DIY Soft Toy for Bebe

I love the idea of making wee one her toys. I especially liked the idea when I was 40 weeks pregnant and slowly going insane waiting for baby! Here is a wee project I did while on baby watch! 

This project is to make a soft and bebe friendly fabric ball. I looked at a few tutorials on Pinterest, and liked some but didn't really get the small details. So I used a template from this site, and then just went with what I thought made sense. 

Here is my version of what to do:

You will need 6 wee oval/lens shaped bits of fabric. You could do this with scrap fabric or fat quarter pieces. Obviously it's best if the fabric coordinates, just so it looks nice! These ones Rob chose, and I think they look really good together! Plus they are nice basic contrasting colors which are great for babies eyesight development.

To start chose your desired size, chosen fabrics, and just to be tidy, give them a wee iron. 

Fold your fabric over the width of one template.

Pin your template to your fabric. That way you don't have to cut out it out twice. 

See!

Do this for each fabric.

Here's what you should have at the end of the pinning and cutting.

Pin your first two panels together.

If you have a fabric with a pattern, make sure you have the top side facing in when pinning and stitching each panel. And keep the direction consistent if it is different in one direction to another.

Stitch these together.

Next pin the third color/pattern panel To your first two. Again, pin the outside faces facing each other.

Stitch along this new seam.

When you are done with this, you should be able to fold it out into a half ball or bowl shaped object.

At this point you can either keep attaching each panel and stitching, or you can repeat the previous steps so you have two set of three panels stitched together.

I chose to stitch each panel on one at a time. I'm going to try and do this again  and see if there is a better way of doing it.

Either way, when you do the last seam - either the connecting the two sets of three panels, or, attaching the last panel and closing the ball - when sure you leave a half inch - inch gap to turn the ball out and stuff. 

After the turning out process the material was super wrinkled, so I did another iron to smooth it out. Fiddly but I think worth it. 

Stuff your wee bally. And pop a couple of jingle bells in the middle. 

Make sure you fill the ball with enough fluff. I wish I had put a bit more in before stitching it up, but I'm happy with it. 

Stitch up the wee stuffing hole.. And enjoy! 

This was only my first attempt, and while I used a template for the panel shapes, I did the actual ball without instructions. So, I think it went quite well considering. I saw these in a gift store in Leederville last week for $40 each. While it was a little fiddly at times, it wasn't $40 of fiddly. So yeah, definitely worth a try! Give it a go and see what you think! I would love to hear how you go! 

These would make a neat gift as part of a bridal shower hamper, or made personalised for bebes. I'm certainly going to improve my process and make them for some bebes I know! 

My next attempt will be a smoother attaching job, attaching some taggies, and maybe trying some different sizes! 

DIY Fabric Garland

Here is a simple and gorgeous DIY that I helped Steph make for her wedding. We made long garlands for her day, and Rob and I had spiral ones for our day. Either way they are easy to make, and make such a beautiful statement. They can be personalized to your wedding or party colors and you can make them for a bargain, or you can splash out and they will cost a little more.

Like I said, these were for a wedding, but you could use them at a baby shower, hens night, birthday party, or truth be told, I just want one for above my head board of my bed!

Here is what we used,

A couple of yards of 6 different fabrics. Three accent colors from their wedding color scheme, a crepe chiffon, creme lace and white embroidered cotton.

Base for the garland, we used a heavy duty twine (see notes below for alternatives).

Here is what we did,

Cut fabric into strips of varying thickness, the thickest were one inch across, the skinniest were half and an inch. 

The fabric was one yard in width, and I cut it lengthways. 

When you have a pile of each colored fabric, start by deciding if you want a pattern or just a whimsical mix. 

One color at a time, I tied the fabric strips along the twine, mixing them along the length of the garland. To make a longer strand you can tie the strip at one end, and to make a fuller looking and shorter garland you can tie them at the center.

The lace strips have a sweet vintage feel while the chiffon sparkled in the light.  

Options - 

Now, Steph bought her fabrics and splashed out. They were stunning colors, and a beautiful lace. We did another set with ribbons too. If you wanted to go that route, the advantages are that you can get the exact colors you want, and you can get the exact amount you want. The ribbon one needs a lot of spools to fill in the garland significantly so can get really pricey fast. 

If you want to get a bargain, I suggest you try looking at second hand and thrift stores for fabric scraps, sheets and old linen. Or, I had great success looking through the scrap and clearance bin at Spotlight (Aus, NZ), in the US you could try Joanne's, Michael's or Hobby Lobby. 

You can change the length, fullness, and shape of these garlands. For spiral ones, which hang in a large circle, I used a dog frisbee (odd I know), but it was basically a large plastic ring. For Stephs day we used heavy duty twine so they could be hung from trees and tables.