I was approached by Lisa from Twig + Tale in the New Year to ask if I'd like to test a new pattern. I must admit I felt a bit honoured that I had been approached, but I'm sure it was more to do with the fact I'd just tested for her with the Evergreen Bonnet!



Lisa sent over a picture of the pattern and I agreed to give it a go. There was a strict deadline for this one as it was going to be released into the upcoming issue 14 of One Thimble magazine. How exciting!!



So the pattern came together easily. The first one was far from quick for me, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert at machine applique, and even less so on my new sewing machine that I was still learning how to use. I used cotton corduroy as the main body piece in a pale blue. The face, tail, ears and paws were made from a bright pink cotton corduroy that I had scraps left over from making toddler clothes (I'm a hoarder, so I keep scraps for years!). The eyes, inner ears and inner paws were made from floral scraps I had left over from making the lining of my son's blazer last year. The floral fabric was from Fabworks. I bound the back raw edges with shop bought bias binding that I had in my stash.



The pattern sewed up into a super cute cover. I chose to put snaps on the paws, which Layla absolutely loves. It means that her hot water bottle Kitty can now give her a hug! She loves to unpop them, hug the kitty, then hold it's paws before popping them back down. This is a genius bit of the pattern! It was just what we needed to cheer us up on a miserable January day.



But then we got struck down with a nasty illness. My daughter fell first, then two days later my son, then a day later I succumbed to it and finally my husband. I'm not sure if we had full blown flu, or just a nasty virus, but we all had heavy fevers, shakes, muscle aches and my son got sick too. We all spent at least 3 days each pretty much unable to do anything at all. So in all, with my nursing the kids, and getting it myself, it was a full 11 days that I didn't leave the house.



Sadly, it meant that I simply couldn't take the photos I needed to show off the hottie cover. I felt so ridiculously guilty that I couldn't complete the pattern test, and that I had failed Lisa, and to some extent, even One Thimble magazine. But life is never simple with kids, and these things simply couldn't be helped.



I still felt terrible about not getting photos, so towards the end of the virus we had, I set my daughter up in her bedroom with my camera on a tripod and attempted to take some indoor photos. The light was terrible as we had grey rain for days on end, and my daughter wasn't in the best of moods. I snapped about 30 pictures, and of all of them, only one was passable after editing. Lisa was very good about it, despite the fact that her own son was also very poorly, and several of the other testers also got struck down with illness, she had enough photos for the pattern to be released.



Towards the beginning of February Lisa approached us again to see if we could get some photos for publicity purposes. This I could do! So I gladly took photos of a much better feeling Layla with her Kitty hot water bottle cover.



The pattern is exclusive to One Thimble magazine at the moment. But you can see the other animals that are included in the pattern over in the Twig + Tale chat group on Facebook.

Does anyone else have problems taking pictures indoors? I find it so hard to get enough light to not need the flash, and using the flash just washes everything out? Any indoor photography tips will be gratefully taken on board, just leave a comment below!

*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*