Happy 12th Birthday Dot!

It was Dotty Locket's 12th birthday at the weekend and as always we have the customary photos of the three excited Little Lockets waiting impatiently by the pile of presents (looking very lovely on my newly finished Swell quilt) and the lovely ones I get each year of the happy cuddles received.


And once again I nearly killed myself sewing frantically for Dot's birthday - Mr Locket and I ended up having supper the night before at 11.45pm and I felt half dead for the next couple of days but it was definitely worth it. And because I am a pathetic show-off I'm going to bore you with pictures of all the things I made starting with her new school bag - although this was actually the last thing finished and had to be completed while everyone was having breakfast on the morning of her birthday!

This is the Amy Butler patchwork side


and this is the Daisy side - Dot's favourite as it turns out.

Sorry about the bad photo - I just knew I would never get this post written if I kept trying to get a better picture.

It's a standard messenger bag with two large zip pockets and one side pocket for her mobile phone and is my highly simplified variation of Amy Butler's messenger bag pattern.

I also made a matching pencil-case, art pencil roll and wallet


And of course, her matching dress!!!!


I mean everyone wants a dress that matches their pencil case don't they????

Again the photos aren't great because we were on the beach and the wind was really strong and the sun was in hiding - but I like them because they are real photos of my really lovely, almost-grown-up girl.

I really enjoyed making this pattern and will be doing more soon - and I'll try to remember to show you a proper photo of the dress when it is not being whipped around by the wind.

But my favourite present for Dot was the one I designed all by myself! The idea came to me a few weeks ago and with a lot of fiddling around this is what I came up with.........

Mr Walter Pigeon the Owl!


He's a cushion/cuddly toy with a special pocket in the back for a lavender wheat pad that can be warmed in the microwave - and Dot loves him!

Whereas I'm just amazed I got him finished in time as there are 40 individual feathers and I whenever I thought I had enough I kept discovering I needed more!

His body is made with navy velvet so he is extra snuggly - and I already have some other designs lurking around in the back of my mind!

I also quickly stitched a fabric card to match using a free stitchery that had been posted on Sew-Mama-Sew.


But I think Dot's favourite card was from Charlie P

and she was super-delighted with the notecards that I asked Charlie to design for her

(but please be assured that the speech bubble isn't all smudgy and messy in real life - it's just where I blurred out Dot's real name!)

Charlie's new Pigeon Press enterprise is fantastic - the cards are wonderful!

And now I am going to dash off because after 6 lovely weeks of being at home with the children I am off out to the cinema with some friends and if I don't go now I'll be late!

Byeee

Lucy x