Tuesday, March 27, 2007

You know what they say about big pillows...

...they make up for faraway godparents. Or so I hear, anyway.


My dear little goddaughter, who lives a state away with one of my best friends (her mom, obv.), is about to celebrate her #1 birthday. That is big news in baby land, to be sure. And since I can't be there in person, I'm sending the most enormous play pillow to ever walk the earth, in my place.

This pattern was an impulse purchase during a previous Amy Butler pattern spend-a-thon last summer when I was feeling shoppy AND guilty - two states of mind that don't ever belong in the same room together with my credit card. I made one of the patterns right away and wore it right out for a summertime bbq, but this pattern got tucked into my craft binder, so lovingly gifted to me by my good friend Donk, and didn't see the light of day again.

Until last Sunday. When I was suddenly overwhelmed with a stifling wave of guilt for only having a boring savings bond and birthday card to send off for the wee child's birthday.

"I must make something!" I said to no one in particular, and then made for the craft binder with a hungry Fat Rocket in tow.

The rest of the day is pretty much history - it involved a few hours feeling up the cotton prints at the fabric store (while wearing my iPod, I might add. WHY is the music always so bad in there?), about an hour waiting for the five hundred year old woman at the fabric counter to cut my fabric down to size and a good solid afternoon/early evening spent dicing up petals, wrestling with moody Velcro and attempting to tame the circus attraction that my pillow was rapidly becoming.

However ridiculous I might have looked trying to pull this enormous creation through the suddenly miniscule foot of my sewing machine, it was all worth it when it emerged as a Big Nap Pillow that looked as much like the photo on the pattern as I could have hoped. In fact, I'm now vividly aware of how similar mine is to the pattern and am mildly ashamed of my lack of creativity when choosing fabric.

Oh well, what do you want for a handcrafted gift at the 11th hour? See. You know.

With the pillow finished to my satisfaction, the significant job that remained was that of wrapping The Pillow Beast.

Obviously I don't have wrapping paper enough to cover it's acreage. Nor do I have a box the size of a bathtub. I don't even have the unnecessarily large bag from my last trip to Bed Bath and Beyond (Do these people even realize how stupid they look putting two hand towels into a bag big enough for a baby elephant?).

What to do?

Why bust out the craft paper and ALL THE RIBBON, of course. Half a roll of craft paper and a spool of pink gingham later and the Biggest Nap pillow is safely wrapped and ready for shipping. Which, thankfully, I have the help of Bubba to acheive. I can safely say that this is the largest thing I've ever sewn and definitely the most awkward hot air balloon I've ever attempted to wrap.

7 comments:

  1. Very Cool -- What a great present for a 1 yr old!

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  2. I want that and I am in my twenties! If I give you my address and ask pretty please???

    (stupid october birthday...)

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  3. Hellooo. I came here via Make it Snappy. You are sooo funny and we have the same favourite film. That seals it - I'm staying.

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  4. It looks awesome. Well done.

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  5. Great job on the pillow - what a nice gift! How difficult was the Cabo Halter? Could a beginner do it? Love this line: "shoppy AND guilty - two states of mind that don't ever belong in the same room together with my credit card". Ha ha. Boy, can I relate!

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  6. I love your fabric choices! And that pillow came out great. I wonder if I made a couple of these in African prints if I could use them for floor pillows in my living room...
    You've got me thinking!
    And I can only imagine you trying to wrap that sucker. HEE HEE!
    Baby E is lucky to have you Fin.

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  7. Thanks Thimbleanna - this was my attempt at pleasing a child, since I haven't the foggiest what's appropriate for a 1 year old. Thankfully the child on the cover of pattern looked vaguely like the goddaughter, so I was saved ;)

    Beckie - You're too nice! Honestly, this was pretty easy, just cumbersome.

    Kirsty - I'm curious, which film? Although, I love all of them equally ;)

    Tinker - Thanks man! I'm very proud of that BIG thing.

    Viiv - Ok, the halter wasn't too hard - but I'm an anal retentive freak so the first round of any pattern usually takes me forever since I can't always "see what they mean" in the pattern. Second time around should be a snap though. And I'd recommend using a nice mid to heavy weight cotton. It made the final product more substantial. I think a patient beginner could definitely hack this. Frankly, I'm something of a beginner myself and I barely sweared while sewing it ;)

    AK - Dude. Me wrapping this thing was a scene in itself. Bubba was threatening to take all kinds of ridiculous photos. You know...big african floor pillows would be cool...I like it!

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[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.