Santa Claus Came to Town!

It's amazing how life can just get away from you. In August I took on a temporary job and was working full time, plus being a full time mommy and wife to two spunky little girls and hubby. Needless to say there wasn't much time for sewing. But there was one project I was determined to finish by Thanksgiving. Thankfully I started it in July, otherwise I never would have made it.

I bought the pattern for this beauty way back in February and knew I was going to make it for my parents' house as an early Christmas gift. I was slightly disappointed by the pattern itself. It came together well enough, but there was absolutely no wiggle room. What I mean is that instead of the pieces overlapping, they were designed to basically butt up against one another. Since I didn't realize this and it was hard to judge exactly where the pieces belonged, when the whole thing was put together there were gaping holes in the beard. I was able to remedy that by putting a big section of white under it before I appliqued it to the black background but if I ever did it again I thing I would redraw the pattern pieces to allow for some overlap. 

I also didn't follow the pattern for the boarder. It was more applique to create a candy cane stripe and holly leaves. I was just too appliqued out. But I actually LOVE my fabric choices, maybe even a little bit better than the original design. 

After the whole top was assembled, I hadd- embroidered the face, and a couple of other parts like the thumb line and the lines that add dimension to the gifts. Then I free-motion quilted it to the batting. I did the outlining edges of everything but the beard. For that I tried my hand at thread-painting. 

Then I sewed it right-sides together to the backing with the rope-style binding and turned it out like a pillowcase  and hand-sewed the last side. Done! I also added a rod pocket to the backing before I did all that.

I really, really love it. I told my mom if she didn't absolutely love it I was taking it back with me!! She did, so I guess she can have it. I hope everyone has a happy rest of the holiday season!