The Ferguson Family: June 2011

I am going to attempt to explain how I created my growth chart for Brooke and any other children God blesses us with.

The tutorial I used is here.

Materials:
Muslin fabric
Chambray fabric
Accent fabric
ruler ribbon or flexible measuring tape
vinyl or pleather
Wonder-under or Steam-a-seam 2
iron
picture hanger bracket-bought mine at Wal-mart
batting
5'5" by 12" board
scissors
pins

Also, go to her tutorial for number template and an illustration on how to put the different segments together

The best part about this project is that you can make it as simple or as complicated as you would like. I chose to keep mine very similar to hers.

Step 1: Creating Fabric Panels:

1. First I cut four strips of 9.5" by 2.5" of my accent fabric
2. Then I cut four 9.5" by 10.5" squares of my muslin fabric
3. I pinned one strip to one square and sewed it together with a 1/4" seam. I did this for all four pieces.

4. Then I pinned and sewed them all together in a pattern that went muslin, strip, muslin, strip, etc. You should end with a strip on top.
6. Make sure that from one muslin to one strip it should measure 12.5" by 9.5"
5. Then I cut out my numbers on the chambray fabric, which I don't recommend it ravels quickly. Then I cut little pieces of steam a seam and attached the numbers using that first. I did this so I wouldn't have to worry about the numbers moving while I appliqued them.

6. I appliqued the numbers on the strips using a wide criss-cross stitch. I am an amateur sewer so my muslin fabric pulled in some areas- oh well!

Here is an example of my applique. As you can see the fabric was unraveling under the stitch. This also shows how my tape measure lined up with my fabric.

7. I cut the vinyl material 4’ 2” by 9.5” piece and pinned and sewed the strip with the numbers on it.

8. If you find the ribbon I would just iron it on over the seam where the vinyl and strip meet. If not cut the fabric measuring tape a little under the 12 inch and applique using a little wider regular stitch, like so:

An example of how the measuring tape looked after I cut it and sewed it in the seam

I think if you use a matching thread it would show less, but I didn't care and didn't want to restring

I didn't want the stitch to go through the numbers so I chose to stitch it right under. It lays very flat and virtually unseen.
9. Then cut another 4’ 2” by 9.5” piece of fabric, mine was the chambray and attach it to the other side of your strip. This is what we will now call the main panel
10. Now it is time to attach the bottom part. You can either make your own patch work, do one solid fabric, or do what I did. I cut two strips, one 2.5” by 12” piece of coordinating fabric and another 2.5” by 16” piece of coordinating fabric that I used as the strips in my main panel and sewed them together. I didn't want my coordinating fabric to be right next to each other.
11. Cut another piece at 8.5” by 28.5” and attached to my strips.
12. Then I attached to the bottom of my main panel

Bottom part of panel

13. For the top part. I cut one coordinating fabric to 10.5" by 15.5" and the other 10.5" by 13".
14. Sew the two pieces together.
15. I then decided to applique more of fabric measuring tape over the seam.
16. Sew top part to main panel

Top part of panel

Step : Upholster
1. On a large flat surface, lay down the
fully assembled fabric panel.
2. Center batting over the fabric panel.
3. Center board over batting and fabric panel.
4. Starting on the long edges, stretch fabric panel around board and secure with
staple gun. Make sure to stretch the fabric taut as you go, eliminating any
wrinkles. While stapling, fold raw edges under.

Step 3: Enjoy
1. Nail picture hanger to the back.

2. Hang and enjoy! Use a permanent marker to mark your child’s height on the
white vinyl strip.

Hints:

I cut a template for my strips using a piece of paper.
If you don't want to bother with the strips just do some simple addition to create one solid piece to attach your numbers to. Just make sure you mark where your numbers need to go.
I didn't have enough fabric to stretch across the bottom and top part of the panel. It really didn't matter for me because no one was going to see it. For hers she put it in a doorway that people could see the back. That's why there is so much material on all sides.
1/4" inseam is about from the needle on the sewing machine to the edge of the metal thing that keeps the fabric in place. As you can see I don't know much about sewing. ;)

Total cost: around $30. It probably could have been less, but my accent fabric cost about $7 and I didn't have a coupon :( The good thing though is that I have a lot of left overs that I am currently making pillows out of for the couch. So really $30 gets you a FAB growth chart and matching pillows!

Kyle's parents were able to visit us for a week in May and we had so much fun! They hadn't seen Brooke since Christmas and she had grown so much! She was a little shy at first (maybe 20 minutes), but then wouldn't do anything without them. We played outside, went to the beach, and went to Sea World. When they left Brooke kept saying, "Weared day go?" It was so much fun and they will be greatly missed!