Plaiderpillar

I posted a couple images of these when I mentioned the Baby Expo, but I thought I might explain them a little more, in case you were wondering where they came from.

Pretty self-explanatory, but it’s a bird mobile that I made for my new nephew Hank.  It’s made from tulle poufs, in mustard, off-white, and pea green.  The six birds are a tweaked for a simple bird ornament pattern, and I changed their body style slightly for every two.  I also experimented with different wing styles.  They are made form wool felt and have vintage button eyes.  The hoop is an old embroidery hoop, and was very handy, as I could wrap the string around the inner hoop, and adjust the height and position.

There are LOTS of cute DIY baby mobile ideas on Pinterest.  Some of them don’t even require sewing, or maybe just a straight stitch around the edge of two pieces of cut felt shapes.  I love this yarn mobile idea.  The circular ring could even be a found object.  (I dunno about you, but I actually do have a spare wheel hanging around the house.)  Just make sure you attach everything well and keep it out of the little one’s reach.

I have a crazy idea for what I’d like to hang over our future Mini-Pillar’s crib, but that will have to wait for another post!

Chad is the graphic designer at the inflatable mascot company (Signs and Shapes International) where, until recently, I was the patterner.  Before I left to work from home, Chad commissioned me to make his daughter’s favorite animal for her:  a wolf!

Her favorite color is purple, so I used some lavender for the eye background, and found some vintage striped material in purple-ish tones for the tummy.  He even has three different types of fur.  His nose is super-realistic, which I love next to the comically chubby body!  The grey of his body fur is slightly textured, so it looks like he’s running free in the wind.  Right?!

My friend Meredith commissioned me to make what might be the most . . . unique . . . toy for their soon-to-arrive baby girl.  When Meredith was little, she had an imaginary friend named Meatcut.  He was a piece of meat who was cut into slices.  Because he was sliced, he had to be careful when he walked so he didn’t fall apart.  Meredith decided this would be the perfect thing to bring to life as a surprise for her husband at their baby shower.  I found a herringbone twill so that the meat looked kinda marbled, and used soft grey wool flannel for his arms and legs.

For his slices, I made graduated pieces that snap together.  You can see how they slightly taper as they narrow down at the hips.  (Yeah.  Meat hips.)  His mouth is hand-stitched, and the eyes are two different sizes.  They are the last two roundy safety eyes in that style that I had.  In case you aren’t familiar, safety eyes are round plastic domed eyes with a shank on the back, and there is a one-way washer that slides on the shank to keep little ones from being able to pull them off easily.  (Although if I DO sew buttons on something that little hands might get a hold of, I sew them with strong thread and anchor them well.)  I have a stash of these safety eyes from my mom who made lots of stuffed animals for a while, and I was saving these two for something special.  There ya go, Meatcut!  Have some fancy eyes.

My brother, his wife Kara, and their new son Hank came down the street to visit for Halloween, and Hank was wearing the costume I made him.  He’s a gnome!

I made a sleeper out of fleecy blue fabric, used a vintage buckle and made a wool felt belt for him.  The hat is red stretch terrycloth, and I sewed tiny snaps inside to attach the beard.  The beard is also wool felt.  I cut it into strips and sewed it to a ribbon.

He was one sleepy little gnome!

Rob asked me to make him a bow tie for our wedding (I promise, I’ll load pictures soon).  It worked out so well that I made him another form vintage fabric.  It is based on a vintage pattern that my mom used to use to make my dad neck ties, but I altered it slightly to slim it up a little.  I love making them, and he looks so nice in them.

Yeah.  This is the SLIMMED DOWN version!

My sister-in-law Kara was looking for decent nursing tanks that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg.  I told her I’d take a stab at altering a regular ol’ Target one, and it worked pretty well.  I cut the strap where I wanted it to split, and for the bottom/underlap I interfaced it lightly with knit fusible, and hammered in the snaps.  For the top/overlap I stretched the strap slightly wider and added a lightly interfaced tab and snaps.  I’m hoping this will prevent rolling and general cruddy-looking-ness as she launders it.  You know how sometimes knits like to roll after you’ve laundered them a lot?  Stretching the top/overlap knit portions also made the tab wide enough to help match to the bottom.  I think I could even stretch it a little more next time, or shape the tab to widen out and cover more.

Pretty slick though, huh?

Look at us!  We’re a couple of birds!

(Well, two people wearing the same bird mask.)

As I was creating this one, I kept checking it in the mirror.  It was cracking me up!

I did something a little different with this one, starting at the bottom row, sewing the next row on all at once (liner, batting, and outer fabric), and then finally sewing in the top circle.  Whew, was that tricky!  And then sewing the top circle liner in on the machine as much as I could, and hand stitching the rest . . . glutton for punishment.  I embellished it with sunken brow lines and hand stitched the beak on.

I must say, this one turned out to be my favorite of all the masks.

This mask fits a little more closely to the head, which will be good for the smaller kids.

It has a furry moss green hair patch on the top, consecutive rows of topstitiching (which is tricky to keep straight on a curved surface, keeping all the seams in place as you go!), and topstitched fangs.

I liked the placement of the tag across the top liner.

This is a sleepy huge guy.  Rob is fake reading him a book.

How are his feet staying so flat while stuffed with fiberfill, you ask?  Well, he uses a secret material, and I’ll divulge it to you, my loyal blog readers:

WOOD.

And there he is with his huge brothers!

All right, up next we have the third and final Legling.  (NOT the final Scottsbluff Library creature, though!)  Check out this guy’s overalls!  They have a swank vintage belt buckle.  He is made out of upholstery fabrics, knit, and and vintage fabrics.

Again, roll-out tongue and vintage zippers like his brother and sister from the last two posts.  Whoah!  Action mouth zipper!

And last but not least, the overalls.  Button suspenders!

They are sewn into the seams at the sides so they won’t get lost, but can button front and back.

Lemme tell ya, fitting pants, belt, arms, AND suspenders all on the body of one Legling . . . Whew!

OK, are you ready for more hugeness?  Keep your eyes open for the next posts!