Meet Henley

My sister gave me a bunch of vintage sewing books for Christmas, and I took one look at this chicken bean bag and just knew I had to make her for McCord.  I mean, what child doesn't need a gigantic chicken to bounce around with?!!!

This has definitely been the most involved sewing project I've worked on.  I must be crazy addicted to sewing, because:

• I had to borrow the overhead projector from our church to enlarge the pattern printed in the book over 2,000%.  I remember it was a cold, rainy day much like today, and I had to load Mc up in the stroller with several rolls of craft paper, markers, and painter's tape.  When I projected the pattern onto the wall it took up our entire Sunday School classroom. This of course, was back in the glory days before McCord was a crawler!

• And then, I got stumped on sewing a curved dart that I had never done before, so I had to consult with 2 members of our church who are expert sewers. 
• One of them is 90 years old and lives at Westminster.  You can imagine how silly I felt hauling a gigantic chicken pattern, yards of fabric, and a whole slew of pins into the assisted living facility with a baby on my hip!  Of course I didn't want to fold up the pattern pieces after I'd been to the trouble of enlarging them by hand, so in I walked with chicken head and gusset in tow. My friend at Westminster is a popular lady, and several of her hall mates stopped by to see what we were working on.  So McCord and I, and a bunch of 90 year olds had a grand ol' time trying to figure out this pattern.
• Still stumped, another member allowed me to stop by her house for a sewing "pep talk" and lots of tutelage.  Not only did I leave with an understanding of how to sew a curved dart, but with lots of inspiration for future projects.  I am so thankful to have knowledgeable friends who are willing to help!

With advice from wiser sewers, I lined the beanbag with a stiffer fabric I had on hand to keep it from coming un-sewn, so I essentially made the beanbag twice.  Then I added a zipper at the bottom in case it ever needs to be washed. 

Once it was all sewn up, the deflated chicken laid around the house for about a week while I was waiting on the stuffing I ordered online to arrive.  Meanwhile, we get a showing for our house (they always happen at the most convenient times!), so I had to load up Henley in her deflated and very unattractive state, with McCord and Rocky and drive around town for a couple of hours.  I'm pretty sure a deflated, gigantic chicken isn't going to help us sell our house!

Finally, last night my extremely patient husband helped me fill up Henley.  This was quite a comedic endeavor! I'm not sure if it was harder to get the filling inside the chicken or clean up all the million little beads?!!! 

Then this morning, we decided that the Easter bunny would like to give Mc his gift early, so I brought Henley up to the nursery right after he woke up.  Here they are getting acquainted. 

I think they'll be fast friends! 

...and this is the smile I hoped for!