Showing posts with label plushie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plushie. Show all posts

Saturday, January 19, 2019

A new family member: softie adventure 2.0



I mostly sew clothes for our kids, but I do sometime like to sew something else, like softies. Our kids do no need any extra softies, but I just like the challenge. Sewing softies appeals to my need to create and to learn new techniques. Almost four years ago, I created this doll, and it seems that I have moved up on the learning curve. After I created these two adorable animals in the summer, I deemed myself capable of trying this really awesome doll pattern that I had bought a while ago, but did not dare to start.



In the fall the designer of the pattern created a sew along, and this was just the push that I needed. This time, I actually bought the required supplies, so not like the previous doll just use something that is around the house. I have to admit that things do become better with better material. I took it slow, did only a few steps on one day, but in the end the doll did not take that much time as I feared.



We have quite some dolls in our house, and two years ago I bought two 18" teen dolls. The dolls look great, but in that product line there are only girls. Our son sometimes feels a bit left out in our house full of girls, so I decided that the doll that I was going to make would have to be a boy. In case our son wants to join in on our girls' play. We try to raise our kids relatively gender neutral, but we do see that our son prefers to play with "male" characters, so for example we also have a bunch of male ponies from the my little pony line.



This time I am actually satisfied with the face and embroidered facial expression,. With hindsight, I should have made nose a bit bigger, but it is so much better than last time. I also learned that you should not "draw" the nose with a dark marker, I used purple and that remained visible. I tried to wash it out but now he actually got a pink nose. The kids love this element, so I just let go of my frustration about it. For the hair I used a piece of upcycled fake fur, that I used for these boots as well. So hording this stuff sometimes does pay off.



A doll of course also needs clothes and by our son's suggestion I created a bear onesie. The main requirement is that you can put it on the doll, it does not have to be comfortable, so I was fine with winging it, and it actually fits great.




Friday, August 31, 2018

A bag and chicken



I was planning to show you the other clothes that I sewed from One Thimble 20, but than I realized that also have two very cool projects from OT 19 that I have not blogged about yet. So, today, I will show you two non-clothing items, a bag and a plushie.



My mother in law took up weaving and for my birthday I received a fully hand woven fabric in beautiful shades of green. Coincidentally the fabric piece was the perfect size to turn into a Pinky Promise bag. I wanted to use as much a possible from the fabric so I also created the straps from the fabric, added two extra pockets and made an extra big lip balm holder. The only thing that I could make from the leftovers was a small bow for hairband, everything else was incorporated in this bag.



The Pinky Promise bag is an extremely cute bag pattern designed by Little Moo designs and perfect for kids/ teens but also for grownups. It can hold your phone, keys, cardholder and a pocket of tissues. Perfect for a night out or going for ice cream. The instructions tell you to use a magnet closure, but I am a very frugal bag maker and did not use one. I also attached the shoulder strap differently to avoid needing bag hardware. The pattern also includes an option to make a ear phone hole which I think is the cutest and smarted thing ever. By not having the ear phones go under the flap, the phone is much more secure in the bag.



The second non clothing item is this chicken based on the pattern by Frazzydazzles. The original pattern is to make a Silkie chicken, a type of chicken that is super fluffy looking and has a bunch of feather on its head. Unfortunatly I did not have fluffy fabric. I did have short haired fur, so I made a Dutch type of chicken. One with comb on her head. I used some upcycled denim to make her feet, beak and comb.  Our children were obviously fighting over who was allowed to play with her.



This chicken is the reason why I dared to sew these two. Sewing this chicken was so much easier than I thought it would be. I somehow expected it to be quite hard with all the small pieces, but is was not at all. I sewed her almost totally on my serger but afterwards I realized that on some places I sewed a bit too close to the side due to the fur. Those small holes were so quickly and easily solved by hand, that I was inspired to sew the other two by hand alone.



Both of these patterns and the patterns from this and this blog post are all part of One thimble 19*. You can buy these two patterns plus many more as one magazine, but these individual patterns are now also available through their own designers.