Sew Birthday Fun (7 page)

As you continue to stitch the stitches take on a diagonal slant.

There are six of us in my house and with the extended family added, we have at least one birthday a month – that’s a lot of celebrating. Birthdays are a good excuse to bake, decorate and invite friends over to party.

I have a whole cupboard dedicated to making birthday cakes and decorating them, and a drawer full of candles, serviettes, party poppers and paper chains, and that’s not even mentioning the shelf full of bunting. Childhood whizzes by so fast so fill it with lovely memories that your children will take forward into the future to share with children of their own.

This chapter is full of projects to make a child’s birthday very special, from a wall hanging that counts down the sleeps until the birthday boy or girl’s special day, to a party crown and tiara. A birthday stitchery celebrates a traditional birthday tea party and a fabric birthday cake makes a stunning centrepiece whatever your age, whether you be six or 60 plus!

I have made each of my four children a themed cake to celebrate every one of their birthdays, and, as my eldest is now 27 years old, you could say that I am quite an expert on cake design. From treasure chests to trains, clowns to teddy bears, none of my cake designs has given me quite as much pleasure as these fabric ones, which make great portable decorations for a birthday outing. The You will need list gives the fabric requirements for the red check/spot cake, but you can easily change the fabrics to suit the birthday boy or girl.

You will need for one cake

• Fabric 1: 46cm x 46cm (18in x 18in) red check
  
• Fabric 2: 9cm x 65cm (3
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  in x 25
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  in) red spot
  
• Fabric 3: 6.5cm x 48.5cm (2
  ¹
  ⁄
  ₂
  in x 19in) denim
  
• 25.5cm x 25.5cm (10in x 10in) red felt
  
• Small piece of yellow felt
  
• 50cm (20in) wide ric-rac
  
• 50cm (20in) decorative tape
  
• 127.5cm (50in) square wadding (batting)
  
• 7.5cm (3in) hook-and-loop fastener
  
• Polyester stuffing
  

Finished size:
20cm (8in) diameter x 15.5cm (6in) high excluding candles

1. Using a 20cm (8in) dinner plate as a template cut out two circles from fabric 1 and two from the wadding (batting). Cut a 9cm x 63.5cm (3
¹
⁄
₂
in x 25in) strip from the wadding (batting) to match the fabric 2 strip. Spray glue, or tack (baste) if you prefer, your fabric pieces to the wadding (batting) pieces.

2. Decorate the centre of the strip with decorative tape. (Alternatively, use a strip of fabrics 2 or 3 as I have done; there is no need to hem this if you use ric-rac braid to decorate its edges.) To represent the icing, tack (baste) ric-rac along the top and bottom edges of the fabric strip, attaching it to the right side so the raw edges align (see Techniques:
Edging with medium/wide ric-rac braid
) and sewing in place along the tacking (basting) line. Join the short ends of the decorated fabric strip to form a circle and sew with a 6mm (
¹
⁄
₄
in) seam allowance.

3. Fold each circle in half and half again and finger press; open out and mark quarter folds with a pin around the edges. To find the matching quarters of the joined strip, lay it flat on your work surface, fold it in half and finger press; open it out again and mark each quarter with a pin.

4. Match up the pins on the circular strip to the pins on the circles, joining the pieces with right sides facing; pin and tack (baste), then sew together with a 6mm (
¹
⁄
₄
in) seam allowance.

5. Carefully cut a slit in the middle of the top circle and turn it through to the right side. Stuff the cake very firmly with polyester stuffing, then ladder stitch the slit together. (This will be hidden when the top layer of the cake is added.)

1. Using a 15.5cm (6in) tea plate as a template cut out two circles from fabric 1 and two from the wadding (batting). Cut a 6.5cm x 48.5cm (2
¹
⁄
₂
in x 19in) strip from the wadding (batting) to match the fabric 3 strip. Spray glue, or tack (baste) if you prefer, the fabric pieces to the wadding (batting) pieces.

2. Cut the hook-and-loop fastener into eight 5mm (
³
⁄
₁₆
in) squares, and separate the hooks from the loops. Working on the right side of one of the fabric circles, arrange the hook squares in a circle, with one in the middle, and sew in place. Set aside the loop squares to attach to the bottom of the fabric ‘candles’ later.

3. Make the top layer of the cake in exactly the same way as the bottom layer, except this time sew the ric-rac in the top seam only and cut the turning/stuffing slit on the base of the cake, that is the side that does
not
have the hook-and-loop fastener tape attached.

4. Place the top layer of cake on top of the bottom layer so that it is centred to cover the ladder stitch seams. Join the two cake layers together with ladder stitch (see Techniques:
Utility stitches
) using a strong, doubled thread. You may need to sew round the cake twice.

1. Cut pieces of felt 5cm x 10cm (2in x 4in). Starting at one short edge, roll up each piece of felt into a tube and stitch to hold in place.

2. Cut out a yellow felt ‘flame’ for each candle and fold in half. Tuck a flame into the middle of the candle and secure with a stitch. Sew the loop squares to the bottom of the candles. All that remains is to attach the candles onto the top of the cake by matching up the hook-and-loop squares.

I have used these simple-to-make rosette-style badges to decorate the front of my fabric birthday cakes, but they could just as easily be given instead of a card. Just appliqué on a number to let the world know just how old the party boy or girl is. They are ideal for those all important big birthdays too, from 1 to 100!