22 October 2011

Scrappy Fabric Letters

I got the inspiration for these babies on Pinterest, of course. I have a friend that is pregnant with a five year old and a three year old. She's pretty sick, so I'm sending her a package to get her through these initial yucky days. I wanted to add something for the boys to play with, and these fit the bill. I thought they would be great because the younger one can learn the letters and the older one could practice sounds, sorting colors, matching, etc.

I printed off letters. I used Helvitica size 370 and the letters ended up being about 4" tall. Cut out the letters. 

Trace them onto fabric (Kelli, you could use felt). I used the Mark-B-Gone side of this pen. I think you can find them at Wal-Mart. If you craft or sew with fabric at all, it's a great investment. The purple side disappears and the blue side comes of with a dab of water. You could use an iron on embroidery pencil too.

Make tons of mini fabric-batting sandwiches. They definitely don't need to be precise. I loved using up my scraps for this.

Then pin and sew away. These went super fast. I got them done in less than an hour. Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end. Ease around the curves slowly. I used my walking foot for this, just because I thought it fed the fabric through better, but you could use a normal foot too. 

Let your baby roll in fabric scraps while you sew.

Cut the edges with pinking shears, and you're done. You use those special scissors so the edges don't fray, not just to look pretty... If you can't fit the shears into the small holes (like on the 'A'), just use normal scissors. I dabbed mine with water and threw them into the dryer on low for a few minutes to fluff them up.

And that's it! Totally washable, fun, and pretty simple to put together.




6 comments:

  1. cute mary! How do you think these would work with a magnet glued on them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. stop the madness! you are so talented and i love these...i'm pregnant too...send me a package with these. ha! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Net, I saw a tutorial where you actually just stick the magnet into the fabric sandwich and kind of sew around it. That would work, but you'd have to be a little more careful when you sew.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i love them! letters are so pretty, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOVE this idea Mary! Thank you for sharing! That preggo friend is sure blessed to have such a thoughtful friend as you :) You're awesome.

    ReplyDelete