C's Growing Tree

As we were away this weekend, i couldn't take a photo for my new weekly Our Sunday Morning post. But, just to let you know Lil C slept in a bit for us at his Nana and Pa's place, and we enjoyed some morning giggles together in bed!

On another note, i've actually been able to be creative and crafty lately. For one, i finished a project i (ahem) started in June. It's a Growth Chart for C that i hope to use each year for his birthday, as a way to chronicle is growing pains. We also expect to use it at other times, i just have to find a good place to hang it...
I wanted to make something that plays tribute to his room theme of 'Secret Garden.' And being a boy's room, i wanted it to be a bit less 'girly' even though gendered stuff doesn't matter that much to me. But, i see C is already into gardening and trees, so that's what inspired this Growing Tree.
I couldn't truly capture the piece in the photos as it's quite long, but i think you can get the gist of it. As it's my own design, i think it was pretty straight forward to make. Here are some simple steps, if you like:

1) I just cut 3 pieces of fabric (1 for front, 1 for back, and some interfacing)
2) I then cut out some tree pieces from this great fabric - nothing too fancy, but mostly rectangular pieces
3) Then, i found some remnant pieces of fabric that match C's room colours (mainly greens, oranges, and yellows, blues) and cut them into simple leaf shapes. I found a great fabric with birds on it so just had to include it.
4) This part took me the longest, but i then sewed the leaves onto the tree fabric (that was already sewn onto the front fabric panel). I didn't fold over the fabric, but rather kept the edges frayed, as i thought it would be fun that way (like real leaves) but also i didn't want to take any longer on this project. But i would recommend trying to be more precise with your embellishments if you like.
5) Once all the leaves were attached, i then, put the interfacing on the back panel, and put the right sides of the back and front panels and sew around, leaving a 3 inch space to turn it right side out. Once down, cut 2 pieces of ribbon that are the length you want.
6) Find a piece of branch to use as a support, and add any other embellishments like i did - fabric markers are a great tool for projects like this! I then just recorded what C's height was for 12 months, and plan to keep adding the number each year.