Before Christmas I was thinking about making an alphabet set of letters made from fabric for my granddaughter. She's getting close to 2 years old and I thought that it would be a fun way for her to learn her letters and begin to spell simple words, when she is ready.
I looked at what people were doing on Pinterest and Etsy and came up with a plan. I found a font on my computer with basic letter shapes and enlarged the letters to 500 points. Then I made the letters an outline instead of fill so that they didn't use up all of my ink when I printed them.
The letters are about 4 1/2 inches tall. I cut them out, traced them onto pretty fabrics and sewed on the line. I used disappearing ink so that after I sewed the outline, the ink would disappear.
To make the "quilt sandwich," I ironed some stiff interfacing to the fabric. This step keeps the letters from fraying quickly. Then I put a layer of felt next and a white fabric for the back. I sewed each letter along the lines and then cut them out, keeping about 1/8 inch along the edge. The white back is so that she will know if the letter is backwards.
For some of the letters, I made 2 or 3 of them, especially the vowels and other letters depending on what she would need to spell her name and some simple words. I made sure that there were 2 "N's" and "A's" so that she could spell Nana!
Today I made a small basket for her to keep the letters in so they wouldn't get lost.
I quilted the bag and added some handles so she can carry her letters around with her.
The fabric that I used is called Just Another Walk in the Woods. I had a couple of layer cakes (10" cuts of the fabric line) and picked out cute, bright fabrics for the letters.
This week I'll stop by Michaels and pick up a board and wrap flannel around it so that the letters will stick to the flannel like the old flannel boards that we used to have in Sunday School years ago.
I can't wait to give her this gift and start teaching her the ABC's. Would I make another one of these? Originally I thought that I would make two sets for her, one for here and one for her home. Now I'm not sure. It took a lot longer than I thought to make the letters. I could have easily made a baby quilt in the same amount of time! Lol.
