MyLittleMan: One-Eyed Monster...

It's been a bit stressful at work lately and I've been enjoying doing a little bit of crafting to take my mind off things. I saw a bib tutorial which I thought seemed easy enough to follow (please remember my skill level!) at sew funky.. (Have a look here - http://sew-funky.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/tutorial-make-bib.html ) and thought I would give it a go! I had my little man in mind as my model, and thought I would try and create a special bib for him to wear on his 1st Birthday.

Design - I was thinking of a few things as my theme for a boys first birthday...dinosaurs, trains, teddy bears, robots etc. and I finally decided on a monster/alien theme as I thought it would be a bit different and it felt imaginative and fun! (I also have a low range of fabric in my stock at the moment so have got to be aware not to make elaborate plans that will find me raiding the piggy bank again!) I thought a friendly monster was the way forward, and I searched the net for some inspiration and found my monster, and then designed the bib around him. Here's the drawn design...

So an alien/monster...standing on a planet surrounded by stars...and very importantly holding a number 1 balloon! Off to work I set...

Creation - I did start doing a step-by-step record...but admittedly I forgot the photo's when I became engrossed with my creation. I firstly drew a bib template...based on a previous bib that my little man used to wear and made it a bit bigger to allow me some room for prayer and swearing as I sewed! I cut out a top layer, base layer, and a lining material for the middle layer.
After some ironing (I NEVER iron but this was quite pleasurable!) I set about cutting out my felt counterparts in order to assemble my friendly monster, planet, stars and balloon. I pinned all pieces in place and then sewed to my hearts content. I decided to hem the planet and straight stitch as I've had a bit of difficulty getting my zig-zag stitch quite right. I hand sewed the balloon string and his smile, and sewed a popper fastening instead of velcro.