Plaiderpillar

Just listed in my shop.

A little something I whipped up for a little one at Easter time.

The tail cracks me up.

Enjoy!

This is the last Scottsbluff Library project creation unveiling!  The Inflatable Caterpillar Bookworm.

He is made of five yoga balls.  Each ball is 55cm in diameter.  This makes him about nine feet long.  The fabric is an ultra-durable upholstery material, and in addition, the head uses wool for the antennae and vinyl for the face.

On the underside of each ball is a circular opening with an inset flap.  Each body section is sewn as a covering with the legs attached.  You put the deflated yoga ball in through the circle opening, inflate it, and smooth the flap into place to cover the ball.

The first caterpillar was made with all the sections sewn together, but on this one I wanted to make it come apart so that kids in the library could take the sections to different areas, or just rearrange the color order.  To make sure they would be easier to come back into place, the ends of the body sections have magnets in them.  Just strong enough to help the caterpillar’s body line up, but not so strong that they would pinch little fingers if the kids re-aligned him.

I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result!  The main fabric was pricier than most fabrics you can buy locally.  I special-ordered it so that it would be highly durable for the little ones.  I was especially pleased when the little feet turned out well, since the fabric is very stiff.  Not many fabrics can hold up well AND keep the shape of little curves.

Everything about this guy turned out how I envisioned it.  I like to plan my patterns well in advance, but usually there is some unexpected result (a fabric that is trickier to sew than expected, colors that look a little different once they are all part of one piece, a shape that changes completely when stuffed, etc.).  This time I REALLY tried to account for all the variables, since he is soooo big.  Sewing something this large while doubts linger in the back of your mind makes the whole process stressful instead of fun.  I usually try something new on a small scale, then make multiples.  I made one section, everything went swimmingly, so I repeated four more times!

Thank you all for following along with this project.  It was quite the undertaking amidst the day job, pets, and other unexpected crazinesses of life.  I’m grateful to Nancy, Kris, and James from Leo A. Daly for seeking me out for this project.  I’m grateful to the librarians at the Scottsbluff Public Library for having the vision to think outside the box with their choices.  I’m grateful to YOU for caring enough to read my blog and for taking an interest in my work!

Thank you.

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.

I wish I really did have two of these so the two of us coulda looked at each other as two giant mouse/bear/monster guys!

Can’t you just see us going about our daily activities in thes things?!

Walking dogs, cooking pizza, scooping kitty litter, answering emails, cleaning toilets, running to the grocery store, making more masks, making clay sculptures, eating cheese?!  Hahahaha!

Everything is better when you’re wearing a giant animal mask!

The Scotssbluff librarians asked for a special request along with their other PlaiderPillar items:  four masks.

Now, there are a few tricky things here:

What sizes/ages should they fit?

How should they be cared for?

If little ones are going to wear them, you must be sure not to make them a suffocation hazard.

If they are too heavy, the little ones can’t keep them on well.

If they tie in the back, they tend to shift around a lot and get really . . . covered in kid schmutz.

It they are vinyl, they don’t look as comfy, and while easy to clean, might not look so good with the seams.

So, I chose this method:  fully lined, with simple exaggerated facial features.  The fabrics used were cottons, wools, faux furs, and some vinyl for things like the teeth.  The eye holes are faced with wool felt.  The layers are held together in several places so they can’t be inverted.

All in all, I was really surprised how wonderfully they turned out for a first-time project!

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!

I built this guy to be floppy:  floopy toes, floppy feet, floppy legs, floppy arms, floppy teeth, floppy tongue, and a flapping head.

So, when you put your hand in his head and make him talk, he kinda moves around with you!

AAAANNNNND all the plaids come together on his fanny!  That’s pretty fun, right?

Well, well, well!  Who do we have here?

A GIANT MONSTER THAT WILL STEAL YOUR LUNCH!

That dashing smile is just luring you in:

“Hey,  buddy?  What’s that over there?,” he says.  ”Is it a BABY WOLF?”

Lunch GONE.

That picture on the right above is the inside of him.  I just wanted to should you about topstitching the faces onto the bodies.  Several people have asked about how that’s done using the industrial sewing machine.  I hand-tie the topstitched stuff, usually, so that there isn’t a messy backtack mark.

Wait . . . there was a candybar sitting right here a minute ago . . .