Trio of Easter Eggs with Botanic Garden Project Pack

Greetings and Salutations! Scraps, here, with the first of three projects from the Botanic Garden project fabric pack. The floral pattern is especially perfect for this time of year with those cute bunnies scattered about.

To start, you'll need

• Botanic Garden project fabric pack
• Interfacing, medium-weight
• Stuffing
• Chalk pencil, scissors, pins, needle and thread
• Ribbons, beads, buttons or other trim

And the pattern of course! (Clicking that link will allow you to download the pdf pattern from my Hightail site.)

Cut out your pattern pieces: 2 egg bodies from each of the three fabrics, 1 base from each fabric, and 3 bases from interfacing. I have about a 1/2" seam allowance on these pattern pieces, but because of the curves I like to transfer the sewn lines as well as the cut lines onto the back of the fabric with chalk marker. 

Pair up your pieces however you want: I used different fabrics for the fronts and backs of each bodies, but you can keep yours uniform or mix them however you like.

Sew your egg body pairs, right sides together, from the center-top of the egg and along the left side, and press open. Tip: if you don't have a pressing ham, you can very carefully use the outside edge of your ironing board to shape the curve and iron against that.

Sew your interfacing to the back of your egg base along the sewn line. This keeps you from needing one more pin in the mix on the next step.

Clip along the bottom seam allowance of the egg bases, stopping before the sewn line. If you skip this step you'll have a devil of a time fitting a straight edge to a curve in the next step!

Ease your egg bodies along the curve of the egg base (right sides together), pinning as you go, and matching up the unsewn side of the egg bodies where they meet. This is  the most fiddly part of this project, but once you get the first one done you'll feel quite accomplished and fly through the other two!

Stitch the body to the base and then stitch the remaining side seam, leaving an opening in the middle of the side for turning and stuffing. Trip away any excess seam allowance once you're sure you don't have to rip anything out and resew (not that ever happens, right?).

Turn the eggs right side out, fill with your stuffing of choice, and hand sew the remaining gap, turning the seam allowance inside.

Now, these are cute as they are, but Easter eggs are all about the decorations. I whip-stitched pearl beaded along the seam edges and added ribbon flowers, buttons, and beaded bits to the fronts and backs to dress them up a bit. 

Next week I'll be back with a matching basket to put these eggs into!

Wishing you creative days,

Jennifer "Scraps" Vanderbeek