Wee Wonderfuls Sleepover Pals

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had a lovely holiday period with your loved ones.  I'm popping in today to share this little project I made last week.

I purchased the Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang some time ago when it was newly published and as yet haven't had a chance to make anything from it.  Finally the opportunity arose and I made my favourite project in the book - the 'Sleepover Pals', sewed quickly (and hopefully well!) for one of my beautiful nieces who turns 2 today (Happy Birthday lovely girl xx).

Aren't they cute?  I thought so too the moment I spotted them. I just love the way Hillary has made them each unique with their different hairstyles, the sweet little buns just got me right away.   The Sleepover Pals pattern includes dolls, and also the instructions for making the little sleeping bag that rolls up to make these little friends very portable.  I used stash fabric scraps, and though the pattern calls for ready made quilted fabric, I substituted it by quilting a piece of vintage sheet with some flannel to give a quilty soft kind of feel.

 Sleepover Pals weren't difficult to complete, but in my usual style, late on Friday night,  hours before the Saturday brunch party I realised there was a LOT of handsewing in this.  If you make them just give yourself a fair bit of time to sew every bun, arm and body by hand (not to mention the embroidered faces and any trim that you decide to use).  These babies were nearly armless I can tell you (the husband assures me it wouldn't have mattered, but I wasn't convinced so pressed on into the wee hours with a West Wing re-run marathon...).

I did undertake a few cheater processes - sewing vintage ribbon on by machine instead of handsewing lace collars, and not finishing them with a rounded bottom edge.  My other modification was to change the ribbon tie to a velcro band, so that Miss 2 was able to open and close it herself.  They still turned out nicely I think, and I have heard they are loved already - the most important thing of course!

So, the first project of 2012 is complete.   Now I'm off to look for a nice baby summer top pattern to attempt for V's first birthday - I have 6 days to sew, finish buying gifts, make a cake and plan/shop for a party.  Am I crazy?  Probably.  All pattern suggestions welcome. :)