For their anniversary, he wanted to give her something with owls and I happened to have run across this pillow just a couple days before and followed the link to the Bad Bird site, which has fabulous embroidery patterns, for free, so I showed F.Y.S. I wasn't sure about him actually making the pillow as this would require learning how to embroider and sew on my machine. Was he up to it? You tell me.
Yep, he did awesome with the embroidery and learned the french knot as well as straight, running, chain and stem stitches. The eyes are filled in with fabric markers, a trick I had learned while making the letter satchel.
After carefully studying (and copying) The Sometimes Crafters' pillow, we worked out the piecework for the fabric based on the pillow size Kyle chose for Julie. As for the sewing, he said he remembered sitting on my lap and pressing the foot pedal for me when he was young, that I told him to press it slowly so the machine didn't go too fast. Hmmm, does that count as prior sewing experience? The pillow top gave him the opportunity to learn basic piecework, which he then top-stitched as each new color was added.
Congratulations F.Y.S., you did it! What a lovely and thoughtful gift.
This is my text message from F.Y.S. after he gave Julie her gift, "she looooooves it." Of course she does because, really, how could she not? How could you not love a gift from your guy when it requires him to learn handwork crafts...just for you?
I do love it :) It is my favorite gift ever!
ReplyDeleteOh my god. That is so cool.
ReplyDeleteI would date him!
Nicola