Handmade - Part Two

You are good guessers....the puppy wasn't mine.  That is the work of Anna Maria Horner - it's available as a download at her site.  I did reduce it significantly to fit on the baby t-shirt.  The rest were mine.

OK, back to the handmade.  Did you wonder what those mysterious gifts in the muslin bags were?  I made all of my nephews softies.  Three got patchwork elephants -the pattern is in Last-Minute Patchwork Gifts and is by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls.

From top to bottom:  for Kenan, for Declan and for Finn.

I loved sewing this pattern and can see myself making more.  It is really straight forward and surprisingly easy to put together.  I used corduroy for the bodies and cotton for the ears and blankets.  I love how the textures and the fabrics are both patchwork.  I wish I would have made the eyes smaller, but I didn't follow the pattern for that part.  Lesson learned.

The other three nephews got robots.  This is also a Wee Wonderfuls pattern.

on the left, for Evan, and on the right, for Ian.

for Miles.

I have made this pattern before and it is easy, too.  There is more sewing involved than there is with the elephants and the embellishing can be simple or very intricate.  I went with simple here.  Miles's robot had his control panel sewn on the machine and I like it just fine although the hand embroidery does show up a bit better.  Also, I had originally planned on making Finn a robot instead of an elephant, but I cut through the seam on one of the robots and had to remake one item.  The elephant was faster so that is what he got.

That's it for the nephews.  There is more handmade to come....I am saving my favorite for last.