Handmade Holiday Week: Day 6 - Ideas for Moms

Sewing for the moms on my list was only limited by time and I stashed away lots of ideas on my to-do list for another day. Here are a couple of the presents that made it into stockings this Christmas.

1. Hot/Cold Rice Pack

Although they were a very simple idea, I was definitely pleased by the way these turned out and will certainly make more in the future. Scented with lavender oil, they have a removable insert that can be popped into the freezer or microwaved to act as a heat/cold pack to soothe away aches and pains. The cover can be dropped in the washing machine whenever it needs a clean.

2. Gardener's Tool Apron

My mam is an amazing gardener. Not only does she have a vegetable patch and greenhouse in the back yard but she has a large allotment where she grows giant piles of organic vegetables and fruit. The potatoes and carrots I ate at dinner last night were still in the ground in her "plastic palace" (as she calls the large self-built hothouse on her plot) that morning and I just ate some delicious crumble with some home-grown plums plucked from the giant freezer in the garage. Naturally I had to make at least one gardening-themed present for her and this toolbelt fit the bill.

3. Flower of the Month Bookmarks

Given that she's such a whiz at cross-stitch herself, it was maybe a little ambitious to get started on an embroidery project for my mam but given her love of gardening, combined with being an avid reader, when I spotted these patterns at the end of the summer I couldn't resist the challenge. Embroidery is very portable so these have travelled on planes and trains, to laundromats and waiting rooms and sat in my lap while watching numerous movies. I plan on giving her the rest in installments for easter, birthdays, mothers day and just-because-days so that she ends up with the full twelve month series by the end of 2012.