations and much hair tearing (maths is NOT my strong point) I came up with a number. It wasn't the right number, but it was a number. I tried. So yeah, sorry guys, that isn't candyfloss atall...  Anyway, Emma seemed to really like it so that's good.

Ainjiels Piano Pillow:
Ainjiel is in my AS Music class and she can spend hours at the piano (and is brilliant at it) so it seemed only right to make her one that she can (pretend to) play when her parents are trying to sleep! Hmm, or she could just look at it and stroke it. Whichever...









Jake's Nemo Tie:

Who wouldn't want to wear a tie made out of this fabulous fabric?! ;)
Maybe not with that shirt though...

The interfacing I used was a tad stiff, so will try and find some proper tie interfacing for next time.

















I did make two other pillows, 1 an M shape for my friend Mercedes and a ps3 console shaped one for Megan who's an avid gamer. Oh and a pacman pillow for Lizzie. So yup, I'm pretty much all out of stuffing now...

One more thing, before I go. Last Sunday I had a Christmas meal with all of my friends from my old school to exchange presents and eat amazing food. It was also a perfect occasion to make a dress for (more on that when I get pictures). What I want to share on here though was the amazing gift they all clubbed together to buy and touch up for me.

Look!!!! I'm not ashamed to say how much I cried when I opened this and realised what it was. This model was made in 1908! 1908!!!!! Oh dear, I'm welling up again even now!
It's so special and is something I will treasure forever and ever.

Okay, I'm finished talking now!
Thanks so much for reading!
Lauren x