Category Archives: Plush

Happy Halloween!

How do you make a really good looking Halloween card, that isn’t just full of witches, cats and spiders? I was completely stuck until I came across a book on Zentangles – that gave me an idea…. what if I was to write out the letters, then do a Zentangle style pattern in the middle of each one?

Some black card a white gel pen and a white pencil later, this is the end result:

Happy Halloween

The outside of the card, with a Zentangle-inspired look

The white gel pen wasn’t as opaque as I’d hoped, and some of the patterns needed going over a few times to make them stand out, but it still has a really striking effect on the black!

Happy Halloween - Hobbit

Inside the card – copying a Hobbit font

But for the inside, I wanted to use an orange gel pen…. so I cut some white paper to line the card, and copied a Hobbit-themed font from my computer screen to make it look a little more unique!

I knew I wanted to send a gift with the card, and I’d found the bat pattern from BeeZee Art a little while ago. I made the mistake of buying some nice thick fleece to make the bat…. and ended up having to hand crank the sewing machine, as even with a denim needle, it struggled with the thickness of the fabric layers!

I’m pleased with how the bat came out though – although the black fleece was a nightmare to work with, it gives Batty a nice plush feel, and the orange lining for his ears and wings (remnants from the polycotton lining of the Trendy bag‘s second version) lifts the black.

Bat - wings open  Bat - folded wings

My topstitching on the wings came out surprisingly well, even though his nose is slightly crooked! But his new owner loved him, and that’s the whole point 😀

Sweet Dreams

I’ve wanted to try machine sewing something for a while, and when I saw that this month’s Sew Crazy Challenge was “Big Dreams” themed, I was inspired to make a teddy bear & a bag – after all, if you wanted a great night’s sleep, what’s better than a cuddly bear & a bag to hold your favourite book?

I had some funky material from The Makery that was sitting around looking for inspiration for a while now, so decided to take the plunge and try making a bag out of that, and some starry fabric for the lining and handles. I followed the excellent tutorial from Diary of a Quilter and actually, I’m quite pleased with how this came out 😀

bag-and-bear

Some of the stitches on the bag aren’t perfect by any means, and I know my straight lines need practise to get them parallel to the edges, but I’m determined to not be such a perfectionist with things, so it’s definitely good enough for me 😀

And the best thing? I only used half a fat quarter for the outside, and only slightly more for the lining, so I have enough left over to make a second one!

 

The bear was also my first machine sewn plushie – I need to practise the joints a bit more, but it looks like a bear, and that’s the main thing. I used the Pip Pattern for him (but made it larger than the hand-sewn version), although I did knit the nose, as I fail at trying to sew them!

 

Sewing!!

I’d had the idea to sew a plushie for a while now, and seeing as this month’s Sew Crazy Challenge is for children, I thought I’d give it a go!

I found the pattern for Pip the Bear which seemed pretty easy, although I didn’t do any of the joints, I just stitched mine straight to the other pieces. He’s made out of cotton, rather than furry fabric, and is all hand sewn (incredibly fiddly in places!), but for a first attempt at a sewn bear, I think Pip came out really well 😀

Pip the Bear sewn2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve got a plan in mind now, to make a larger version that I can try to sew on the machine, to make the seams a lot harder wearing than my hand sewing can ever turn out to be. I’ve got some really funky orange material with mice over it, which should look fantastic, so wish me luck!