Following on from a lovely afternoon crafting with Hillarys (which you can read about here I took the plunge and decided to enter their craft competition! Selecting from four of their new fabrics, the brief was to transform a 1x1 metre squared piece into something unique and eye-catching, using any other additional materials required. Whilst I do enjoy sewing I'm not hugely skilled and after looking at the fantastic entries on the Pinterest board I set off feeling less than confident!
I wanted to create something quite different from the intended use of the fabric, so stayed away from home furnishings and decided to make a child's soft toy (ironically it ended up looking like a cushion!) A good friend of mine is pregnant at the minute and her two year old son loves sea creatures so I thought this would be a cute present for him and a good way to discuss the imminent arrival!
I chose the 'Daisy Pistachio' fabric because it was the most sea-like with its shades of green, and also just because its a really gorgeous fabric. I started by sketching a simple whale pattern onto paper and used this to cut out two mirror image pieces from the Daisy Pistachio fabric.
I used a simple approach of sewing round the seams of the two pieces of fabric, and using stuffing material to pad out the shape. I created a little zipped pocket on the machine and hand stitched it into the whale's tummy. I used a bit of imagination and trial and error as I have never sewn more than a straight line on a machine before, and have certainly never sewn a zip! I made the baby in the same way, but instead of a zip I attached some little fins. I sewed the baby's eyes using black thread but used black buttons for the mother's eyes.
And here are the finished products! What do you think? Definitely a bit more practice required but I'm still happy with how they turned out! I have to say, the Daisy Pistachio fabric was a lovely quality to work with; easy to cut and sew and is lovely and soft and smooth so worked well for a toy. You can see the pouch opening for the baby whale below.
Thanks to Hillarys for a fun competition, which you can read more about here and see some of the other new fabrics on offer, and of course the other incredible entries.