"A Little Birdie" Mouse Pad

I found this fun, bright, bird fabric the other day and wanted to do something completely frivolous with it. I wouldn't normally associate a computer accessory (especially not a mouse pad!) with frivolity but that's how it felt...frivolous and fabulously fun! Oh, an alliteration..that, too, seems fantastic.

Ok, enough with the adjectives and on to the project at hand :)



Normally, Chris and I go for muted blues, greens and browns with small splashes of other neutrals around the house and I save the bright fabrics for gifts for friends and family. It's truly not often that I make something for us in bright, silly fabrics but I couldn't help myself this time. Maybe it's the birds...you know how much I love all things avian.

Anyway, we haven't had a mouse pad for some time and I thought that I would need an old rubber mouse pad to cover if I wanted to make my own but last night I decided, nah, I'd just make one out of fabric and see what happens! I went totally outside of the box and chose the bright birds, a swirly bright green and a bright orange polka dot pattern for the back (no muted blues and greens here!).



I cut the orange polka dot fabric into a 8 1/2 inch square, cut the bird fabric into a 5 1/2 inch by 8 1/2 inch piece and the swirly green fabric into a 3 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch piece.

I then sewed the green piece to the bird pattern and ironed the seams flat. Next, I ironed on one piece of thin interfacing to the back of the bird/green square and then, with the right sides of the front and back fabrics facing, I sewed around the square, leaving a few inches for turning.

Last, I top stitched around the mouse pad with a pretty leaf stitch (my first time using a decorative stitch!) and plopped it on the computer desk next to Chris who said, "cool", and went back to playing his snazzy new computer game that looks more like a movie than a game. All I know is that he's saved the world, twice.



I was concerned that it would slide around on the desk but, strangely enough, it doesn't! I was also concerned that by making a seam on the front of the mouse pad that the mouse would get caught up on it and, strangely enough, it didn't!

To be honest, it might not last long. I will probably trade it in for something more sophisticated like this from Liesl Made...



But, for now, the bright fabrics makes me smile and that's enough.

I'm thinking this would be a fun, simple project to do with a munchkin who is learning to sew. Too bad the chickens can't operate a machine ;)

Happy Crafting :)