Saturday, March 1, 2014

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Last year I found a freebie chart from Kreinik for a Holographic Star Bookmark.  I liked this chart a lot but was kind of overwhelmed at the thought of using all metallic threads.  And as soon as I saw it, an idea popped into my head for this cute star:  a tooth fairy pillow.  One for a sweet little boy I know.

Right away I knew that I wanted a pretty deep blue fabric and after a lot of looking I found just that at Under The Sea Fabrics.  Leslie worked with me and suggested her "Witching Hour" fabric, which is a beautiful mottled dark blue.  Then I decided that the star needed to be a bright yellow and that the chart would have some metallic accents.  This was accomplished with DMC variegated yellow and some gold and silver metallic braid. 
As I used the metallic braid, I found that I had nothing to fear!  A Facebook cross stitch friend suggested that I tie a knot in the eye of the needle to prevent the braid from slipping and weakening.  I also resisted the temptation to use a really long length of thread.  Because that's what I do with floss.  All of this knowledge makes me want to stitch this star exactly as it's shown on the Kreinik website!

Now comes the back.  I chose a bright yellow patterned fabric and then some blue felt to make the all-important pocket.  I surprised myself again while attaching the pocket to the back.  I had originally intended to blanket stitch around the pocket with the variegated floss.  But as I sat at my sewing machine, some of the "fancy stitches" caught my eye.  Had I ever used these?  No.  And just why not?  It was time to break out of my straight stitch and zig-zag stitch comfort zone!  My sewing thread stash yielded a spool in a nice yellow color for this contrasting stitching.
And there you have it - a nice big pocket for a teeny-tiny tooth!  Also, plenty of room for the tooth fairy to add some dollars.  Or cents?  Just how much is a little tooth going for these days? 

9 comments:

  1. Congrats on the adorable finish Cathy.

    Linda

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  2. Cute cute cute. I am right there with you staying with the safe straight stitches and zigzag. Let's make this the year of adventure!

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  3. So cute! I am sure the little boy will love it

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  4. Muy lindo. Es verdad que el hilo metálico asusta, es muy difícil de trabajar. A mí me dieron el truco de poner una hebra de hilo junto con el metálico y así no se anuda ni se corta.
    Saludos desde Chile
    Maru

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  5. What a great design. And well done of breaking out of your comfort zone and learning something new!
    Here in England children get either 50p or £1 for a tooth depending on their parents. Children I know do anyway!
    My son got 50p for the smaller teeth, it's a nice big coin so looks impressive.
    Now he gets £1 for the bigger double teeth. It's a shiny gold coin so a nice treat. At 11 I doubt he believes any more but he's too astute to voice his disbelief in someone who leaves him money LOL

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