Baby present

This week my friend from work had her teeny tiny little baby boy.  He was born really quickly almost in the car park of the hospital 3 weeks early and he is tiny!!!  I made the new baby a little taggie I found here.

His name is Charlie and I did aim for a letter C but as usual me and sewing don't always do well.

I cut out my letter C from a pillowcase I found on sale in the summer and knew I could do something with the funky fabric.   The guide I pinned above was brilliant but I just can't seem to follow instructions - my first attempt I had the ribbons pinned the wrong way and when I sewed it all together only the ends of the ribbons were on show and they were all frayed! :o What a dork.  I picked out all the ribbons and started again with two new pieces of fabric....  This time I pinned the ribbon on the right way and then used my sewing machine to sew the right sides together before turning inside out.  I had a huge selection of ribbon to choose from - I think I have a ribbon obsession!!!  This isn't even all of it and I ordered more today!!  What is wrong with me??? :D

This time my letter C was squint...but I was much happier with it.  It didn't seem very thick - the first time I stitched it I made the back with thicker fabric but I didn't have enough the second time round so I just stuck with the same pillowcase fabric for the back.  It was really floppy once I sewed it so I decided it needed some stuffing.  I did this then attempted to top-stitch   with my sewing machine.  Yet again my sewing machine failed me in my time of need - or was it my lack of knowledge of sewing once again???  Either way I could not get my machine to sew this together and some of the ribbons were slightly loose as well as the hole I had left for turning it inside out being open still so I had to hand sew round the edges as neatly as I could.  I don't think it is too bad and I made sure each ribbon was secure for giving to a little baby.  I love the soft white and red ribbons the best because they feel like velour.  Finlay loves labels even now and he would have loved something like this when he was little.  It may be more moon shaped than C shaped but who needs to know? :)

I also gave Charlie a decorative  letter C for his room 

    And wrapped them both together in brown paper.

    And sewed on a little blue teddy button on the ribbon

    And of course his big brother needed a letter too

                                    B for Brendan

Which I also wrapped up in brown paper with a book for big bro to read when his mummy and daddy are busy with their new arrival

      For Brendan I attached a little fudge sweety for him - I didn't think he would appreciate a button :)


Then I made some labels for the boys from luggage labels and I stenciled their names on

                                           So simple but I loved how their presents turned out :)

I got to go and see baby Charlie and give his mummy his gift and I got a lovely cuddle from him.  He is so small - my babies were never that small and my nephews certainly weren't!  We have big babies in our family so 6lb 3oz was positively minute.  My girl was 9lb for goodness sake!!  And record breaker Roman was 10lb 10oz!!  Jeez-oh...He was ginormous compared to all the other little babies - what a star my sister is pushing that hunk of chunk out all by herself!   A natural birth for such a big boy - she should surely be in a record book somewhere?!?!  I love a good birth story and natural births are my favourite kind of story - do any of you have any good birth stories for me??

Like this?  More decorating with brown paper here :)