Random nerd squee first: Dominion has a new expansion and it’s coming out in just a few weeks!!! Dominion Strategy has previews of several of the new cards. Woo! Now on to your regularly scheduled blog post!
This post is just about a couple gifts I’ve made. Above is a simple leather circlet (an SCA Award of Arms band) I made for a friend. I cut the leather, burnished the edges, dyed it, and added a simple tie in the back. These bands are very simple to make, and I’d be happy to make a similar band for someone else on commission. Add in some different colors and/or a burned or tooled design, and it could get fancy. 🙂
Next is the gardening pad I made for my dad for his birthday. He loves flowers and gardening, and I know his knees could use some extra padding while doing so! Using an old pair of jeans, I made a large rectangle, leaving one long side open (sewing right sides together and turning it), sewing two elastic loops into one of the ends. Then I sewed simple straight lines to make the tubes, stopping about half an inch shy of the open side. After stuffing the tubes with pillow stuffing (using a chopstick to shove the stuffing down to the end), the open side was closed under and hand-sewn shut.
The elastic bands allow it to be rolled up into a tube for storage.
The pillow stuffing makes it nice and cushy on the knees, while the tubes keep it fairly flat. Not the most professionally finished product, but I think Dad likes it. 🙂 <3 you, Dad! ~Kelly
