what i've been working on

This is what I've been working on lately. Another commission, this time from a friend in Ontario. My friend ordered 2 happy birthday banners for her 3 children. She has two boys and a girl and so she wanted one banner in boyish colours and one in girly colours.



The challenge was that the little girl likes bugs and pink and purple. How would I ever find fabrics to suit that?  Enter "Flora and Fauna" by Patty Young!  What a triumph this was for me because not only did I find an amazing sry of fabrics for the banner but I even found it at a reasonable price and at the hated Fabricland of all places!  (Have you noticed yet how much I hate Fabricland?  From what I can gather, I feel about Fabricland the way many people seem to feel about Joanne's in the States.)

The point is, I found great fabrics for the girl that I feel will suit her now but are also sophisticated enough to grow with her.



The boy fabric didn't feel like such a triumph but I am happy none the less. The boys got a bright colour palette and some "manly" fabrics. A plaid, a semi-solid, a blue with little camping line drawings and a faux bois print in green. I went back and forth on wether I liked the fabrics because they didn't seem as special as the girls but I think it works well.

Each flag is 5x7 and double sided so it reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY which ever way you look at it. I made my own 2" double fold bias tape to string up the flags and the total length is just over 11 feet including 24" on each end for tying.

I just have to make up a couple of quick bags to store them in and they can go in the mail. Good thing I'm almost done too becuase 2 of the 3 kids have their birthday next weekend!

I learned two lessons with this project.

1.  I HATE making double fold bias tape and I should have just bought some!  In the end, making my own meant the perfect colour match and saved me about $10 in materials per banner. (Which means that unlike my first commsission I actually made a decent profit!)

2. I should really stop trying to make little lined bags. I get it wrong everytime!  This time I resewed 3 times only to find out I had measured wrong and the banner didn't fit. I guess I have a cute little bag now. Oh well!