This was the fruit of my labour yesterday. Although it wasn’t just yesterday: there were several days of thinking and planning and cutting and humming and harring. My brief was: pink, horses, ballerinas. I love it that children are so uncomplicated. They know exactly what they like and aren’t afraid to say, because they aren’t yet bothered about fitting in with everyone else.

The fabric was from Moda, and the more I looked at it the more I loved it. The cowgirl looks so happy on her horse. At some point I decided that the best thing to do would be piping across the top to give it structure. Had I ever done piping before? No – but you know what? It was actually easy as pie, and now I want to pipe everything. (Thanks to Lisa for the tutorial and Florence for reassuring me that it would be easy.)

The other new thing I used was double sided fusible fleece – yes, I want to fleece everything now too. I used it for the lining, with the same plain pink cotton on both sides, which really helped disguise the thickness of the piping at the seams, and gave it a pleasing puffy feel. I also used it in the handles, which gives them more structure than plain interfacing.

Inside is a slip pocket, made from cowgirl fabric, and a clippy line, so that I could attach a little coin purse. I love making coin purses because they’re so useful, so fast to put together, and sooo cute.

It’s the little girl’s birthday tomorrow, so I hope she enjoys it.