cricket

This summer we met Cricket, the baby giraffe born at the Denver Zoo. Is she not the sweetest thing ever? Owen just loved her, and decided to draw a picture of her, which I adored so much that I embroidered it onto a new pillowcase for his toddler-sized pillow.

It was a great personalized project and here's a brief description how I did it:

* Using the existing pillowcase as my template, I found a super soft hemp/organic fabric at my favorite local craft boutique

* Cut two pieces for each side of the pillowcase and chose chocolate brown (one of my very favorite colors) embroidery thread

* Drew the artwork onto one of the right sides of the fabric (I first tried to use carbon paper to trace the design onto the fabric but the material was a bit too stretchy and didn't work so well. Instead I free-handed his drawing using a water-soluble pen)

* Placed the drawing in an embroidery hoop and embroidered the design onto one side

* Hemmed the raw edges and sewed the two pieces together (right sides together) around three sides

* Stuffed the pillow form inside and voila!

I was so excited it turned out just the way I envisioned ~ cozy, simple and most of all, something Owen loves. Giraffes have now been declared one of our family's favorite animals!

p.s. Thank you so very much to ohdeedoh (one of my very favorite blogs) for posting this project. I'm truly honored!