Gingercake

A Baby Book

Baby Books!  Love em or hate em?  The pressure of filling them out makes me aprehensive.  I am fine with the initial info about when baby was born, what was happening, what the birth was like, etc.  It's just the follow up that gets me!  All the other kids have half filled baby books- great at the beginning and then lots of blank pages!  Life gets in the way and I forget to stop and fill out baby book info.   This is where my big girls will be helping future Marion.  They are PSYCHED about the baby book.  

Fabric used: Pretty Little Things Tree by Dena Designs, Free Spirit Get Together Flock of Birds Pink

& Valori Wells Wrenly Rosette Cerulean Blue

I knew the notebook slipcover pattern would come in handy for this project.  My older daughters helped me choose the fabrics.  I added a double layer of cotton batting to make it softer and decided not to add the extra top stitching.  A cleaner edge just seemed right for this project.

I purchased the whole set of pages from the lovely Shanda over at CustomMemoryBooks.  These are so nice!  Shanda customizes the cover page and all the pages just for the baby.  Check it out if you are in the baby book market.  So so sweet.  You can either have her print the pages and send to you or she will customize a set that you can print out yourself.  They are clean and simple with modern graphics. Brilliant.

I bought a binder and clear protector pages from Office Max- an invest of about $15.  At first I thought I wouldn't like using the protector pages but they are actually really nice.  You can insert photos and cards in with certain pages and it keeps the whole thing more organized.  You scrap bookers probably already know about this trick but it was new to me!  

So, were you good about your baby books?  Does it really even matter?  All I know is that when I mentioned baby book to the big girls they were so excited.  We brought out their baby books and it turns out that I filled in just enough to make them happy and together we talked about their baby times.  Phew!  Hopefully we can give that gift to Marion too.

Owl Purses by Necessity & a Pattern Giveaway!

I got a request to make a small version of my Lucky the Elephant and it turned out so cute.  I decided to make smaller versions of the owls for my show in a few weeks.  I set the printer to 65% and it made a really nice size.  I made 6 different owls the regular size and 6 corresponding owls smaller.  I realized that didn't have enough polyfil to do all these owls without having to go back to the store and with all we had going on, I could make it there for a few days.  I wanted to finish those owls!!  I decided to try the small owls as little purses instead.  They turned out so cute!

Anne chose her favorite bag and put her wallet (a gift from my sister from Etsy shop needlings) and a couple of her favorite books in the purse.  It's a really nice size for a little girl.

The fabrics are mostly from Amy's fabric shop.  They are so bright and fun for spring.

I usually mix in my thrift store and sale fabrics too.  The red gingham was a 100% cotton men's shirt from the goodwill & Max owl in the picture below was a Land's End Jumper the girl's never liked.  Sometimes clothing has much better quality than what you buy at the fabric store and for these types of sewing projects, they fit in perfectly! 

The max style owl was harder to make into the purse since the top opening is smaller but I love the shape of it!  To make these, change your printer setting to 65% and print out your owl pattern.  Follow the pattern instruction, including the flannel lining.  (I did not do a pocket on the back of these smaller owls).  Sew a 10" piece of ribbon loop onto the front.  The loops should be sewn on facing down toward the body.  Then cut out 2 more owl shapes from cotton fabric that will be the lining of your little purse.  Use fusible interfacing on these 2 pieces to give it more shape.  For the lola owl, I used a piece of 3" velcro & for the max, I used only 2".  Sew the velcro on, centered and .75 from the top edge.  Then sew the 2 lining pieces together, right sides facing, but leave the top edge open.  Also, leave a 3" gap along the side or bottom to turn the piece out. 

Do the same to the outside owl pieces.  Sew them together (including the flannel) right sides facing, but leave the top curve open.   Turn the owl inside out and press.  Insert the outside into the lining.  The right side of the lining should be facing the right side of the owl.  Use your hand to really get the outside and the lining to match nicely.  Sew the top edges together with a 3/8" seam.  Trim all your seams down to 1/8".  Turn it right sides out through that hole you left in the lining.  Press (but be careful of the velcro) and sew a line around the top edge.  Finished!  

Let me know if any of that confused you.  It is very basic bag with a lining instructions but I can try to clarify if you want to send me an email with questions.

If you have been reading the blog for a little while, you know I like to giveaway a pattern to a commenter when I find a new use for it!!!  Leave a comment here (with your email in the private section!) and tell me if you want a Max or Lola pattern. I will choose a random winner on Monday, March 28th.  GIVEAWAY CLOSED!! You can still leave a comment if you want though :)

P.S.  I made it to JoAnn today and saw this on clearance for $.95 a 12oz bag.  I bought all 12 bags they had!  I also had a 25% off coupon.  Call your Joann and see if they have it on clearance too.  That is a real bargain friends!  Eco friendly and SO much nicer to work with than polyfil.