Soccer Monkey Gift Set

One of my friends in Germany had a baby boy in February so I naturally had to create something for him. Being that she is in Germany, there were a lot of factors to include, I didn't want shipping to cost me a fortune so I had to make something that was light weight, I originally planned on making some of my Chips ACount cookies and then realized the baby will be learning German as his first language not English, so it may not seem as familiar to him to give him a bag of American cookies.

I have a hard time coming up with presents for boys, even baby boys. I have girls, I work better with them, it is a house of girls here. However, with some deep thinking I came up with something that I think will work out.

On one of my latest excursions to Joann's I was having a hard time finding fabric that would work, the fabric that I would like had English words and how tacky is that? I mean I'm not going to send a blanket over that is written in English, I never realized how hard it really is to make gifts for people overseas. When I had given up all hope I went back down the flannel aisle and found it, love at first sight. Nothing is cuter then monkeys and what is even better is that they have soccer balls, which as I recall is HUGE in Europe. I knew then that this fabric was meant to be.

The raw edge quilt that I made my grandmother was so easy that I decided I wanted to make one for the baby as well, I only used 4 different fabric’s and it turned out great!! I was afraid that it wasn't going to work out but I love all the colors and how well the patterns matched up, I used 2 fabrics on the back and then 4 on the front.

I really wanted to make him a little stuffed monkey but I couldn’t find a pattern. Luckily, I discovered mmmcrafts and used her Molly Monkey pattern found HERE. I just changed the pattern for my needs. I took a plain t-shirt and used my silhouette to cut out the soccer ball image and the name on the back onto freezer paper and then used it as a stencil. The stripes on the sleeves were a fix it. I didn’t use a ball-point needle when sewing the jersey and unfortunately he developed a hole in the sleeve, I took some ribbon and hand sewed them on to make the stripes, an easy fix but next time I sew jersey I will remember to switch out my needle on the sewing machine. I also took some soccer socks and cut them down to use as his socks, I went back and forth on whether or not to give him shoes, I eventually didn’t but I still wonder if I should have. I then took some fabric I had on hand and made the monkey some shorts.

Well, every soccer player needs a soccer ball and this includes soccer monkeys! I took my scraps and came up with this soccer ball. It was extremely easy to make, despite spending an hour trying to find tips on making one (I couldn’t find ANYTHING). I will be posting a tutorial in the next week or two on how to make your own fabric soccer ball, a nice easy way to rid yourself of scrap fabric.

I wanted to make an outfit to match the Soccer Monkey’s. Instead of shorts I made the bottoms pants, this is an image of the back of the onesie the front is the same as the monkey’s a soccer ball image. I used the same freezer paper method.

I wanted to make something to symbolize where the gifts came from so I made this Idaho onesie. I used my silhouette and cut it out on this cowboy fabric that I found on clearance at Walmart, I love it!

When shopping at Fred Meyer I found these cute little shoes and socks on clearance, they had a monkey on them so naturally I had to buy them for my monkey baby!

I used the tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home from HERE to make this diaper and wipe case. I wish I would have had one of these when my daughters were babies it would have been so much nicer to have something small for the quick getting away trips then to lug around the diaper bag.

And there it all is!!! The monkey, soccer ball, 2 onesies, 3 pairs of socks, 1 pair of shoes, wipe case, 1 pair of pants, and a nice warm quilt!!

I have linked this post to the following: