LTTSA: Play Town Link Up!

This was definitely the most fun I've had with a sew along project so far! It really surprised me how much I liked fussing over some of the details, which was well worth it. 

I'm really happy that I had to finish this today- Elsie's birthday present is ready almost 2 months early. So unlike me. I made a pretty elaborate gift for Hendrix's first, so I really wanted to do something special for hers too. I still plan on making some type of play mat to go with it, but I don't think that will be quite as much work.

 

I love the round window on this one. I used a blanket stitch on some windows, zig zag on others, and a few rounds of wonky straight stitches on others. (Both wonky and straight? Yes.) The brownstones have a very convenient scrap of text fabric for embellishment, as well as some other street scenes on the backs I didn't take a picture of. The wood grain is a Joel Dewberry Aviary home dec fabric and the other brownstone is Essex linen in black. 

The houses are Central Park by Kate Spain (the yellow), some seersucker from Sewn, and Alexander Henry Heath. Yes, this bird and car a bit off in proportions :)

So I should have explained earlier about the foam, but I'll share my pointers for anyone who is still working on their project. At Joann Fabrics, they sell upholstery foam in different thicknesses in sheets. In my local Joann, they are in the back by the batting and pillow forms. You need a 4" thick piece, then you can take it to the cutting counter and get them to cut it down to the size you need. The piece I got, shown above, is 1/3 of a yard, which I paid about $13 for with my 40% off coupon. As you can see, I had a lot of it left after cutting out my five buildings, so I probably could have got away with 1/4 yard. I just used one of our steak knives and it wasn't hard to cut. I traced the templates on both sides of the foam so I could always make sure I was cutting straight thru it. In my opinion, it was well worth splurging on the foam over using stuffing. The shape and feel of the houses are great with it. Plus, every other thing I used, I already had on hand, so $13 is pretty good for a birthday present right?

I completed hand stitching the bottoms this morning. You know this isn't my favorite part of any project, but the basting stitches she has you do on the bottom of all the walls really helped. I would have been a mess without those. And I think I'm finally getting the hang of blind stitching after having my mom tutor me about a dozen times. 

Time to share your projects- Remember this month's winner gets a pattern and clothing labels from Figgy's! You have until one week from now, and as always, you can link up a blog post or flickr photo of any project from Little Things To Sew.