The Gift I Never Knew I Needed

November 16, 2025 Bianca Silva

Hello, hello!

With Christmas fast approaching I am full of inspiration and ideas for creating little crafty projects.

I’m so happy that I got the advent calendar out the way pretty early, although I haven’t sorted out yet where or what sort of cord I’m using to hang it up.

This week I made a mug rug and a bookmark!

And I never really knew I needed a mug rug until now! 😂

Since I’ve made it, it has been in use every time I’m in my sewing room with my tea on top. Now I want to make a couple more with other fabrics because the one I made is all Christmas fabrics. (More info below)

For the bookmark, I knew I wanted to have a go at free motion embroidery after having chatted about it with Pam, Brenda and Sue at the Janome event a couple of weeks ago.

I started by drawing some flowers onto the paper side of Hemline Heat ‘n’ Seal, fused it to some scrap fabric and cut out the shapes.

Then I removed the paper backing and fused it to my main bookmark piece and stitched around the shapes twice to create a crooked double line. I quite like this squiggly look.

I was supposed to embroider ‘mama’ in between the flowers but I was so excited by the embroidery and wanting to see it finished that I completely forgot. 😂

Stitches of the Week

True Bias - Lander Pants

I’ve made a start!

I wanted to pattern match the fabric I am using because I feel it would just look off if I didn’t. And I came slightly short on one of the leg pieces at the side seam.😏

I haven’t yet measured it, I’ve just eyeballed it and I think I might be able to get away with it in the seam allowance. When the time comes to sew the legs together I will find out.

The worst that can happen is chopping that piece off the bottom and having ankle pants, which is actually something I still need to decide on - ankle or shoe length?

For the pockets, I decided to not pattern match because there is a dart on the back that would interfere with that. Instead, I’ve cut them completely off, but made sure each set of back and front pockets are the same. It would be too much of an eyesore if the two front/back pockets were different to each other.

So far I have the back darts sewn, but not without some drama.

Since my fabric doesn’t have a right or wrong side, I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing when I pinned and sewed them. Turns out that instead of being mirrored, I had sewn the darts on the same side. This meant I had 2 left legs. 🤦🏼♀️

So I unpicked everything and sewed it again, only to realise I had sewn it again exactly how it was…wrong! 😂

I unpicked it a second time and sewed it right the third time!

The pockets are all sewn on now too, so next is to add the fly, sew all the legs together and work on the waistband.

Fabric: Light weight denim

The Drama: Sewing the dart on the wrong side..twice! Missing fabric at the side seam on one leg piece. I still don’t know what length I’m going for, maybe the missing fabric at the hem will decide.

The Win: Enjoying the process, even if I can just manage one pocket a day.

Sizing Details: Size 4

BeeSilva - DIY Mug Rug

I made this originally with the intention of sharing a gift idea for Christmas, but it turned out I needed one for myself! 😂

I experimented with different shapes and sizes of fabrics until I settled on what I liked.

The finished measurement is 5 x 9.5 inches and it’s the perfect shape for my mugs plus it has a little pocket on the side. I can place either some treats on top of the pocket, or if I decide to give one to someone, I can slip the treats into it.

I drew a line off centre on the batting to have a guide up to where I wanted to sew the strips because I wanted more space for a mug on the patchwork side than for a treat on the pocket side.

For the pocket I folded the fabric in half and topstitched the top to keep the fold and then sewed it on to the batting together with the back pocket piece.

To finish it off neatly, I sewed bias binding in red and white stripes which reminds me of candy canes.

I love my new mug rug, but I’m not too keen on the mix of fabrics I put together and I’m actually not a fan of Christmas fabrics altogether.

But since they are in my stash from having made the advent calendars for my daughters, I might as well use them.

If you would like to have a go at making one, these are the measurements I used, but of course you can just use it as a starting point and make something even more unique:

All measurements are in inches:

- Back panel: 5 x 9.5
- Batting: 5 x 9.5
- Pocket back: 5 x 4.25
- Pocket front: 6 x 4.25
- 10 strips for patchwork: 1 x 8
- Binding: 2 x 35 (there will be some extra)

Fabric: A mix of cottons and polycottons in Christmas prints and Hemline compressed batting.

The Drama: Not too keen on my fabric choices.

The Win: It’s a gift I never knew I needed! 😀

Take It or Leaf It Sweater - Karas Knit Eng

I feel so sorry for this project, I feel like it’s not getting the love it deserves. 😂

I started this project on the 6th of July, so it’s well overdue!

This week I thought I needed to crack on with it.

What actually gave me the push to pick it up again was being sent some yarn from Wool Warehouse. I want to start a new project, but I won’t until I get this one finished first.

Last time, I shared with you that I had fixed my mistakes in the cables on the back bodice.

I have since knitted a rolled neckband. I much prefer how the edge of this looks than having a cast off edge right at the neck. I think a rolled edge just makes knitwear look more chic.

I’ve also started one of the sleeves.

I want to knit them just past ¾ length because I’m always pulling my sleeves up anyway, plus it will reduce a little the amount of time I need to knit to finish it.

Some of the ends have been weaved in too, so overall, I’m on a good track.

This may be wishful thinking at this point, but I want to be able to tell you next week that the whole sweater is finished.

Yarn: Yarnsmiths Create Super Chunky gifted by Wool Warehouse paired with Drops silver thread.

Size: XS

Needle Size: I am using a size 6mm for the ribbing and an 8mm needle for the body. The yarn suggests a 10mm for reference.

The Win: I’ve finally picked it up again! 🎉

Skill Builder of the Week

Darning Foot

This week I took out my darning foot for the first time and let me tell you, YouTube makes it look easier than what it felt. 😂

I didn’t stitch much with it, but I did learn a few things that I want to share with you.

To do free-motion embroidery you need to use a darning foot and lower the feed dogs. Then it’s all about figuring out the speed at which you are going to move your fabric through the machine.

If your machine has a speed regulator, it will also be helpful to set it at a slower pace while you get accustomed to the motion.

It is also helpful to use a stabiliser on the wrong side of the fabric for thin or stretchy fabric to avoid puckering or the machine eating your fabric.

Your stitch length setting won’t matter much because your hands are in charge of how slow or fast the fabric is moving. This is the bit that needs some practice.

The faster you move, the longer your stitches will look.

The slower you move, the shorter your stitches will look.

Like with everything, it’s a skill that improves with time, but I can definitely tell I am going to have some fun with this and hopefully bring out some more creativity in me.

If you’ve been meaning to try this out, this may be your sign to give it a go!