Since I know very few people in the city, the GF of a friend offered to include me in a Secret Santa group of hers. The theme of the gift was homemade. It could be baking, or knitting, or wood work, etc, but it had to be handmade. Challenge accept! So I got the name of my secret santa-ee and begun my planning. (In other words, I mega creeped his FB page... Haha. Yay modern technology!)

I soon discovered that he was a mega nerd, like me, excited for the new Hobbit movie and a lover of all things space aged. So, with the new Star Wars trailer soon to come out, I got an idea. Stormtrooper in a tiny Christmas sweater. Obviously.

So I set to work sketching a draft of what he would look like. Then I got to dig out my sewing machine and materials and make a pattern. I traced the drawing for the pattern, including a seam allowance. Then I bought some black and white felt and got to work. I wanted to make it as easy to sew as possible so I basted all the armour to the black body pieces and then sewed the head pieces together and the body pieces together in one seam. Success!

Next, I got to knitting him a teeny tiny sweater. I've never actually been skilled enough to make a life sized sweater before so I read a couple patterns to get the gist of how to make sleeves. It took about 3 hours but my little galactic sweater was ready for business.

After that, I stuffed XMS-1225 (also known as XMAS) with cotton balls, inserted a cardboard spine and stitched his head to his body.

And my new little friend was off to meet his commander. =)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist