Although Alison's back-tack package is not yet in her hands (it's waiting for her at the post office), I figured I shouldn't wait too long without posting what I made. I'll share the things I made for her, but I'll keep the treats a surprise so that there's a bit of mystery remaining! As I mentioned in the sneak peek post, Alison suggested we do things a bit differently - she asked that I put together materials for her to create craft bags for both Max (her monster) and Brynne (my monster) that might incorporate some of their artwork in some way. I couldn't stand by and have her do all the work, so I made some coordinating pieces that will hopefully work in concert with the craft bag idea.
If you didn't figure it out from the sneak peek, the theme (which I went a little nuts with!) was robots. I already knew that Max was into cars and trucks and stuff like that, so I hoped that he might also like robots. And, I really did like the parallels between the creative process and robots in general... after all, can't anyone patch together a robot from a colander, some coffee cans, tinfoil, and some wire?!?
(*huge* apologies for the lighting/color in these photos - we had nothing but dreary, dark days when I was taking these...) These are the sewn items: a smock for Max to wear while creating, a zipper pouch to hold crayons, and a mini-quilt to wrap around other crafty goodness. My overall concept was to make items that looked as if they might have been made by a child - embracing the hand-made look and not going for the perfection of manufactured pieces (yeah, that takes the pressure off!). Here are some details:
The smock is a very simple pattern I found in this Japanese craft book. The book included full-size patterns that I traced onto tracing paper and went from there. It was very simple to do, and I designed it so that it should fit Max for a while as he grows. Basic elastic at the neck and wrists makes it easy to pull on and off, and I added Winky & Dutch decorative robot buttons on the patch pockets.
Here is the outside of the mini quilt. The idea behind this was a cute little reversible patchwork square with ties from this Japanese craft book. I decided to make it into a mini quilt just for fun. The ties are the same fabric as the binding, and I used free-motion quilting in a funky asterisk design taken from the fabric. Here is a close-up showing the quilting (I used the same silver metallic thread from my Halloween quilt):
and here is the opposite side:
I used some great orange wool felt and cut out a gear shape, then free-motion stitched the word "Create" in the center. I used the same orange felt as little rounds at the end of each tie.
Here is the little zipper pouch made using Thimble's outstanding tutorial.
Again, I used wool felt and cut a freehand wrench, and then free-motion stitched the word "Crayons" before I appliqued it to the front piece of the pouch.
Lastly, I bought a little metal lunch box and made a custom sticker (using a scan of the robot fabric) for Max:
As Alison will soon see, this little box is crammed full of craft supplies, suitable for a creative toddler!
As for the bag supplies, I sent coordinating fabrics that Alison can use (if she's not already overwhelmed by all these robots!) if she'd like, or she can go with something else alltogether. Goodies and treats are also inside, for Alison and Max alike. Here's hoping they both love it!
