Fit for a Birthday Princess

The last holiday project I had to complete wasn't really for the holidays, but rather for a birthday.  My niece Roxi was a New Year's Day baby and is now turning four.  She is the third girl in our recent family baby boom of the past few years.  I had made a birthday crown when my niece Teyla turned five, then another for her sister Sophia, when she turned four earlier this year. Now it was Roxi's turn.

I was very conscientious of making them all somewhat different, but the little girls in our family tend to like pink and/or purple.  I bought a no-sew pattern that I thought was cute and that I could handle, but struggled with the less-than-helpful instructions.  I Macgyvered it in order to finish Teyla's crown, so I basically just used the pattern for the crown itself and made Sophie's and Roxi's using my lessons learned from the first go round.

I traced the pattern, which I had copied onto transparency plastic, onto a piece of Heat 'n Bond and ironed it to some Timtex.  I cut it out, then fused the other side to the fabric, leaving some allowance to wrap around to the back side of the Timtex and glue it.  The pattern is for a double/mirror image height that I eventually fold in half, lengthwise, after I attach the ruffle I made out of glittery tulle I bought on a 4 or 5-inch roll at Hobby Lobby (folded in half twice and gathered), using 5 times the length I need to cover.

The original directions said to use ribbon to tie it together.  I didn't think that was secure enough, so, using the kid's head measurement, I made 2 extension flaps out of the fabric (cut about 2.5" x 4-5"),  fused Velcro onto them and then glue to the side of the crown.  Adjustable and sturdy!

At the bottom of the crown I trimmed it with some rhinestone trim from Joanne's and topped that with a black with white dots rose garland from Hobby Lobby.

The rosette is made from a hot pink version of the same print, gathered and hand-stitched to some crinoline for stability, and then bedazzled with a jeweled button and sewn unto the front of the crown.

Lastly, I fold the crown in half and use some wax paper-covered clothes pins, as well as a case of dog food, to hold that sucker together while the E6000 glue dries overnight.

I hope Roxi likes her crown.  I'll try to add a picture of her with it when I give it to her.  One more to go next year, when Emily turns four.

Do you have any things you consistently make for family members?

Posted on Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Friday.

UFO Finally Finished!

A few years ago a friend had painted her dining room, and for Christmas I was going to make her a new table runner and placemats.  We had picked out the pattern, Fragments from A Place at the Table by Claire Oehler and Nancy Mirman, and the fabric.  I had started working on it and then life got in the way, they moved out of state for her husband's new job and this project was put up.  I came across it in October and was determined to finish it in time for Thanksgiving.

Luckily, I had been in her new home and had taken pictures.  I traded out some of the fragments fabric, ironed them on with Heat 'n Bond Lite, then stitched closely around the edges with nylon thread on top and dark bobbin thread.

I didn't think I had enough of the black print to bind everything, so I started to just do self binding on the placemats, but it was uneven and just didn't look good.  I carefully measured and found I did have enough fabric to cut binding strips and finished off the placemats and table runner with a machine binding method I found on Crazy Mom Quilts.

There was definitely not enough black fabric to make napkins, so I just found black cotton ones online, pre-washed a couple of times to make sure there was not any excess dye in them and then embellished them with some fragments in one of the corners.

Here's a closer look at the table runner:

And a couple of the placemats and napkins:





Finished it just in time to be adorned with Thanksgiving Dinner!

Do you have any UFOs and do you plan to finish them, recycle them or just forget about them?


Linked to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.