“Deer” Niece’s Birthday {Project Sew It}

For the final Project Sew it of the year, sort of splurged.  The recipient it my youngest niece, and the only little girl I ever get to sew for! 

There’s something inspirational going on this year.  Celina of Petit a Petit and Family created Project Sew It.  You can read all about it here, but the basic premise is to sew one thing every month.  I’m putting my own twist on it by sewing one thing for each of my nieces and nephews for their birthdays this year.  It won’t end up being once per month, and sometimes it’ll be more than once per month, but it’s my goal!  I sew so much for my kids, that I want to share the sewing love.

I sewed some tiny girl things for her when she was born, but now that it was her birthday and she’s mobile it was time for some bigger things.  Not like that was going to be a hardship…

I started with the free Girl’s Peplum Top pattern by Sew Much Ado.  This pattern is free only for size 18 months, which was exactly what my niece needed.  This pattern is also available for purchase from Sew Much Ado in larger sizes.  The reason I chose this pattern was for the ease of movement for a crawling, active, mobile child.  A dress or skirt would get in the way, but a peplum is perfectly girly solution.  For the fabric, I used Girl Charlee’s fawn silhouette fabric (currently available in different colors.)  The only change I made to the pattern was to split the peplum part of the top into 2 pieces so the little deer would be right side up on both sides of the top.

A peplum can’t be worn by itself, so a pair of leggings was in order.  The Lollipop Leggings pattern affiliate link (without the skirt this time!)  using the button tab option turned out to be a perfect match.  I used some fabric I’d found at JoAnn’s because it matched perfectly.  As I was searching for the perfect buttons in my rather small button stash, nothing was grabbing me.  Then I remembered my bead stash which is insanely huge.  Since these buttons are non functional, beads worked here.  I just happened to have some with darling little animals on them.

The final piece in my final Project Sew It creation for the year wasn’t necessary, but the star of the show, of course!  I’m referring to the Evergreen bonnet by Twig & Tale.  I had to use the free Reindeer Add On to keep the deer theme going of course.  For the fabrics, I used a brown flannel for the outside, and the softest white fleece I could find (leftover from this canvas jacket project) for the inside.  Then there was the perfect ribbon in my stash, so this whole bonnet was free to make, how could I not?  I could just picture my niece in it!  And then my sister-in-law sent me photos and I was blown away.

It was even better than I could have imagined!  Plus my sister-in-law says it’s the go to hat for her daughter for the cold weather this winter.  It covers her ears better than any other hat they have, and stays in place.

I’m so delighted to have completed my goal of sewing something for each of my nieces and nephews this year through the Project Sew It inspirational challenge.  They’ve just announced their challenge for 2017, and I’ve declared myself in!