Little Things for Little People

As I mentioned, I've been making things that aren't for me, which takes time from making things for myself... but I like doing it. Plus, I have fabric for myself on its way to my house as we speak, so...

I already shared the sweater I made (and the, um, half a sweater I have sitting here). The next thing, which finally got mailed last week, is for our friends' kids. Inspired by these felt flash cards from Sew Much Ado, I made a pair of full alphabet + numbers 0-9.

I used grey felt for the backgrounds, a rainbow of colors for the letters and numbers - red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, and white - and a multicolored thread to sew the letters and numbers on. The stitching around each piece is basic grey to match the felt. The curves were a little tricky on some of the letters, maybe just because I'm not used to sewing felt and it moves differently under the presser foot than fabric. Overall it was a fairly simple project, just took a while to complete. I did things in batches; a group of letters, then a long pause, then another set, etc. I also ran out of grey at the very end. I used yardage for the grey instead of buying a bunch of sheets of felt, and I ended up one sheet's worth short. Of course, that's easy enough to buy, but beware that depending on how well you cut the felt, if you use yardage you might end up a little short. I used a rotary cutter but still had some narrow pieces that wouldn't work, either due to my measuring and cutting or due to discrepancies in the felt itself, I don't know.

I didn't mess with the grommets from the original, but I did make simple little bags to put them in.

 
I also added a few books to the box, and a little blanket for their baby girl. I somehow forgot to take pics of the blanket; I was sure I had already done that but I can't find any... you can sort of see it through the tissue in this picture:

The front is a brown flannel with multicolored hearts on it; the backing is a green dotted minky. That minky... so soft but such a pain to sew. I'm sure I'll use it again, but this was my first time and I didn't quite realize what it would be like. Any tips to make it easier are welcome!

Also, I've decided to switch out the plaid Traveler dress for a jersey maxi skirt for the Fall Challenge. I'm still planning on making the dress, and I ordered the fabric, but right now the ETA is mid-October. I also ordered a rosy pink jersey, so that will let me stay with my goal of 3 items. And the 2nd panel of the hand-stitched skirt is *almost* done.