Revised Tree Skirt, Stockings

A couple of things happened today to make me revise my plans for that star-shaped tree skirt: 1) eQuilter sold out of the green fabric (the one with the ornaments on it), and 2) I didn't want to chase all over hell trying to find it. Talking to Mom about it, I decided and she agreed that plain, solid green might serve me better than adding yet another pattern to a design that will already have 5 different patterns on red backgrounds. So I got some plain green cotton... and a vintage Santa on green, and some retro candles on red... It was 75% off! I couldn't resist! NO IDEA what will become of it, but it's definitely a retro thing going on, even if the years don't much match up. I may use the Santas as appliqués on the solid green. It looks like old 1940s wrapping paper - it's great! Same with the candles, only not as youthful. Don't know what I'll do, but I'll use it for something. Eventually.

For the stockings, I found a McCalls pattern (free!) that I liked, and a paw print stocking at FamilyFun that I thought was cute. Only problem was, they were two different sizes, and frankly I thought the paw was too big anyway. Through the miracle of Photoshop, I spliced the two together, creating this: 

I resized the bottom of the paw until it met the sides of the regular stocking. Then I resized the paw pads to allow for a 1/4" seam allowance that the original did not have. Now the two patterns will be very similar in shape and size, since all I did was modify the foot of the stocking. I'll use the solid green for a cuff on both patterns, and for the paw pads on the dog's stocking. Since the first stockings I made in college for my sweetie and me were hand-sewn, doing these on a machine should be a snap.

I have hit another snag, however. The pattern piece for the tree skirt is about 26" long. The half-yard of the snowman fabric I ordered is too short, and the pattern of the material is not going to rotate 90 degrees and look right. So I either need to find another red background retro print to go with the others, or order another 3/4 yard of that snowman. *sigh*

Found My Xmas Spirit!

(It was hiding in a pile of laundry.)

Here's my aluminum tree. Actually, it's my second one, but this one's in better shape. It's a long and uninteresting story as to why I have one of these antiques in the first place, so I won't bore you with that.

The color wheel is different from most. Each quarter wedge has a stripe of all four colors (red, green, blue and amber), instead of the wedge being one solid color, which is the usual arrangement.

This photo is blurry, but you can see how the multicolor stripes illuminate the tree with more color than just one as it rotates.
That's my dog, Cody, unimpressed with the tree, and a bit of a sleepy old man at 14. (He's a Border Collie mix, if you're curious.)

Oh look! A couple of wiseguys! Er, wise men. Here's Balthazar and Caspar - but where's Melchior?

Ah, there he is! These guys look great on a silver tree don't they? The metallic plastic is just the thing to celebrate Mithras' birthday. Who? Oh him...

Even the rubber tree got a little bling. In the background you can see, a set of "marbleous" ornaments (acrylic paint poured into glass balls, and swirled) and my daughter's very first xmas portrait.

The first year I tried decorating one of these beauties, I quickly learned that they just won't hold the weight of modern resin/plastic ornaments, so most of my Hallmark ornaments stayed in boxes. I began collecting older ornaments, the tacky plastic ones made by Jewelbrite and others, because they're so much lighter, and really add to the je ne sais quoi of an aluminum tree. My real prizes are the pressed aluminum snowflakes - they're fragile and not in great shape, but I love them! In the 3rd pic (from the top) you can see the bright pink and the green one toward the bottom.

Currently, I have silver and red metallic netting under the tree serving as a tree skirt. I have Plans for a new one, but no time to get it sewed between now and the 25th.