Handmade Birthday Club: February

This year, thanks to Instagram, I’m taking part in the Handmade Birthday Club that Susanna Kate has got going.

Here’s the deal: we all are partnered with 11 other people, to make a crew of 12.  Each month, we sew a handmade birthday gift for one of the folks in the group, and when it’s our birth month, we get 11 handmade gifts sent just for us!  It’s really an ingeniously simple idea, and I’m so glad I threw my name in the hat when I saw it come around on IG.  (You can see the progress of the group using the button in the sidebar–so many awesome presents being made!)

For the first Birthday Girl, I made a sweet little quilted zipper pouch with an applique and an exposed zipper.  We were all sewing for Karen, who has three miniature Schnauzers, so I wanted to make something that incorporated her darling girls into the gift.  I downloaded and printed a Schnauzer outline from the web, and then cut out an applique to add to the front of the pouch I’d already pieced and quilted.

This is a simple raw-edge applique, but the herringbone flannel it’s made from really makes me think of a sweet puppy. Right?!?

The zipper on the pouch is actually a separating outerwear zipper, but I liked the heavy metal of the teeth so much , and I wanted to have them showing on the closed pouch.  I shortened the zip after sewing up the end seams (check a tutorial like this one for a similar style of pouch).

I knew Karen likes bright fabrics, so I threw in a half-yard bundle of yummies for her.  Who doesn’t like getting fabric on their birthday, after all.  And these are all my favorite colors–I was just hoping she’d love them, too!

Plus some other goodies, like Valentine pencils, some pattern cards, and this sweet little hedgehog clothespin.

The funnest part about the whole club is that we get to see each of the ladies receive their gifts on IG, too!  I have said it a dozxen times already this year, and I will say it a baker’s dozen: I love how the internet makes it possible for people all over the world who are a little crazy about the same things all come together and make friends.  Impossible and amazing.

Happy birthday, Karen!