Flower Lovey {Tutorial}

It's funny because when I first started making the baby basket cake I planned on making a few baby balls and little toys to stuff in the top tier, but once I made this sweet little flower lovey I knew that it was going to be on the top of the cake! I think it just works perfectly up there!

Flower Lovey Tutorial
(allow 2+ hours to complete. Finished size: 18" x 13")

Materials Needed:
* 1 package of bias tape
* 1 piece of fabric 18" x 13" (front of lovey)
* 1 piece of minky fabric 18" x 13" (back of lovey)
* 1 fat quarter or small scrap pieces of fabric (for the flower)
* 1 package of piping
* 1 large button
* 12" of jumbo ric-rac
* One 46" x 3" piece of fabric for the ruffled piece. (I ended up piecing a few pieces together to make one long strip. Use up those little scraps here. You will never know it is pieced together once it is ruffled.)

Start by printing off the template. Click on the highlighted link below, this link will bring you to my Scribd page. Print template off there. I used the pointy flower petals for this tutorial but wanted to include some rounded petals as well. I foresee using these in the future.
Flower Baby Lovey Template

Cut out the template petal piece. Trace around it onto the right side of a small scrap piece of fabric.

Now take a piece of piping and line up the flat edge of the piping to the template marks you just made. Pin in place. The more pins the better!

Place another piece of fabric on top with right sides facing. Pin in place.

Change to a zipper foot and start sewing around the piping. Line up the rounded edge of the piping with the edge of your foot. Sew as close to the rounded edge of the piping as close as possible. You may need to redo the top part of the petals once you remove the pins. I also found it easier to remove the pins as I went along. Just take your time here. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy. You could also sew the piping in place on the first piece of fabric before placing the second piece of fabric on top. I just chose to sew the piping in place once. But do what works for you.

Trim off the excess fabric.

Turn right side out.

Now repeat 6 times or as many times as you want. Of course you could leave out the piping if you don't like sewing with it. It takes a little getting used to, but once you have used it a few times its really easy and adds that little extra touch.

Now fold the petal in half and sew a little 1/2 circle at the edge of the petal like shown below. This will give your petal a little shape.

Repeat with remaining petals. Line up the petals to make a flower.

Play with the petals and your button to get the shape you like. My flower ends up being about 6" across.

Now pin the flower petals onto your front piece of fabric.

Sew around the inner parts of the petals a few times. Make sure they are very secure, this is for a baby.

In the following steps the fabric is getting harder to sew because of the thickness. If that happens switch your foot height to zero. This will keep your foot off the fabric so tightly and allow you to keep sewing. This will make a huge difference, trust me.

Take your jumbo ric-rac and fold in onto the petals. Pin in place.

Sew in place a few times. Make sure all of the pieces get sewn down.

Sew button on. Then sew around the button again using the edge of the button as your guide.

Now lets make the little ruffle. Take your 46" x 3" and fold right sides together, sew down one side. Pull right side out and iron flat. Sew down the middle of the strip on a stitch length of 4 then pull one of the threads to ruffle the fabric.

Pin and sew ruffle onto lovey in desired location.

Pin front of lovey to backing fabric, wrong sides together. You can use a batting if you want to. I chose not to since this is for a little baby and I wanted to keep it lightweight for her to snuggle up with. Trim fabric pieces so that are even on all edges. Round the corners to make it easier to sew with the bias tape.

Pin and sew bias tape around outer edge of lovey.

And your finished!

Fold up the blanket and stuff it into the top tier of the basket making sure to leave the flower hanging out on top of the basket.