Let her eat cake

First birthdays are so fun. There are so many milestones in that first year. It has always been a tradition in my family to get pictures of the birthday baby smashing cake into her mouth. For me that just means a few snapshots in the highchair. As a photographer, my sister takes it to a new level. So, one final post here of my adorable niece enjoying her birthday cake while sporting her birthday bloomers and mostly NOT wearing the birthday hat I made to go with them.

For the bloomers I used McCall's pattern M5834 and added my own cupcake applique. The "frosting" is just a ribbon that I ruffled by sewing a basting stitch down the center. So many of the infant/toddler dress patterns also have a pattern for bloomers. Any of them would work. I think is easiest to put on the applique, ruffles or any other embellishment onto the cut out fabric before you actually sew the sides together.

The cake was made by another talented family member, my cousin Mindy. Just ask if you want her contact info as well.

My girls thought this hat was a pretty fun project. E wants one for her upcoming birthday too... although I was thinking more along the lines of a crown for this little princess. We'll see. We just took a party hat that we bought in a pack from the dollar store, gently removed the elastic, and undid the tab so that we could lay it flat and traced the shape onto a piece of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. Then we used ModPodge to adhere it to the hat. We reattached the elastic and added the rest of our embellishments.