Puppy height chart

You'll remember from a couple of posts ago that I have being working on a coordinated puppy cot mobile and height chart for quite sometimes now...well, I finally completed the job, and can happily share the finished height chart, which I think is objectively well cute!

Felt features again heavily in this project as it is such a versatile and easy to use material. My only concern with felt was that, being hung, I wasn't sure it wouldn't twist and lose shape with time, so I decided to reinforce it at the back with ribbon all around the edges. I also inserted a wooden rod at the bottom to keep it straight, and I used another rod with two holes at the edges, through which I passed and secured a piece of yellow string to hang the chart.
The idea of this chart came from the puppies I designed for the puppy cot mobile, which feature in this post. The puppies were quite small, so I thought I would replicate one of those facing a big and tall dog, which  resembles a Great Dane. I love that breed, so I designed my big dog to capture the height and cuteness of Danes; its tall body is also the metre itself.

After freely sketching the borders of the Dane's face with a black Biro on the brown felt, I decided to leave the pen marks on, as they provide some depth to the picture, and a somehow cartoon-y finish.

To keep to the outdoor theme, I introduced the grass at the bottom of the chart and the fabric butterflies, inspired by this lovely My Mei Tai blog post appliqué technique.

I hand-sewn the details of the small dog using my beloved blanket stitch, to mirror the finish of the puppy cot mobile.

I thought lots about how to do the numbers of the chart. I searched for days on Pinterest for sewn numbers, but ended up writing them by hand, using the same pearl dimensional fabric paint I used to make the orange blossoms tablecloth. I think it would have been incredibly difficult to cut tiny numbers and sew them to the background, given the size of it. This solution is a happy compromise, I think.

On Pinterest I also found this clever and elegant height chart, that inspired my way of marking heights.
I've used safety pins instead of split pins (which I couldn't find anywhere), and made little tags out of cardboard. I wanted to make them a little special, so I inserted a little wooden bead in between the two knots of the cord.

Last night I finished and cleaned the heigth chart (felt attracts any little grain of dust and dirt, and you could see them especially well on the clear background! I was pleased to find out that you can easily brush any dirt off felt with a clean toothbrush), I hung it to take pictures and realised I loved making it so much that I really didn't want to give it away! But I know it will be loved just as much in its new home, by his new, sweet little owner Jessica...