A pillow case for Marian and a first-day-of-school outfit for Felix

I did some more sewing with Marieke last week. It was her idea, to sew something for her cousin, Marian, who turned 6. So we got out the fabric stash and made a big mess, and Marieke decided to make a pillow case, using mostly fabric I bought on Spoonflower, adding in some Backyard Baby by Michael Miller, which was a perfect match in colors and theme and Acorn Trail by Taegan White for the backing.

Don't you agree the fabrics look perfect together.

I really don't have a huge collection of fabrics, and really very little designer fabric just lying around, so we were lucky to find everything in stock. Or maybe my taste in fabric is pretty constant, so things are bound to go together more or less.

With stuffing.

Marieke pieced the top, using the interfacing method of joining squares (or rectangles, in this case), and I did the finishing. I didn't have a matching zipper, so I did a simple envelope in the back. I'm thinking I should order some labels for Marieke to mark her sewing projects, like I do.

My tiny label, for a finishing touch.

The back makes for pretty wrapping, tied with some left-over bias tape.

The birthday girl didn't have a lot to say about this present, she was too busy unwrapping the next one and welcoming new guests, but her mother was charmed. The pillow goes perfectly with the woodland theme of Marian's bedroom, and it's in the same color scheme.

It wouldn't look bad in our sofa, either.

Although my stash is by no means huge, I'm still imposing a temporary no-new-fabric rule on myself, because my cupboard is full of really pretty fabric. And of course there's always more pretty fabric in stores and online, but it would be a waste to just hang on to all the pretty stuff in my cupboard and not experience the joy (and slight dread) of cutting into a cute fabric and making something lovely which becomes a joy for me to give and someone else to use. Plus, I have quite a few novelty fabrics, which my kids love now, but probably won't in 10 years time!

Simple quilting in straight lines.

Still, I did buy some new fabric in 2016. I saw this bunny fabric in a store I almost never pass, and just had to buy it for Felix, since he's always singing 'Ooooh, konijneneten!'. I bought just half a meter and made a little shirt that very same weekend. So it only added a few scraps to my stash. I then cut up some old pants of mine to make a matching pair of trousers.

Ready for first day

I bought these the first winter after Felix was born, took them in a few cm for the second winter, but found that I can't take them in any more to wear them this season. But the fabric was far from worn, so this way I found a new use for them. I call it 'eco-sewing'!