R is for Reef
When I was dreaming up of ideas from my activity book, I knew I wanted to have a couple of pages dedicated to my boys. I searched over Pinterest and I couldn't find a page I wanted to make for Blue, so I decided to make one special for him. And since Blue's middle name is Reef, I decided that would be the perfect page to make for him.
Supplies Needed:
Scrap Fabric
Embroidery needle and thread
Here's How You Do It:
Step 1: Setting Up The Reef
I wanted my reef to look as real as possible. So I did a quick image search for coral reefs and below is the reef image that I liked the most:
(Photo from Inhabitat.com)
Once I had my reef image picked, I took my scrap fabric (I just happened to have a spare piece of aqua minky fabric lying around, so I just used that) and cut it into the shape of my reef. I then sewed down my reef fabric to my background fabric around the edges. (I left the rest free for now).
Step 2: Creating The Reef
Once I had the base of my reef sewed into place, I used some spare yarn to create tracks for my fish.
With the fish in place, I started sewing down my reef using a blanket stitch. I made sure to leave some pockets for the fish to "swim through".
With the fish (and swimming lanes!) in place, I slowly began to cut out extra pieces of felt in the shape of corals and plants found in reefs. I then sewed them sporadically around the reef. As an extra touch I added a couple of buttons that looked like shells into the mix.
Overall it ended up slightly busy, but its a reef so I feel like it works.
And for good measure I added on a shark finger puppet. That way Blue or Lion can have something to chase the fish around the page with. You can find instructions for that here
Step 3: Finishing Touches
To finish my reef up, I cut out an 'R' out of felt and stitched it down and then back stitched on 'is for Reef'.
And here is how my page turned out:
