The Tooth Fairy has Arrived!

Yup, my baby had lost her first baby tooth!

WAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend she called from her dad's to advise she had a LOOSE tooth. Oh no! This is the kid who got the majority of her baby teeth 6 months LATE, who the dentist said probably wouldn't loose them til she was 7. WRONGO! Sigh............

My mind whirled, as I had read Ann's wonderfully funny post over at Nola Baby & Family, back in APRIL, about how her daughter had come from school with a loose tooth, and she spent a frantic night on Pinterest trying to find the RIGHT tooth pillow, and yet, I had NOT gone off in search of one. Let that me a lesson to you- when you realize you have the same situation (no tooth fairy pillow), do NOT delay in finding one, as Murphy's law is automatically implemented if you don't! The worst part? She had told me where she found her pillow, so I had been warned. But no.........I had to put it off....SIGH....

So I  hunt back to find Ann's post, find the link to the pillow she bought and hit a brick wall. No longer available. Did you hear MY scream?

Yup, so I found myself frantically sloughing through Pinterest pin after pin at 9 o'clock at night, just like Ann, because Murphy's Law had been enacted- if I didn't get one coming in the mail THAT night, she would loose the tooth the NEXT day, right? And while I found some cute pillows, I refused to pay $35 for ONE little pillow.....

So what is a crafty mom supposed to do?

Right, hit the fabric stash!

And after finding some gorgeous pink quilted paisley and matching thick grosgrain ribbon, I found one of Miss Grace's old t-shirts, and the bells went off! A quick locate of a fairy applique I had bought years ago in a pack of 4, and had one left, and Bingo! 

I HAD A PLAN!

Wait, I needed a pillow. ARGH....

AHA, found one in the future gift pile (you know the stuff you pick up for next to nothing and put in a box for last minute gifts?)

Ok, onward!

So I try to cut the t-shirt and realize as it was for when she was 2 1/2, and it's on the SMALL side. I couldn't get a straight seam on either side, because of how far over the writing went. FYI, I'm really NOT good at problem solving when I have been up since 4 am, and had only had 4 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. So I basically said "oh well, I'll fudge it' and got to work.

First iron the applique on. It fits perfectly under the saying- yippee! OUCH- burned finger on iron- errrrrrr.

Ok, onto the sewing....

Doesn't the back look pretty? You can't see the blood where I tried to sew my finger into the seam, right? See "Tip #400- do NOT sew when extremely tired, or you might get a needle in your finger"......

All I basically did was back a square (ok, squarish) of the 2 fabrics,with the ribbon pinned on the front side of the fabrics (to be sewn on the top) and sewed down both sides and across the top. Because I had a brilliant moment, I had left the t-shirt hem as the bottom hem of the top piece, so no sewing needed on that piece. All I had to do was to pull a slight hem on the quilted fabric bottom piece and then insert the pillow, and pin where a velcro strip was needed. Removed pillow and added velcro to underside hem of t-shirt hem, and matching strip where pins were on the paisley fabric and waa-la, I had a tooth fairy pillow.

Wait, with no tooth pocket. ARGH!!!!!!!

"Ok, probably should not be making this while on fumes", I thought to myself, but soldiered on.

Cut a pocket out of the paisley, found some matching trim. Removed pillow again, sewed on pocket- perfect fit, looks like it belongs there! Whew! Reinserted pillow for last time and said 'off to bed, I have to be up in 5 hours"....

SIGH............

Miss Grace comes home the next day, sees the pillow and squeals in delight. Mom gets that priceless moment when she is 'da bomb!'.....

And then we wait......(" oh thank you Jesus, it didn't come out on the Global Wildlife trip!". Seriously can you imagine 40 kids screaming because she lost a tooth? Right....)

Remember, Murphy's Law was enacted.....

And wait....("Mom, look I can MOVE it sideways!")

And wait....("Mom, it hurts! NO you can't pull it out!")

And finally after a full day of playing with said tooth on our NOLA adventure, I realize when she's talking to me (and won't go to sleep) that it is literally hanging barely in there.

Twenty minutes later after moving it around and convincing her it would be ok, plink it was out of there! Whew, that was easy!

Miss Grace had to illustrate it for everybody!

And show a close up....

And then the anticipation begins....

She wanted to make it EASY for the tooth fairy(and Easter Bunny, and Jack, and Santa,and Sandy, Thank you Rise of the Guardians) to find her pillow without waking her up when they all tried to fit in her room...

So off to the front of the door it went!

And oh, look what they brought!

I actually moved it to the inside of the door after I took a picture- so she would see it as soon as she woke up- I was afraid she'd hear the shutter click and wake up if I took a picture inside her room!

What was her reaction?

Basically the letter mentioned all of the above and was in a cute little envelope (found HERE) that ft in the pocket of the pillow. I used this letter HERE.- it's perfect, because you can change the wording to your needs! (I did start a Pinterest board with some other possibilities, you can check it out HERE). Also the $5 was ONLY because it was her first tooth (FYI, we're going back to the going rate of $1, per tooth and maybe a little lagniappe (aka surprise)) 

Miss Grace was tickled pink (pun intended) and can't wait to show every one at school on Monday,as she is the first girl in her class to loose a tooth, only one of the boys have lost one, so she feels SUPER Special!

And Mom feels like a 'job well done!'!

If you're curious about the book and doll, here is a close up:

The book is Twinkle the Tooth Fairy (by Nick Ellsworth) and it actually comes with a velvet tooth pouch, but I seized that one to put said teeth in, and put the one that came with the North American Bear Co. Tooth Fairy Doll in the pocket instead (FYI, the dolls come in different hair and dress colors, and they have anon-Caucasian one too!), as it has a tooth on it, I thought it was a better match for leaving your teeth for Twinkle- the Tooth Fairy.

So that was our Tooth Fairy adventure!

I hope it gives you some inspiration (and warning tips!) too!