hello pineapples

New Plush WIP: Creepy or Cute?

I finally got around to working on a plush toy I've been planning.

Inspired by the monsters sewn by Blythe (a local artist I admire), I felted an old Gap cardigan (that I bought second hand, years ago) with the intention of turning into a toy. The sweater sat around for ages as I collected my thoughts and safety eyes and noses. I started thinking that it would make an interesting bear. Why a bear? I have no idea. Teddy bears have never really been my thing. Despite that, I took the plunge this morning and here my results:

1. pattern made from tracing Ikea PS Brum bear on newspaper:



2. He was a bit too bit too big, so I had to cut down the pattern:



3. Attempted sewing lots of rounded edges, which is still a bit of a challenge for me, and ended up with this guy:



Compared to the pattern's "muse":



And his head shot:



His eyes are crooked and a bit bigger than I'd like (I only have 18mm eyes on hand) and I haven't decided if I should embroider on a mouth or not. What I haven't taken a picture of is that you can see the thread at his seams. Overall, he's either cute or he's a weird craft mishap. I think I need to get back to the drawing board before I can introduce this dude to the world of craft fairs.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2 comments  

filed under: craft mishaps, felt, plush, sewing, wip

A work in progress: half way there!

I had posted before about a quilt I was working on for a friend's baby. The quilt is made up of squares that were signed by friends and family who were at the baby shower. The baby in question is now three months old and no longer lives in my building, but from what I've seen in photos, she's damn cute. Anyway, a very exciting thing happened tonight:



I finished embroidering the squares! Now the back needs to go on and there is quilting to be done, but I'm very pleased with how it's turning out. I will post better pictures once I have better light to take photos, but I was too excited to just fold it up and wait to take the picture.

Even one of the cats was psyched about it and checked out my handiwork:



Although, it could be that she just likes to climb under things, especially blankets.

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Friday, July 25, 2008 1 comments  

filed under: embroidery, quilt, show and tell, wip