Today I have a fun softie sewing pattern for you, “Sleepy Raindrops”. These sweet little softie toys would make adorable gifts for a little one in your life. Keep reading to find out how to make them!
I have these two cute friends that I met over 5 years ago. They are sisters in law, who have the same name. How did that happen you ask? They are both named Elizabeth and they married brothers.
These two creative friends live half way across the country, so I don’t get to see them very often. They also happen to be very talented bloggers and fabric designers. (Hint: they are the Simple Simon & Co girls, if you haven’t guessed that already).
Last year when I was in Utah, I MADE them meet me for lunch one day. I’m good at forcing people to do things that I want them to like that (not really, I’m terrible at that kind of thing, but lets pretend that I am *wink*). While we were at lunch we got to talking about blogging, and sewing and kids and fabric. They told me about their new line that was due to come out later that year. It was a “modern nursery” line. Black and white with pink and gold. I thought it sounded gorgeous and the fact that they were designing it was totally genius to me.
Things have changed so much since my kids were babies, there are so many other options for “kids stuff” than there were back then. I adore the modern vibe and variety of designs that you can now find in stores.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of the fabric this month and sat down and stitched up a tote bag with matching softies to fit in the pockets.
The bag in the photos is my Derby Tote bag pattern. When I designed the bag I always pictured little toys or dolls poking out of the pockets. To me it seemed like such a good bag for kids to tote with them to church or school. I imagined it filled up with coloring books and crayons and a floppy teddy bear poking out of the top.
The girls at Simple Simon & Company asked me to be a part of the blog tour for their new “When Skies are Gray” fabric line. Like I mentioned before, it was designed as a “modern nursery” line. I think that it could be used for so many other things besides just nursery, but thought it would be a fun challenge to make something fit for a modern nursery.
Inspired by the designs in the fabric, I decided to make a few softies to coordinate with my tote bag. I’ve included a free printable pattern for the raindrop and cloud softies in this post. The tote bag can be found in my shop.
These softies are just the right size to stuff into a tote bag, and feature embroidered faces.
Do you want to make some?
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Dottie says
January 20, 2017 at 4:35 PMMelissa — what a great interpretation for a beautiful fabric. No babies in my life but sure love the idea for future reference. Thanks to you and the girls from “Simon”
Shelley says
January 21, 2017 at 8:40 AMThank you kindly Melissa for these patterns… Do you have any printables for a star ???
VickiT says
January 22, 2017 at 8:01 AMHow sweet are those little raindrops, and that bag is awesome. Am I seeing you’ve used a shiny metallic of some kind for piping on that pocket? It really stands out. Love it.
I had lost track of who it was with the two sisters-in law who had the same names. I remember reading a blog post about all of you a long while back with pictures; possibly in a wedding post maybe?
Funny story about same names; one of my twins has finally met someone although how serious I’m not sure. He attended law school and then further education for a higher law degree after the usual 4 yr degree at a university, so his face had been in the books since high school and he was very good at sticking to getting through what he’s done now. Well, now he’s met a woman and funny enough is that she has the same name as mine. I started laughing when I heard this; mostly because of what I was told after learning that fact. He just cannot call her by her full first name, or the shortened name we both also use as it reminds him of Mom too much. That’s probably not a good thing to always see your Mom in your head when you’re with your ‘girl’. LOL
Thank you for the cute little raindrops.