For Charlie

My friend Tish is about to have her second baby - like next Monday I believe. His name is Charlie and I'm sure he is going to be just the cutest, sweetest little thing in the world (taking after his sister Sofia, of course.) Anyway, Tish lives in San Diego and she is decorating Chrlie's room in retro cowboy style. I, of course, wanted to contribute to the decor, so she sent me some fabric and I whipped up a couple of things for him. They are in the mail and hopefully will arrive before Charlie does.

I made a "bunting." So I had no idea that is what these pennant banner things were called. But after much perusing of the world wide web, I found myself very well educated on the various types and construction methods of buntings. Who knew there were so many possibilities or that they were so popular these days? I had seen them in a few magazines and blogs, but it wasn't until my friend Shelley blogged about the one she made for her niece's wedding that I felt truly inspired. Then, my friend Lauren sent me a link for one she found and thought it was a project I might like to try. She was right! When I found out Tish was doing the cowboy theme, I thought this would be perfect. And now that I have a machine does does applique - bingo!

This was a super fun project to put together and I now have mounds of ideas floating in my head for more to do in the future. For this one I used red, denim and cow print for the background and yellow felt letters (which I printed from my computer and cut out and traced on the felt) which I appliqued with yellow thread and finished it with yellow double fold bias tape. I didn't use any interfacing or batting and they seemed to be heavy enough without it. There are definitley a few things I will do different the next time - like appliqueing the letters before sewing the front and backs of the trianlges together. Here are a couple of close-ups:

Since I had some leftover fabric I couldn't resist making one more thing. I asked Tish if she wanted a wall hanging or a decorative pillow. She chose a pillow, so I did this one with denim and red on the front and cow print on the back. It was supposed to be a bit larger, but I had a hard time with my measurements for some reason and kept screwing up until this was the size I was left with. Oh well, still cute. My favorite part is the sheriff's badge with "Deputy Charlie" on it

Now every baby needs a special sofite, right? Leif loved the ones I made for him when he was a baby, so I couldn't resist making one for Charlie. While not in his cowboy theme, I still had a bunch of this cute zoo animal fabric. I put buttery yellow satin on the back and loops of colorful ribbons around the perimeter for him to play with.