Scrap Fabric Alphabet Letters
These are fun. You can find a bunch of tutorials out there. I do not recommend any specific one.
Pattern: I used "quick letters", found near the poster board in stores, (see photo below) for a pattern for each of the letters.
What I did: Sandwiched a piece of lightweight batting between two pieces of fabric. The fabric was facing "right" sides out. Machine straight-stitched around the letters, about a 1/4" away from the edge. Then I took pinking shears to them, all around the edges.
Tricky Part: Getting the pinking shears to cut inside the holes in a, b, d, o, p, q, and r was a little tricky.
My Little Spin on Things: I have soooo much scrap fabric! And I love fabric and I love to sew. So...I decided to associate each letter with a type of fabric, or other wise some fabric characteristic, which ended up, for some, being associated with the first letter of the color of the fabric I used. See the larger photo and list below!
A--airplanes on fabric
B--blue fabric
C--corduroy
D--denim
E--eyelet
F--felt & flannel
G--green fabric
H--houndstooth design
I--interfacing
J--jersey knit
K--knit
L--lace
M--muslin
N--netting
O--orange fabric (felt)
P--pink fabric
Q--quilted fabric
R--red fabric
S--stripes on fabric
T--twill weave
U--upcycled an old soccer uniform
V--velvet
W--wool
X--black & white fabric--associate with 'x-rays'
Y--yellow fabric
Z--zipper
What Else? I decided to make the letter "z" have an actual tiny zipper pouch. I didn't have anything to follow. In the end I was glad I had sewn a little pull tab at the top of the zipper.
I wish I would have made a set of numbers while I was at it. I think I began in alphabetical order. By the time I got to the letter I--a simple rectangle--I thought why am I not making multiplies of these?? So I went back and made more.
If I did it over again, maybe I would follow Scrabble pieces as a guide, meaning: Scrabble tile letter distribution is as follows: A-9, B-2, C-2, D-4, E-12, F-2, G-3, H-2, I-9, J-1, K-1, L-4, M-2, N-6, O-8, P-2, Q-1, R-6, S-4, T-6, U-4, V-2, W-2, X-1, Y-2, Z-1.
Or depending on how you plan to use the letters, make sure you have enough of each letter to spell out phrases, words/names you will display.
What We've Done: We have a string above our kitchen sink, going across, and we use the teeny-tiny clothespins to hang up some of these fabric letters to spell out our family theme for the year. The rest of the letters, I store in a purse from the "dress up" bin. Our Little One loves 'in and out' right now. These letters are fun for her to hold and take out and put back, over and over again!
