Weekend Project: Tiny Bubbles

A smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly, but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows and bubbles all around.

--Carolyn Birmingham

So, I stayed up late Thursday night and got up early Friday morning and was able to finish the 2 baby bubbles before Oliver's vet visit on Friday! They are reversible and I think it's pretty amazing how they go together. A good spatial exercise! ;)

I took pictures along the way:

After sewing the fronts to the backs along the shoulder seams and attaching the sleeve caps, you sew the two bubbles together, right sides facing, along the sleeve caps and neck and upper back:

Then you pull the backs through the shoulders to turn the whole thing right side out. Notice that the sides, bottom and lower back are all open.

Next there are a series of fabric contortions to get various open seams closed up by matching right sides together temporarily.

First you close up the side seams. Here I've closed up one, but not the other yet:



Next, you close up the leg seams. Again, this photo shows one, but not the other closed up:



Once the leg seams are closed, you add a second row of stitching to form a casing for the elastic.

Here is the elastic inserted into one leg casing. Note that the majority of the back seam is still open.

The last major seam to be closed up is the back seam.

The instructions have you do this one fabric at a time. First, the green fabric:

In order to do the last back seam, you have to scrunch all the fabric up inside of itself, almost like the turtle pictured on the fabric! The only opening is the seam along the crotch. That's how you pull the fabric out and get the whole thing aligned correctly.

You close up the last two open seams along the crotch with tabs that attach in much the same way you attach a collar (or collar band) to a shirt:

And this is where you add your snap tape! :)

And here are the finished bubbles! The front of the bird bubble:

The back of the bird bubble, showing off the reverse fabric. One of the fun bits was swapping the fabric for the sleeves, so that a tiny bit of fabric A shows when the bubble is showing fabric B. :)

Oh, the instructions had 2 options for the closure at the top of the neck - a ribbon or a button with a button loop. I did the ribbon mostly because I thought it would be quicker and I was short of time.

Here is bubble #2 - the front showing off the turtles:

And the back, showing off the green fabric:

I had to work on Friday, so my husband took Oliver to the vet, but he reported that she loved the bubbles and thinks they'll fit her daughter right away! And she had a Christmas gift for us - including way more catnip than Oliver needs! Do you think she's trying to get him hooked? ;)