I went on a sewing course last year, and learnt how to make Roman Blinds. Today I picked up some stuff to start making blinds for the boys' bedrooms. I need to investigate fabrics next which I'm really excited about.

As I haven't used my sewing machine for a couple of months I thought I'd test it out this afternoon on making a toy for Alexander. I had the idea of making him a letter A with some ribbon tags.

I had some off cuts of fabric – a thick stripy one, and some white fleece to pad it out a bit. I googled typography and traced over a big A to get the template, and then cut out two stripy and two fleecy A's.

I sandwiched the folded ribbons between the fleece and pinned all the layers together before stitching them together.

If you didn’t want the edges to show, you can stitch the ribbons in by putting the two patterned fabric letters together, right sides facing, with the ribbon loops facing inwards between the layers. You’d then stitch round, making sure to sew the ribbon ends in. You’d need to leave a gap to turn the letter out so the right sides show, and to insert some padding.

I've just realised this post is perfectly timed for the new series of The Great British Sewing Bee on BBC 2… There go my Tuesdays evenings for the next few weeks!

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