Rosettes and ranunculi

If you follow Erin's blog, you've seen her spectacular ranunculus, and you know that she posted a tutorial sometime last week. I read over the tute, and a few days later it was time to make some birthday presents.

I had decided that instead of stitching along the outside of the fabric strip, I would cut it wider and fold it in half. I wanted a finished edge, because I worry about how my t-shirt gifts will hold up after laundering.

This one above was my first attempt. I'm calling them "rosettes" because I forgot to gather it--the "folds" are really from me bunching the fabric as I stitched. Cute, but not quite there.

Here is attempt number two:

It went much more smoothly after I put in the stitching on the unfinished end. I was able to gather the fabric and it pretty much curled itself up! I love sewing on the Moleskines. Something about punching the needle through the cardboard is so satisfying. And this was not as difficult to do on a small t-shirt as I had feared. It went a lot more quickly than my usual applique. Each girl also got a matching pencil case with some pencils and an eraser. Happy birthday, Danielle and Ava!