Who's Not Afraid of the Big Kind Wolf?

Here is a little Red Ridding hood inspired motif t-shirt I made for Amelie's dress up day at Kindy this week...and for the first time linking up with Our Creative Spaces 

The idea came to me shortly after I opened this lovely package some time ago. Note the little Strawberry Shortcake picture on the envelope... there is a story here...

When googling "how to make a red ridding hood" one day, I stumbled across Amelie and Atticus Etsy shop

...and found this absolutely beautiful strawberry lined cape. As some of you would know,  I love Strawberry Shortcake and have hoped to host a Vintage Strawberry Shortcake party for Amelie - with any luck next year, if she is willing. So I quickly snapped this cape up, thinking I would store it away as a 3rd birthday present for Amelie, fitting for a strawberry shortcake theme.

I sent Thouraya a short note letting her know that the cape would be a present for my daughter Amelie for her 3rd birthday party which I was hoping would be a Vintage Strawberry Shortcake theme...now here is the special part of this story...Thouraya wrote back and explained that her daughter, also called Amelie, was having a Vintage Strawberry Shortcake party that weekend!...This is one of the things I love about blogging, you can stumble across other people, sometimes on the other side of the world with similar interests and enough in common to share in the enjoyment of their blog stories and projects. Thouraya was sweet enough to include these sweet little strawberry clips in the package...perhaps because of the lovely coincidence. Thank you Thouraya for the beautiful cape and clips.

As I said, I was planning on saving the cape as a birthday present for Amelie next year, but when a note came home from Amelie's Kindy last week advising of a dress up day..and after watching Amelie happily play with my sister's two GIANT Irish Wolf Hounds in the same way she would play with tiny little lap dogs or puppies, I decided I had to complete the Red Ridding hood outfit in time for the dress up day.

Whilst flicking through one of my favourite crafty books, Softies...

...I found this delightful fellow...his name is Mad Dog...a softie pattern by Sandra Monat of Herzensart which she created "...as homage to her friend's dog that is a little bit neurotic (although she's actually a good girl).."...I thought Mad Dog made the perfect Wolf...

..And so I used the pattern in the book to make a motif pattern for Amelie's t-shirt using black and white felt.

I hand stitched Mad Dog to the t-shirt using a 10g coton perle in a blanket stitch.

As we all know, in the story of Little Red Ridding hood, the Wolf dresses up as Grandma to trick Little Red Ridding hood ("What big teeth you have Grandma!"), and so I gave Mad Dog a bonnet and skirt (as seen in the first photo) with some red gingham fabric.

Amelie loved her little Red Ridding hood costume...despite the fact that when we arrived at Kindy every other little girl was dressed as a fairy save for one lady beetle and one Cinderella...I cringed thinking I had made a big mistake and Amelie would beg for her fairy wings...but in true Amelie style, she did not mind one bit!

And what a beautiful Little Red Ridding hood she makes...in Amelie's version of the story, she makes friends with the wolf only to find out that he just wanted her basket of apples that she had brought for Grandma...