Crafty Gifts

I love making gifts for others, but I have to admit it makes me nervous. I know not everyone appreciates handmades, and even those that do might not like what they're gifted. That's not such a problem with something they can return, but when you put all that work and care into something, well, you do hope they like it. I have had a hard time getting over my nervousness surrounding this, so I tend to only really make handmade gifts for the few people I know will appreciate the thought even if they don't like the finished product. One of those people is my cousin Annette. A couple years back she asked me to make her a bag, and that became the Alice in Wonderland bag (she loves Alice)..

She took that bag on a cross country trip, and still uses it, which makes me so happy.

She is due for surgery in two days and has been feeling down, so I wanted to do something special for her. I wasn't sure what until I had remembered a conversation we had a few weeks before. She loves these characters called Pon and Zi and was disappointed that there weren't any stuffed versions around yet. Perfect!

First came Pon. I don't make stuffies often, and one reason is because I am awful at shaping those round heads. I chose to do these with a "baseball head", which consists of two sides and a gusset between. They both came out a little squared instead of round. I've done this kind of head before with Wee Wonderfuls patterns and had the same problem. I'm pretty sure it's just me though because all the dolls in the Wee Wonderfuls Etsy group have perfectly rounded noggins.

Even with their imperfections, my cousin was happy to receive them. Hopefully they'll help cheer her up a bit!

I'm thinking I need to overcome my fear of gifting more handmade gifts. Maybe even do some smaller, simpler gifts for the holidays. Do you do handmade gifts? Do you ever get nervous like I do?

Oh, and those pickles from yesterday were delish! I will definitely be making more in the future.