Woah baby!

I love making things for babies. Lucky for me, three of my friends have buns in the oven- that satisfies my uncontrollable need to craft for a while.

First up is my good friend Lisa. Lisa is having a little girl. I should say, another little girl. Yep, Lisa, come the end of March will be the proud mum of 3 little girls (all under 3). I know right?.... all under 3!!!! She's a saint. And a diaper changing machine. Not to mention, a wonderful, fun and patient mum. I have so much admiration for her work ethic and skills, it's remarkable really. She's so patient. I really admire that, because, patience is something in diametrical opposition to my personality.

Now as you can well imagine, Lisa has very little need for your typical baby gifts. I have two boys, 2 and a half years apart, and I'm drowning in mountains of out-grown clothes. I can only presume that as a mum of girls, Lisa also has tons. So I wasn't too keen to do what I usually do when friends are having girls- live vicariously through them by buying and knitting sweet little things that as a mother of boys I cannot indulge in myself.  I controlled that urge when thinking of what to do for Lisa.

See, when I was pregnant with Matteo I was sure I was having a girl. Positive. You have to understand, I'm a very girlie girl. I am not interested in sports, I played Barbies, had lots of dolls, loved to craft, sing etc. When we were in the delivery room, and Matteo made his grand entrance, the doctor told Ethan to tell me what it was "It's a boy!". My response: "Are you sure??". Ethan: "Uh- yeah. Quite sure- that is most definitely a boy". There is more to this conversation that is too crass for mixed company, but suffice it to say, as much as I did, and do, love my son, I was bummed about the shopping end of things. I made sure during my second pregnancy to find out the baby's gender, so as to avoid that same awkward conversation again. And also, I have to admit, we've come a long way from boys clothes of the 1980's that I remember so well: sweat pants, and jammers with hideous cartoon characters all over them. Those still exist for sure, but luckily there are some pretty styling options for boys too now. What was I writing about? Right. Sewing.

Around Matteo's birthday, Lisa had commented on a "Happy Birthday" pennant banner that my mum had made for my kids.

I had first seen these on Etsy, and quickly decided that I could do it myself. Then, I quickly decided that my mum had more time and patience than I do, not to mention skill. I admit it, I pawned the project off on her. And she came through in spades! She showed up to Elio's 1st birthday pattern with the exact banner I had in my head. I love it so much.  Being the sewing rockstar that she is, she even made separate name pennants that we just pin on for the appropriate celebration.


I thought about it and decided that although, kind of a weird gift, this could be a fun thing to receive. At the very least, it wouldn't be anything that she'd get two of. So I went fabric shopping. The banner was actually super easy, completed during the course of two naps and one evening. (Just like I now tell time in Sesame Streets and Batmans, longer durations of work are calculated by naps now.) Here's how this went:

I cut out 26 triangles.

I sewed said triangles together, then turned them right side out and ironed them.

Using double fold bias tape, I sewed the babies together. I left a little space between where the Y of "happy" will go and the B of "birthday". My mum didn't use bias tape. She was making the banner out of a sheet, so she had a nice long stretch of fabric and used that. I didn't want to have to buy yards of fabric for the sake of a long skinny ribbon, in all honesty, I'm far too lazy to piece shorter lengths together for the same result. Bias tape worked nicely, but you are limited in colour choices.

Here's what the thing looked like. If I was smart, I would have sewed the letters on before sewing this sucker together. But sometimes, I'm a couple sandwiches short of the proverbial picnic. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a bit awkward to manoeuvre the whole thing through my machine given its length.








Next, I cut the letters out of felt. The sky is the limit on this. Pick your favourite font. I ended up using 325 pt. font.

Voila.

A close up.

I had lots of fabric left, and since I was making this as a gift, I thought I'd make a little draw string bag for the banner. This way it would store neatly without coming unfolded. I cut 4 rectangles out of the fabric

Next I sewed them up (two together) on three sides. On one of the sewed up pairs I left a three inch opening- I'm pointing to it. I don't have a serger. I would LOVE a serger. But until then, I have to be creative as to how not to have ugly raw edges showing. So I lined this bag (that's why I used 4 rectangles not 2). Are you grasping the extent of my type A personality? I know. It is a bag for a happy birthday banner. No one will see the inside, and it will surface about 5 time a year. The stupidity of this attention to detail is not lost on me. But I can't help myself.

I then turned the bag without the 3 inch opening right side out, and stuffed it inside the bag with the opening, right sides together.

Next I sewed up the top edge (the edge of the bag opening.

I pulled the whole thing right side out through the three inch opening. I hand sewed the opening, and pushed that bag through the bag that didn't have an opening. Wow... could that be any wordier?

Next, using single fold bias tape, I made a casing on the inside of the bag. I braided some cord and threaded it through.

The finished product

I hope that Lisa and her girls enjoy this. It was a fun one to make. I really like this project as there are so many possibilities. How about a name banner to tie on the outside of a crib? I'm thinking of making a banner for the mantel at Christmas time. My mum had a great idea when we chatted on the phone this morning- why not make it double sided- one side with girly fabric, and one side with fabric for a boy- she's very clever. 

Happy trails!