More plushies....

One of Thing 2's friends was really into Angry Birds last year, and I was intending to make him a stuffed Angry Bird for his birthday....but his mom said he's not really into Angry Birds anymore.  Darn fickle kids!  Now he's into Mario Bros.  Okay, time to check out Google!  Because she also said that he has plenty of books and games, and he's not really into superheroes or normal boy stuff like that, and even they were having a hard time figuring out what to get him!  Not helpful....and unfortunately, there were no patterns online to sew anything easily recognizable from the Mario Bros universe.  (Lots of crochet patterns available, but I wasn't going to crochet for the kid.)  So I settled for some humorous but possibly lesser known creatures, and I'm just hoping he'll recognize them.

First up is Boo.  I used a free tutorial I found online, and I actually followed it pretty closely.  The only changes I made were to use fleece instead of felt for the body (to make it softer) and to sew the facial features on instead of gluing them.  I think it turned out pretty nice!

I also made him a Luma - this one is green because that's his favorite color, but I did check to be sure that they come in green before I did that.  I know, I'm a nerd.  I used this tutorial with no changes.  And while I was on Skype with my brother (a total nerd!), I held this up, and he immediately said, "It's Luma from Mario Bros!"  So I felt very satisfied that it was recognizable. :)

I hope that Thing 2's friend likes these....

One-Yard Wonders: Bear

I've heard rave reviews of the book One-Yard Wonders for quite some time, and I was able to find it at my local library about 6 months or so ago.  I enjoyed looking through it, and I made the mistake of leaving it sitting out one day, and Thing 2 picked it up and started flipping through it.  That's always dangerous!  In this case, he picked out the bear cushion and wanted me to make him one (immediately!), as well as a second to give to his baby cousin.  Well, who am I to pass up an opportunity to encourage sharing?

We picked out (well, I picked, but he approved) a light brown corduroy that's been in my stash long enough that it can no longer be used for boy pants - at least not for my boys, at their current sizes!  And then we picked out the remnants from my dog's first leash/harness/collar/stuff as the contrast.  I traced the pattern, scanned the instructions (because the book was due!), and cut out the pieces.  And there it has sat for months.

And then I decided this would be a great back-to-school gift!  So I found all the pieces, found where the heck I saved the instructions, and got to work.  I was planning to make both bears at once, until I screwed something up and decided not to waste time unsewing right then.  So this bear got finished in time to be presented after dinner on the first day of school.  

Here's a side view:

 And here's the happy boy view:

I have to say that it's a pretty straightforward toy to stitch, though it's not easy to sew the long strap to the side pieces.  That takes some patience and slow-sewing.  It's definitely not perfect, but it's done!  I did wind up going back to recut the nose pieces and start over, because the nose looked ridiculously small.  I'm still not sure I'm totally sold on the nose.  Oh, and I cut two nose pieces, sewed them right sides together, cut a slit in one pieces and turned them out that way.  Press it, then stitch it on, and no one ever sees the side with a slit.  Much easier than what they described!  I also decided to use a contrast piece as the underside of the tail, to match the ears.

Thing 2 is happy, and now I just have to sew the second one for my niece, which will hopefully take less time than the first.

Angry Birds!

Thing 2 loves Angry Birds.  Never mind that he's only played the game once.  He's in love.  So when I was flipping through a pattern catalog and spied McCall 6481, I about fell over.  The pattern description is basically just "stuffed toys," but let's not kid ourselves.  These are Angry Birds!  Fortunately, JAF was having a sale on McCall patterns, so I just snatched it up!  This is view D, which is basically the red Angry Bird (though in different colors on the pattern cover, and minus the black tail feathers, which I still might go back and add....I haven't convinced myself to bother yet).  I changed the colors to match the red bird, and then I went to work!

Basically, this is a round ball with wings, facial features, and a comb.  It's awesome.  I used fleece for everything except the eyes and eyebrows.  Those are felt.  The pattern calls for using a fusible webbing on the eyes/brows and fusing them to the fleece.  Now haven't we all learned that we're not supposed to put an iron on fleece?  Well, I approached it with fear and trepidation, because there's really no way to machine sew these on, and I really didn't want to hand-sew them.  And now I can tell you that by using a press cloth (mine is an old thin piece of flannel from a practically threadbare sheet) and lots of steam and even moderate pressure, you can safely fuse things onto fleece.  Granted, this is generic, non-fluffy, non-special fleece, so YMMV.

I stitched up the pieces in half an hour or less, then ignored them for over a week, just because I didn't want to do the handsewing to attach the beak and comb.  Silly me!  When I finally buckled down and just did it, it probably took me half an hour.  I should've just sat in front of the TV and done it earlier.

I left the Angry Bird knockoff on my husband's nightstand, because Thing 2 always comes into our room in the mornings to announce that he's up and moving.  And DH's nightstand is visible from the doorway, so I figured he'd definitely see it there.  I was already up and in the kitchen, but DH said that the reaction was everything I had hoped for - the classic double-take in the middle of a sentence, then the cautious "Is that for me???", followed by joy.

Of course, now Thing 1 wants one.  Go figure.

Wacky Creatures

Wow!  I really have been horrible this summer about posting.  Oops!  Guess it's time to play catch-up.  Well, this is a project that was finished over a month ago.  I have had the pattern (McCall 5826) for a long time - I know that I had it before we moved, so it's been at least 1.5 years.  Sadly, I had traced it before the move, intending to make some wacky snuggly creatures for the monsters for Christmas then, but obviously didn't do so!  The Pattern Stash Contest on PR prompted me to finally get around to making these up last month.

I had originally intended to use interlock from stash for these, just to make them softer and more snuggly.  Well, I still used stash, but these are batik-type cotton prints that I've had long enough to have forgotten where/when I got them.  The bonus is that Thing 1's favorite color is green, and Thing 2's is orange.  So this worked out well!  

The pattern has tons of options to customize your creature - two basic body shapes, and then different shapes/lengths of limbs, ears, etc.  There are also different options for facial features.  You do have to trace this pattern - I always trace mine, but here it's absolutely necessary - in order to put the chosen options together and have a pattern to cut.  Once you do that, it's a simple matter of cutting two pieces - front and back are identical.  Put your facial features on, sew around the sides, turn right side out, stuff, and sew your opening shut.  Voila!  Wacky creature!

The creature is a little larger than the picture looks - mine are about 13 inches tall and 12 inches wide (depends on arms).  Still a good size for a kid to hug.  The only quibble that I have with the instructions was that, despite telling you to put on most facial features before sewing front/back together (good!), they tell you to sew the eyes on after stitching front/back together (bad!).  They do take a LOT of stuffing, so keep that in mind if you make one.  Oh, and I machine stitched the lines for the teeth, and I used top-stitching thread for it.  I thought that made them stand out more.

All in all, these were fun to stitch up.  My boys loved them, though they have not so far become favorites.  However, they've only had them a month, and their favorites tend to rotate.