Monday, March 22, 2010

Princess and the Pea Napping/Sleeping Bag

Kate,

A few weeks back I blogged about the Princess and the Pea sleeping bag I wanted to make here. Well I did it! It took a few long hours at night and a few mishaps along the way, but it's completed. And I personally love it. V hasn't woken up yet to see the fabulous work, but I know she'll be excited since she's been talking about it all week.

Just for a refresher, this was the inspiration for the Princess and the Pea theme http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/05/princess-pea-blanket.html and I was inspired to make it look similar to the Pottery Barn Kids sleeping bags. And this was sort of the tutorial I followed, except I made mine much larger, following the dimensions of the Pottery Barn Kids bags http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/08/sleeping-bag-tutorial-so-fun.html.

The project started with the purchase of a honey bun, which is a just a roll of 40 - 1.5" fabric pieces. 40 is the perfect number to represent the 20 mattresses and 20 quilts from the Princess and the Pea story. I got a great deal buying it off ebay. I used the Moda Me & My Sister Clementine honey bun fabric. I wanted bright, fun colors for my little girl. My favorite part was having a girls day out last weekend with just V. We went to the fabric store and she helped pick up the purple polka dot outside fabric and the purple and white gingham flannel fabric for the inside of the sleeping bag.

So with G gone all week, I spent the evenings piecing it together. Sewing the 40 strips took FOREVER! I thought it would be quick, but with the pinning, ironing and sewing, it took almost 4 hours to just sew the strips together. I'm definately glad I opted to buy the honey bun with precut fabric, if I had to cut all that fabric, I can't imagine how long it would have been. Then I used old scraps of fabric to make the princess. It took me a few tries because in my delirious state, I ironed the face applique on TWICE (yes, twice!) with the wonder-under sticking up. So rather than adhering to the fabric, it adhered to my iron. And then it took another night just to get the applique sewed on. I had to keep switching thread colors, rethreading bobbins and readjusting the settings on the sewing machine.

But in last night I completed it. I made the sandwich of the front, back and batting and added a strap. The 2 layers of high-loft batting and the fabric made for a hard sew, but my machine made it! It's time to rest my poor machine for a bit.

So here it is.....

Princess and the Pea sleeping bag/nap sack.
The princess applique!
The pea button!















Now, here's to hoping she uses it for quiet/nap time. And maybe even take a little nap!

I'm inspired to keep making blankets or projects from storytime. They're just so darn adorable.

Laura

1 comment:

  1. oh my! this is so adorable. nice work with straps too!

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