Getting side tracked with a new project.

So my husband and I went to Seattle for Christmas and in the airport on the returning trip home, I saw this really cute fringy, cuddly, warm blankets everywhere. All kinds of people had them. I saw this one young black woman with a white and polka dot pattern one with light blue backing and then two children with them in different shades. I finally asked the mother of the children where it came from since there were several in the airport. She said her mother made them and that they were called "No-Sew Blankets".

So as soon as I got home, I looked them up and sure enough I found a great blog entry about how to make one.

I went to Jo Ann Fabrics to find some fleece and found some amazing dark blue and white material that had apparently just come in that day. The clerks were all excited about it and were telling me what a great blanket they would make together:

Anyway, so I bought some new scissors and a few rulers of various lengths and tried to get to work. The hard part was that the fabric was so long that it was bigger than the table. So I cut off the rements and then had a hard time lining the two pieces together. (I got 2 1/2 yards of each). So eventually, I had to work on the empty guest bedroom floor.

I cut off 6 inch squares at each end. And start to make the one inch cuts around the entire thing.

That's as far as I've gotten really in two days of casually working on it. I'll keep updating. However, all I really have to do is to cut the rest of the strips and then tie them into knots so after that it'll be done. I think it'll be really cute.

HA HA Bunny

So last night I made a HA HA Bunny:

I actually used the book's pattern. I traced it with blue chalk and then cut out all the pieces.I bought this great tool at Jo Ann's Fabrics. It helps you to turn the little ears, tail, legs etc. inside out after you've sewn them together.

Again, since I'm handstitching, it's a daunting task ahead when you know you have all that sewing to do. I considered buying this really cheap handheld sewer, but the lady at the store swore that it wouldn't work for what I was trying to do. She kept telling me that I had to buy a sewing machine.

I just don't think I would use the sewing machine enough to warrant purchasing one, but you never know. We'll see how it goes. Cheap ones run around $115.

I think working with felt makes it hard to keep the right shape. This bunny looks a little funky. And sewing up the last bit of seam after stuffing keeps being hard. (I know bad grammar). But it is - it never looks right.

Anyway - here's the finished product:

Stuffleupagus

Man it's hard now-a-days to come up with a creative name for your stuff. I wanted stuffles or stuffies or something...but that name is definitely taken.

I've been interested in making some stuffed animal/monsters for awhile. I have seen them around and always felt like it was something I could possibly make myself. Recently I was reading Bust magazine and it really got me into it again.

I've been doing alot of embroidery lately and getting in the crafty mood, so this was just an extension of that. I don't have a sewing machine, so it's all hand stitching for me at this point.

So once I decided to start this, I bought this book called "Fun Dolls" that is adorable. Full of little how to cartoons and little characters that guide you in the process. It gives you patterns that you have to blow up with a copier and etc.

I started off by trying to find some great fabric. I went to AC Moore and little did I realize - they don't sell fabric. (I recently found out Walmart doesn't sell embroidery floss either). So I went to Walmart and they had a very limited supply of any decent fabric. So I went easy and bought a yard of black felt and a yard of white felt to get started. I decided to make a cat doll and I would fashion it after our cat Gobi.

I got home all excited and of course my husband was confused. I was going to make what?

So I started off by making my own pattern freehand. I took some chalk and traced the pattern onto the black felt and then cut the whole thing out. I decided to do one big pattern instead of separate ears, arms and legs like the book had. I figured it was my first try, so maybe that would make it easier.

Needless to say, it took approx. 4 hours for me to crank out the little guy. I had to hand stitch the entire doll and then stuff it, and try to sew up the giant hole that I left in order to turn the pattern inside out. That was the only really big mistake I made. Oh! And not doing the nose and mouth before sewing up the doll. But, the hole was the big problem. I should have left a much smaller gap in which to turn it inside out and then stuff it. I was nearly impossible to get a good clean seam on the doll since there was so much left to be sewn up.

So here are pictures of the final product. (I really should have tried to make a tail as well).