Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you all the blessings of Christ this season!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

source

The Meaning of Christmas

Hallelujah Christmas Version

NOEL

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Go Tell it On The Mountain

The Little Drummer Boy

Angels We Have Heard On High

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

O Come, All Ye Faithful

What Child is This

We Three Kings

For Unto Us a Child is Born

O Little Town of Bethlehem

The Christmas Guest told by Andy Griffith

Away In a Manger

Joy to the World

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

O come, O come, Emmanuel

A Baby Changes Everything

Mary Did You Know

The First Noel

O Holy Night

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Silent Night

#SewToShare

#SewToShare

My Dear Friends,

I've a brief post to update you all a bit on where things are with me right now. As was the plan, and is certainly obvious with my level of activity here, 2015 was to be a period of slow down for me in my blogging adventures. I have purposefully remained connected to all of you that have become such a part of my life, and I imagine I will always do so. 

Life has taken a bit of a new direction for me and my family. A direction that has come in some very difficult ways, but has also produced a stunningly beautiful and renewed focus on what is most important for us. 

I will continue to be quiet around here. And, this may very well extend into the new year. It is with complete peace and enthusiasm that I embrace and follow the path that Christ has set before me. It's going to be great! 

"She holds onto HOPE, for He is forever faithful."

1 Corinthians 1:9

P.S. If you desire to keep connected with me and what continues and develops with Hopeful Threads, for now, I recommend following me at Instagram, @hopefulthreads . It's quick and easy for me to share tidbits of life there, and I simply love that creative community!

#SewToShare

#SewToShare

Following Hopeful Threads - The best way for you!

There are a variety of ways to keep up with what is going on around here, and with me in general. Here's a list of the different options, with a brief idea of what to expect from each, so you can decide which is best for you!

My current favorite sharing outlet is Instagram! It's quick, easy to use and fun to be able to interact with folks in the here and now. It also allows me a chance to share some closer, kind of "behind-the-scenes" looks at what's going on in our lives. You can find me on Instagram @hopefulthreads and my destash account, @hopefulthreads_destash.

Facebook is still one of my post popular outlets, but with their constant changes and audience limitations, I fear I'm not reaching but a fraction of you. If you have liked the Hopeful Threads facebook page, but sure you have clicked the "following" option in the header of my page, this should help me to show up in your feed more often. I share a variety of inspiration and encouragement posts here and have links to my other social outlets on my facebook page as well. I'll also occasional link you to tutorials, sales and giveaways I run across. You can find me on Facebook HERE.

Twitter tends to be a faster pace than I can keep up with most days! lol! ;) However, I do tweet my blog post links there, as well as, different sewing inspiration and giveaways. From time to time, I will also tweet things I find personally relevant. While twitter may be a bit more scattered thoughts style for me, it's still a great way to make sure you are in the loop of what sewing outreach I am currently participating in. You can find me on Twitter @hopefulthreads. 

I still enjoying scrolling through, and saving lots of tutorial and inspiration links on Pinterest. I use Pinterest regularly when sewing! It's such a great way to easily organize my interests and be able to access it whether waiting in the doctor's office or shopping for that specific pattern I forgot at home. :) I have a LOAD of sewing related pin boards and you can choose to follow all or only the ones that are of particular interest to you. You can find me on Pinterest HERE.

While I'm not as consistent as I once was, I still enjoying blogging from time to time. I will share updates and tutorials here. You can choose to follow my blog through Bloglovin' or by email through Feedburner by entering your email address in the necessary box on the top of the sidebar on the right. 

There you have it! Keep up with all the creative and crazy fun around here the ways that are best for you! And THANKS for being a follower! Interacting with you all makes this journey so much more fun!

I Made Shoes!!!

Have you ever made shoes??? I hadn't, but was so excited to give it a try! My friends at Dritz Sewing offered to send me one of their awesome new Espadrilles kits to try out and share my thoughts with you, and I'm thrilled to get to do so!

Aside from sewing baby booties, this was my first attempt at creating an actual wearable shoe. The packaging suggested planning 2 hours to complete the project, and I'd say that is reasonable. I finished in a bit over that, but I was sewing at a very casual pace while playing about the internet as well. :)

The instructions provided with the kit include step by step directions and illustrations that made the whole process very easy. The Espadrilles collection also includes a variety of notions designed specifically to assist in "shoemaking made easy".  While it isn't necessary that you purchase all the extra notions to create your own pair of Espadrilles, I'll share some of the ones that I thought made the process easier.
These glass head pins are one of the extra notions that I loved! They are a much sturdier pin which made pinning the fabric to the shoe sole easier and the strength of the pins kept them from bending.

Dritz Point Turners are one of my favorite sewing notions of all time, and it was a perfect tool for turning and smoothing the fabric before attaching to the jute sole. 

These handy Needle Pullers were GREAT for the blanket stitch process along the outer edge of the shoes. They provide a grip on the needle that makes pulling in through the thick jute and fabric easier. Prevents sore fingers too!

These shoes are so comfortable to wear! I was really pleasantly surprised at just how comfortable the jute was. And, there is a vast variety of sizes and color options to choose from.

Take a look at the selection on the Dritz website HERE. I'm kind of drooling over a bunch of them right now! All the kids have requested a pair of their own, so who knows, there may be a bit more Espadrilles sewing in my future!

 And one of my favorite things.....the bobbin tread! Isn't that great!?!?!?!

Pleased with the results and proud to say I have now made shoes!!! Too cool!

What about you? Have you made shoes? What did you think?

**Materials provided by Dritz in exchange for honest feedback. All opinions are my own.**