Aurora's Animal Adventure

Good Morning Blogland!

Since it's been a while for consistent posts, I have plenty of oldies to share.  Right before we left Florida in April my baby girl was invited to a Birthday Party for a dear friend of hers.  Since we were busy packing and such I asked if we should just buy her something.  Aurora gave me a look of shock and replied, "Mommy, we ALWAYS make presents because then it is special and something no one else has.  It's more awesome that way."  

Duh... what was I thinking.  So I suggested a lap size iSpy Quilt.  I knew we could whip one out fast and Aurora had just finished one for herself a bit ago. I knew she could do most the work without supervision.  

Aurora says:

"No.  I was thinking... like a stuffed animal.  Like... an Elephant!" 

 The mother in me was thinking:

"Seriously...  I am sure that she has enough stuffed animals to create an army."  

The crafter in me was saying:

"Seriously, that sounds like something that requires time, a pattern, and tons of brain power and I will probably be doing most the work."  

Try as I might Aurora was insistent that we make a stuffed elephant.

THANK HEAVENS FOR PINTEREST!

The instant I saw these I knew I had hit the jackpot.  Something simple, that she could do mostly herself and using unique fabrics would make it one of a kind!

After getting the approval of Miss Aurora she promptly raided my fabric stash.  Guess it needed reorganizing anyway for the move right?

I cut out the pieces thinking she could just follow my orders and make the thing, but she wanted to be more hands on than that.  She had me show her right where to cut.  Soon the sewing turned complicated as she followed my inability to simply follow a pattern and started getting creative.  

"Mommy...  I want the trunk really long."

"Mommy... how about we sew a ling right here and then put stuffing in the ears around the edges."

"Mommy!  I want to put a purple bow around the tail!"

"Mommy.  I want the toenails to be small, so I will LET you sew that part because... I hate sewing circles."

Bwahahaha!

Needless to say I was shocked and amazed at her ability to change a pattern.  What was supposed to be a simple follow-my-instructions-and-this-will-go-sorta-quick turned into go-with-it-girly-you-are-on-a-roll!

Here is a picture of her sewing the top closed.  I thought that I should sew it closed because... hand-stitching a ladder stitch can be tricky.  Since it was on the top I THOUGHT it should look nice.  She about fainted when she saw be start the first two stiches.  LOL  

"Mommy!  Show me how to do it!"

Here is a close up of her ladder stitches.  My lesson has been learned.

And here it is!  With fabric I didn't pick, with mismatching eyes because she wanted it that way, with small toenails, long nose, and fluff in the edges.

And the bow for a tail!

So, the only thing I was allowed to touch was the eyes.  She sewed the black buttons, I hot glued the green and blue middles.  I got to help stuff one of the ears.  I was deemed good enough to sew the toenails on.  LOL

It was very hard for me to let this thing go.  I want her to make me one now! 

Here is what I worked on while Aurora made the awesome elephant.  I put crinkle plastic in the feet.  It was a taggy for a friends baby shower!  Not as awesome as the elephant but... still cool.