Baby Shower Gift - Elephants

So I started working at a new job (which I must tell you all about at another time) and within a week was invited to a surprise baby shower for a co-worker.  I hadn't met her at the time, but knew that I would rather make something than buy something.  The mom-to-be for a second time, knew she was having a girl but was worried about the possibility of the tech being wrong on the gender.  So I planned to make a gender neutral gift. you know, just in case.

While I was in JoAnn's searching for Janet's gift for her bridal shower (yup gotta post about that one too) I saw this absolutely adorable fabric that I immediately knew I had to use for my co-workers gifts.

It was different colored lions.

I was in love.  I didn't buy it initially because I was on a time crunch to get Janet's stuff done and could not afford the distraction of cutie little lions.

So Jon and I made a trip to JoAnn's a week later to buy the baby shower fabrics.  And while I was intent on using the lions, Jon found the same fabric but with elephants!  They were super cute too!  Then the shelf the lion fabric rested on was broken and we ended up finding another fabric with monkeys!!!  Decision.   Overload.

After much deliberating the monkeys were out because their size would not work well with my "vision" of the end result.  The lions would have been perfect for my "vision" but Jon convinced me they weren't girl friendly enough to be a gender neutral fabric.

I got home and got straight to work on my plan.

I wanted the elephants to be outlined in embroidery of the same color.  A little texture and some fanciness at the same time.  With that done I went ahead and backed it with light green minky fabric.

Turned the whole thing into a taggy blanket and part 1 of 3 was done!

And it was late and I got lazy so rather than hand sewing the opening closed, I machine sewed it.  I have to say you can hardly even tell I did that!  I may end up getting lazy more often...

The last two parts I wanted to make were the ribbon outlined burp clothes I usually make.  I had found ribbon that matched the colors of the elephant fabric perfectly.  (Sorry no close up).

I have to also comment that the back of the burp clothes were perfect.  No random colored blob of "oh crap the sewing machine went stupid and I didn't realize it until I was done" thread!

I was very pleased with how well they looked together.  The mom-to-be was actually surprised by the baby shower and mentioned having never received a hand made gift like mine before.

All in all, a success.

I have several more posts planned (Julie I am going to get it together!) and hope to get them up soon.