Just after Christmas my brother and his wife had a beautiful little girl called Inara. She wasn’t due till February, so she was the picture of teeny tiny pocket sized perfection. I wanted to make her a little picture with her name on it, so I thought I would applique something as I enjoyed making the photo-applique so much. Here’s what I made…
You will need:
- Printed image for template
- background fabric (big enough to fit your selected frame)
- fabric scraps for the applique
- fusible interfacing
1. Begin by printing an image of an elephant and baby to act as the template for your applique (I used this one). I amended the image a bit so that the mummy could hold a flag with my little neice’s name on it. Draw on the name now then cut out the templates.
2. Select fabric for the background and applique pieces (I cut pieces for the elephant, calf, flag, text, flagpole and balloon). Iron on fusible interfacing to strengthen pieces and reduce the amount of fray.
3. Place the first applique fabric pieces onto the backing fabric and pin the template on top. Sew all the way around the template (it doesn’t matter if you sew over the paper a little).
4. Remover the paper, then snip around the applique. Sew the calf on in the same way.
5. For the flag, sew the main piece on as above then place the text fabric over the top and sew over the text. Tear the paper away and snip around the letters.
6. Sew on the flagpole and a little balloon (I was quite pleased I added the balloon as the back of the baby elephant does look like he is floating a smidge…!), then hand sew a french knot for each elephant’s eye.
As a last little touch I sewed on my neice’s date of birth onto the bottom of the fabric. Press and frame!
Tia xx
Little Button Diaries 