The princess and the pea

I was completely inspired by the post in which Soule Mama (www.soulemama.com) showed us the wonderful little princess and the pea mattresses she made for her daughter.  I had not read the book, but picked it up on amazon and figured I would give it to my baby girl as one of her birthday gifts.  I had no idea how much I would love the Princess and the Pea book by Lauren Child!  It is way cooler than I could have imagined and was probably the key to my undoing as I scrambled to make my little princess one of these mattress sets (with only two days until her birthday!)

 

I used some of my delicious Heather Ross fabric for the pocket of the bag and for the body of my princess doll.  I gathered other ramdom pieces of fabric and cut them all to the same size to make 10 little mattresses.  I had intended for the book to fit in the bag as well, but the mattresses were a bit larger once they were filled with some batting. 

 

I freehanded a drawing onto a paper bag to use as a pattern for the princess.  I loved the way her hair came out!  What I really liked about this whole project was that the less perfect it was, the more character it added!  It really kept in line with the unique illustrations in Lauren Child's book.  My advice to myself through this was to keep it simple and it came out really well!

  

My final touch was to add a small, felted "pea" to the arm of the princess and another lager felted "pea" was sewn to a bow and was safety pinned to the side of the tote bag.  I purchased these in a craft store...this mama has to sleep sometime!   

Again, this was a really good project, even for someone just starting out.  I could have done the whole thing by hand instead of using the machine...although it may have taken a little longer.  My little one loves this new toy!  It is such a wonderful feeling to give the ones I love gifts that were handmade.  I am really glad that I was able to pull it off in time for her special day...we've been having a great time playing with it and reading ever since! 

Comments

[katie]

Just had to take a peek at your princess and pea project. What a lovely gift for your daughter -- and you've given her the gift of time, too, as you play and read together. Flew here via Soulemama. Cheers!

[http://mysweetbabu.typepad.com]

Thanks for reading and posting!
I agree with you, any toy that I can buy or make that facilitates more play time/learning time with my little ones gets a thumbs up in my book!

You're welcome to come by and peek anytime! Hope you will again soon!
alison

[SouleMama]

Oh! It came out so sweetly! I love it!