Baby Shower DIY: Fabric Alphabet

It's that time of year again when it seems like there's a baby shower every week! If you've got one coming up, you might be desperately seeking out fresh gift ideas - I have one for you. My sister recently sent me a template for a Fabric Alphabet, a fun and educational activity for little ones. This DIY gives you the opportunity to play with some of your favorite fabrics or to use up the ones you're not sure what to do with! We recently received a large shipment of gorgeous hand-dyed cotton batiks that I've been dying to make something with - so naturally, I made two sets of the Fabric Alphabet...

The template can be downloaded for free here: Fabric Alphabet Template

Rather than using batting, I chose to use different colored felt because I preferred the way it looked peaking out around the edges. You could also use felt for the backing of the letters and this would allow the Fabric Alphabet to be used on a felt board.  Note: the "W" in this template does not fit on a 5" square, it needs to be cut to 6" by 5".

1. Cut out the letters from the template (you can download it for free from the link above) and cut the fabric into squares. I used Wisteria Hand Dye Cotton Batik for the front, and two different colors of felt for the middle and back layer.

2. Trace the cut out letter onto the front fabric square and pin together the layers. The fabric shown below is Daffodil Hand Dye Cotton Batik.

3. Sew the together along the outline of the letter. The fabric shown below is Evening Blue Hand Dye Cotton Batik.

4. Cut out the letters using pinking shears or a pinking rotary cutter, leaving a 1/4" inch border. I prefer to use the pinking rotary cutter because after cutting out two sets of 26 letters, my hands feel much better than they would using pinking shears. The enclosed areas (like you see in A, B, D, O, etc.) are difficult to cut out using pinking shears, so I'd recommend using small sharp scissors - the letter "A" (shown in the previous picture) was the most difficult.

I am so pleased with how my Fabric Alphabet turned out. It's such a fun and easy DIY and it can look really great with your favorite fabrics! If you liked the fabric I used to make mine, you can find it on my website: New Cotton Batik Fabrics

Here's a picture of the alphabet all wrapped up and ready for the baby shower!

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