a Handmade Birthday {+ giveaway winners}

by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 2, 2014

First… the bad news? I didn’t finish the Quiet Book Sew-Along on time. I am not sure if anyone is sewing along? (Not to make anyone feel bad in any way. I’m pretty excited to finish it up and be able to offer a pdf download for the whole thing!) Instead of finishing the Sew-Along, I took the weekend off. It has been a very long time since I “ignored” the blog and it felt amazing to do some home stuff – so, thank you! We did a bunch of family stuff and got some baking done instead. Yum!

If you are sewing along and have need of the last two installments please let me know and I will finish up right away. I want to finish it up, but the last page takes a bit longer than the others and I’m not feeling inspired quite yet. I do have all of the materials, pattern pieces and a bit of the instructions finished, so it will be soon! Promise!

In the meantime, I’ve got tons of fun stuff on the go – a mini version of the Forest Glen Satchel will be sent to testers in the week or so (I hope!). I’ve also got a fun project I worked on with Cloud9 Fabrics (eeeek!) that I’ll share once it comes out on their site. The bark cloth was fun to work with and  the line is a new-and-coming-soon collection called Time Warp from Jessica Jones. I’ve also gotten my Christmas gifts started – but no photos until after the holidays for those!

By way of admin, the winners of the Forest Glen Satchel pattern and the $50 Gift Certificate from Duncan & Kate have been announced on their respective posts for a week or so now. You can follow the links to their posts to see who won. If you have won and haven’t received an email or prize, please let me know and I’ll take care of it right away. Congratulations to Debbie, Katherine, Kelsey and Megan!

The 10% discount from  Duncan & Kate Fabrics is still going! Use the code “THREADRIDINGHOOD10″ to get 10% off your purchase. This discount is valid until December 10th, 2014.

The real reason I started writing this post is because I made a super-cute bag a few weeks ago and wanted to share it! I’ve hung onto the free Tutu Bag pattern from Ric Rac for quite a while now. I don’t remember how I found it, but I knew it would be useful someday. Wouldn’t you know it, a tutu-loving girl came up on our birthday party list. This bag makes such a great handmade gift, and it doesn’t take too long to make, or a lot of fabric – so it’s perfect!

I ended up changing two things from the original bag. I chose to add one handle instead of two. Since I thought it might be easier to carry around that way. I also made the bag substantially smaller from the original – about 130% size instead of 200% as indicated in the pattern. The original bag would be great to carrying gear to ballet class, this one is easier to use for playing. Apparently this was the birthday girl’s favorite gift – hooray!

The girls decided to make their own gifts as well – to go with it. My youngest and I collaborated to make a baby doll blanket using some Ann Kelle – Girlfriends I got from Double Decker Fabric a while ago. It’s quilted with an “A”, for the birthday girls’ first initial. The frog fabric was a Fabricland purchase from a few years ago when I made tote-able towels as a birthday giveaway. (If you click over, just ignore the pre-practice photography!)

My oldest was inspired to write a book for our friend, a dictionary detailing the differences between dresses and tutus. This after hearing that she likes dress-up and tutus, of course! We printed out her text and she drew the pictures. The book is put together with some jewellery findings, washi tape and ribbon – because all good books need ribbon. I’m pretty proud of her for being so inventive!

Thanks for finishing up such a random post! Lots to cover and fun stuff going on. See you again soon! (PS. Don’t forget to enter the Fabric Spark giveaway! You can enter to win 1 of 3 Thread Riding Hood pattern kits, ends Tuesday Dec 2nd!)

Reader Feedback: What projects have you been finishing up lately?