Guinea Pigs and Pillowcases

The kids were invited to a friends party today... so yesterday I decided to make the birthday boy his own personalised pillow case.  Just what every seven year old boy wants - right?

Have I ever made a pillowcase before?  No.  Have I ever done pieced lettering before?  No.  Have I ever decided that other children want a handmade gift when they would probably prefer Lego?  No.  Good time to experiment then, like, one day before the party.  To cut a long story short - turned out cool.  I used the pattern on allpeoplequilt.com with just a few minor modifications.  The first being the pieced panel...

I also used french seams

and did what I think is called mock french seams after attaching the pieced panel (where you sew a wide seam, then cut one of the seam allowances to about 1/8" and tuck under the remaining seam allowance over the top of the cut allowance, and topstitch it down - encasing the raw edges).  This makes the inside just as nice and neat as the outside.

For future reference, the pillowcase is quite large... would fit a jumbo pillow, and could probably have made it a bit smaller than the dimensions given in the pattern.

We also made some guinea pig cage modifications as after all the wet weather, their accomodation was somewhat left to be desired.  Now, for those of you who have never had guinea pigs - they poo a lot.  Poo plus leaking roof means big fat mess.

So first of all, they got a weatherproofing strip around their roof to keep the worst of the weather out.

They also got a new nifty attachment on the outside... See that bit of wood?

Shown here in action to prevent me getting my head whacked when the lid falls shut on it.

Also, a new poo tray... complete with kitty litter.  Now, the guinea pigs are not what you'd call house trained, they poo everywhere, but they do seem to have designated a particular area of the cage a pooing zone, so this is where I've put their litter tray.

Some things never change...