Last week was my niece’s birthday. She is now 2. It was fun to sew her some gifts. It changed from doing quilts which is what I sew the most lately. It was also fun to use some of the fabrics I got from Karen at My Fabric Spot, a Canadian-based online shop . She had sent a fat quarter bundle when she opened her shop back in October. I received a FQ of the different prints in the Sunset colorway from The Birds & the Bees collection by Tula Pink (see post).

For my niece’s gifts, I used the red, aqua and brown prints. I’ll keep the yellow, orange and pink prints for a quilt I have in mind. I made 3 gifts. I used some linen to go with the prints and also a home decor weight fabric. It is the Pine print in Stone from Joel Dewberry’s Ginseng collection.

The first project I did was an art smock. My niece is at an age where she can start making more crafts. So, I thought it was a good idea. I used a pattern from the book Bend the Rules by Amy Karol. I fussy cut one of the prints to make a double pocket on the front.

Then, I made an open-wide pouch which I filled with Crayola washable markers. I followed the great tutorial by Anna at NoodleHead. Here is pictures of both sides and opened.

I wanted to embroidery her name on it. I didn’t have time to do it by hand so I decided  to use the letters on my sewing machine. However, as I was doing it I didn’t think of how much of the sides would end-up being at the bottom of the bag after clipping the corners to make the box shape. So, the name end-up being really close to the bottom.

The last project I did is also based on a tutorial by Anna at NoodleHead. I did her child messenger bag. But instead of doing pintucks on the flap, I used prints from The Birds and the Bees again. I also used one for the lining. I think this is the gift my niece was the most happy about.

The tutorials by Anna at Noodlehead are very clear. It’s been a while I’ve been wanting to try one of them. Next, I’ll try one of her bag patterns, either the Sidekick Tote Pattern or the 241 Tote Pattern. As I was looking for some patterns/tutorials for an art smock, I saw a few made using the pattern from Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson from Oliver + S. It is nice because it has some sleeves. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the book. But, I ordered it as I thought it had a great variety of projects to sew for kids. I just got it at the end of last week. I can’t wait to try one of them. Both my sons already requested a few, one of which is the bear carrier. Cool!