Sewing for Alastair’s upcoming second birthday party is such fun. I’ve only just begun and I am glad to have another week to sew for this gala affair.
A few of the “boy” teepee goodie bag favors are sewn up and I am working on the girl version in more feminine colors.
As usual, a simple little project turned into something more time consuming. I chose the pillow ticking fabric because it reminds me of traditional engineer bib overalls, worn by little guys (and train engineers) for ages. Until he was six, our son had a new pair every year because he wore them out as he explored every inch of our three acres, climbing trees and digging “forts” under the cascading bridal wreath spirea by the clothesline. It makes me grin every time I see Alastair wearing this same garb, 35 years later.
For the festivities, Alastair will be wearing his overalls along with a matching cap, both of which I plan to embroider with “Amtrak.” There is also a red bandana to tie around his neck, but we’re not sure he is going to be enthusiastic about that.
The train is from the Bit of Stitch Petite Baby Borders collection. This is a very sweet set and one of the few train designs that were small enough to work on the bag. It took a good bit of fiddling with the design in BuzzEdit2 in order to get the train to turn and chug up the zipper. One car was copied then pasted and inserted into the design at an angle. The trains are all colored differently. I get bored doing a design several times exactly the same way. It also will make a more interesting display when the bags are grouped on the table for the children to select one.
The bags became more complicated when I decided that it would be neat to place the train directly on a stripe which would be butted up precisely to the zipper teeth. Well, that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, but I spent a lot of time trying to make it bend to my will. As I am using several different sizes and styles of zippers from my extensive and necessary zipper stash, it just take too long to get the placement exact. As so often happens, that time consuming effect was for my personal satisfaction and would likely have been wasted on the little recipients. They will be focused on the candies inside.
The E-vite, sent out by his parents, dubbed the party a Two-toot event, which I thought was cute. So I am using my beloved button machine from www.hopeyoder.com to make up a few key chains for the adults and some ponytail buttons for a few of the older girls.
The tiny engine is from the Miniature Travel and Transportation Pack by Embroidery Library www.emblibrary.com.
As there will be a host of adoring aunties and neighbors as well as his paternal grandmother and one great grandmother in attendance, I plan to embroider dishtowels for them. I think it’s nice to send party-goers home with a remembrance of the event.
It’s hard to believe that Alastair is already two years old. Because they grow up so quickly, we want to enjoy every birthday, celebrate every event and cherish every holiday with our little guy and our other two grandchildren. Already we’ve visited the train station several times to watch the arrivals and departures. In the next week or two, we plan to take all three on an Amtrak train ride to the next town. What a happy time of life this is!
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