Wine Bottle Covers, Handmade Dishcloths And How To Track Santa On Christmas Eve

Before I start, I would like to say a big  “Welcome” to anyone who is visiting, due to the link on Rhonda’s ‘Down To Earth’ blog.  It is lovely to see you and thank you Rhonda for including me in your ‘Weekend Reading’. 

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I make Christmas hampers for my family and put lots of homemade goodies in them, e.g. Jams, pickles, chutneys, etc. and everyone seems to like them.

In each hamper I also put a bottle of wine, but I feel they don’t really look very special on their own, so I make a cheap and simple cover to put around it.  I think this gives the wine an extra special touch (and makes it look more expensive than it actually was).

I bought the material from ‘Dunelm’ a couple of months ago.  It cost me £1.50 and I managed to easily get three covers out of it.

Below is how I made it:

I cut a rectangle of the fabric aproximately 10cm longer than the bottle and wide enough to wrap around the width of the bottle, with enough of an overlap to stitch the material together.

I folded the fabric in half and then pinned the bottom and side.

I then stitched the bottom and side together leaving the top open (you may find it easier to tack the material first).

I turned the bottle cover inside out and slid the bottle inside.

I tied the top together with a pretty bow to complete it.

I think my bottles of wine look much better now.

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I thought I’d show you another thing I have been busy making for my homemade hampers ….Dishcloths.

I know some of you will be thinking ‘she has really lost the plot now’, but handmade dishcloths really are lovely to use and last far longer than the cheap ones that you buy.

I love knitting as I find it very therapeutic to do, so I decided that this year it would be nice to include then in my hampers.

There are loads of free dishcloth patterns on the internet, but I picked a pattern that used just ‘knit’ and ‘purl’ stiches, so it really was easy to do.  I bought the ‘Dishcloth’ cotton yarn cheaply from the internet too, so each dishcloth is cheap to make.

I have decided to put two neatly folded dishcloths in each hamper, tied with a pretty ribbon and a little note on them to say that they are ‘Handmade Luxury Dishcloths’.  I hope my family like them, I know I would.

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Track Santa

Finally today I thought I’d tell you about a wonderful FREE website that young children will love on Christmas Eve.  It has been around for quite a few years now and my daughters used to love it.

The American website has a few games that children can play, leading up to christmas, but the fun really begins on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Eve, you can track exactly where Santa is in the world delivering his presents.  It is so magical watching him going from place to place on his sleigh and children get so excited watching him.

So if you have small children, you can find the website here.

I hope you have as much fun as we have had over the years, watching Santa flying from place to place on his sleigh.

Thank you for reading my blog today.