Lately I've been rubbish. No, scratch that, I've always been rubbish, but lately I've been rubbisher. I keep forgetting birthdays. I have a birthday book with birthdays in it, but I seem to be incapable of consulting it. Even when I KNOW a birthday is coming up, I seem to register it but do nothing about getting a present and card together. Case in point. A friend turned 50 last week. We didn't go to his party as it was in a club and really not our scene, which he was fine about. So we arranged to meet him and his husband on a different day. 3 days after making this arrangement I suddenly realised a present would be needed! Cue frantic sewing.
Men are notoriously difficult to sew for, but I had a plan. He loves red wine, so a nice bottle of plonk with a wine cosy like this one I made for my brother at Christmas. Mr CA was dispatched to buy a bottle of nice wine and came home with a bottle of VERY nice (read - expensive) wine. A wine cosy was duly whipped up using the Moda Bakeshop tutorial. I even made a little bow tie to complete the look. Sorted.
Or not. The wine you see in this cosy is a £5 bottle of red. The fancy-pants wine was in a different size bottle to the normal and didn't fit. When we first tried it and I discovered this, I could have cried. You see, I'd decided to improve on the Bakeshop pattern, I didn't like the way the raw edges of the base piece were on show, so I sewed and turned. The circle was too small. I sewed and turned again. It was still too small! One more try and it worked.
The decision was taken (by me) to buy another bottle of wine and present him with both! I used all black for the outside and a burgundy for the inside to give it a tuxedo-look. And look what I discovered! You can sew buttons on with a sewing machine! Yes, I know, you all knew this already! Hand sewing in the middle of a machine sewing project annoys the hell out of me. If I'm machining, I'm machining, I'm not stopping to thread a needle and sit down and hand sew so I avoid it where-ever possible.
I whipped up the bow tie without plan or pattern. I'd run out of the black elastic used for the button fasteners (I think it came off a clothing tag or something as I only had a small loop of it) so I added some cord to tie the bowtie at the back. I think it looks rather smart.
I think that when I next make one of these, and I will as it's such a good gift for a bloke, I'll whip up a few to keep in reserve. Ooh look, you can see me in my pjs, greasy hair scrapped back in the reflection! Great photo Wendy.
I found the photo of the Zakka Style pencil case with the crochet hooks in it.
See? Much better than the pencils!
This weekend has lots of treats in store for me, birthday meals (not mine) and a lovely trip to the vets for Colin and Ellis to have their jabs. Oh the joy.
9 comments:
What a fantastic gift, I love it! It's so smart and masculine and dapper! The bow tie is just the perfect finishing touch. I'd never have thought of measuring a wine bottle either so I feel your pain.. how frustrating!
That bottle holder is a great idea... men are a nightmare to buy for an even more difficult to craft for..well done!
Fleur xx
Like the wine cosy, my son works for a fine wine company so no guesses for what one of his Christmas presents will be! Obviously you will have to up the status of your general wine purchases to be sure of having the right size bottle in hand in future :)
The wine cosy is excellent....what a pain about the wine bottle size though. First pencils that are too big, now wine bottles! You seem to be having a run of it. Glad you sorted it though - it looks fab. Excellent idea for a present x
Definitely a great gift for a guy - especially if they share the contents with you, lol! Sorry you had such a ()&@#*$#$@ time of it - been there, done that, far too many times, sadly!
Your crochet case looks faaaaaaabulous - I need to get cracking on mine - but first I have to decide what I'll be carrying in it so I can make sure I make it long enough!
Lovely present! I know it will be well received. It is so annoying when you do all that work and things don't fit. You overcame all though, so how could you possibly say you are rubbish? You are not. Stop it. Stop it now. Hugs!
This is great (and fun!). I've added it to the list of 'must do's', my brother loves italian wine and would find this really funny to show to the other wine-guys *lol*
This is a great gift! This will deff be on my list for my brother in law who is horrible to buy for!
Lovely wine cozy. I love that it looks like a cape. Thanks for sharing at Bacon Time.
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