ABC Book and Some Clothes

Well, I finished a couple more projects.  First, I made a pair of bib overalls and a shirt.  Then, I got into a new project that I haven't done before.  It is an ABC book. It was supposed to be appliqued, but I had just finished doing the major appliqued work on the underwater play mat, so I didn't feel like going through all that process again.  It takes so much time to pick the right material, cut out all the little pieces, then heat bond things into place, and finally zigzag stitch them.  I felt like embroidering again, so that is what I chose to do with the book.  I thought it would take longer to do it, but it took less than two weeks to complete.  It is entirely of felt, except for the cover.  I found some perfect cotton print with ABC's all over it which I used for the cover.  I sewed two pages together with piping in between to make a nice border and to cover up the backs of the embroidery work.  I used quilt binding to go around the cover and the first and last page of the book.  My machine was giving me a little problem with button holes that I put in the middle of the pages to give a place to lace the book together and with the zigzagging around the cover.  I'm a little disappointed about how they look, but I am happy with the book, itself.

This is the complete outfit.  It looks a little wide, but it is the hanger that makes it look that way.

The shirt is a very soft stretch knit material.  Hard to sew, but so soft. Getting the stripes lined up was a little bit of a challenge with this shirt, too.  It isn't perfect, but it is lined up close enough to look good.

The overalls without the shirt. Here, they look a little slimmer.

I know sports things don't usually go with overalls, but these buttons are the best in my stash that went together.  The straps were supposed to have buckles, but I didn't have any on hand and I wanted to finish them without going shopping again.

The cover of the ABC book.

The bear shows up better in the book than it does in this shot of it.

The eyes on these two took more effort, but it gave something highlighted for the animals.

Again, the envelope is lighter in the picture than in reality.

If you look close enough, you can barely see a hand for the H. The giraffe is easy enough to see, but took a lot of time to do.

I had to laugh when Lexi read this page. She said, "J, pants." She usually says the sound of the letter which should have been for J, but she looked a little confused because pants didn't sound the way J sounds. She liked jeans better.

I wasn't sure how to do the lion's mane at first, but I tried doing the long lines like this and I think it looks great.

This is the center page of the book and I think it looks fine with its simple lines.

I probably should have chosen a lighter color to do the Q in, but it does look better in the book.

I was planning on stitching USA on the rocket in red, white, and blue, but I sewed it together before I remembered to do it.

My tree got cut off and so I had to adjust the side.  I had to trim some of the pages because as the book got thicker, the inner pages needed to be smaller than the outer ones so they would not stick out when the book was closed.  I didn't realize when I was trimming this page that I was actually cutting off the edge of the tree. That is why it has a little dip in the right side of it.

Another miscue for Lexi.  This time she said, "V, flowers."  That is understandable because I needed to put something in the vase. I tried not to make the flowers more noticeable than the vase, but I guess I didn't succeed for a five year old.

I tried to use all the colors of the rainbow in the xylophone page, so that is why the one yellow key doesn't show up very well. All the other things look okay.

This is the only page with something sewn on instead of embroidered on.  I had this perfect little zipper that fit so well, that I decided it would be much easier to use than to embroider a zipper.

I really do think that I am finally finished with all the things for this baby.