Wedding fish are DONE DONE DONE

I am happy to say that the wedding fish are doing their thing down in Florida! Or maybe they swam over to the Dominican Republic for the wedding, who knows! I do know that I'm glad they are done .. they came out well but working with silk lined with an interfacing was a nightmare. I didn't think I'd get the long thin fins turned at all. I had to resort to pulling them through with a pair of super skinny hemostats since the turning tubes didn't work at all. Just glad they are behind me now and I hope they are a hit with the ring bearers!

Posted by judi at 4:15 PM | Comments (6)

Wedding fish

I accepted a commission to make 3 stuffed fish for a beach wedding in the Bahamas. My client plans on having her ring bearers holding cane rods with these little fish attached to them. She sent me some lovely silk but I've made my samples out of some of my hand dyed cotton.

Here's the pattern:

Here's the hanging view with the rings in its mouth:

Here it is laying flat:

Posted by judi at 2:13 PM | Comments (1)

What in the world? A Sweet Tooth Fairy Pillow !!!!

So my daughter's best friend posted a picture on Facebook of her daughter holding her first lost tooth - in a plastic baggie! I decided that she needed a tooth fairy pillow. I don't do normal ... even though I try ...

Now I do have to say that the pink pocket that is showing doesn't really show through the plushie in person - the flash did that number on her. The lost tooth goes in the mouth of the plushie, to be replaced, hopefully, with coins from the tooth fairy.

A friend of mine gave me a bag of jewelry and in that bag was a necklace that had the word 'Sweet" in rhinestones .. so I cut it up and sewed the word to the tutu. The tutu was kind of time consuming - it consists of a piece of elastic with tons of little 5"x2" pieces of tulle tied on (like fringe on a shawl). You just keep pushing them to the center until you can't see elastic when stretched out.

More baby stuff!

I'm having entirely too much fun dyeing these little baby onesies. I actually ordered a bunch more dyes so I can do more with pastels. I only have four basic Procion Fiber Reactive dyes and I've been mixing my own colors. Decided I don't like the tie dye design that you make using rubber bands, I much prefer the spiral. The three to the right are tie dyed and the other two are twisted and then vat dyed. There's quite a few babies due in my circle of friends so I can amuse myself for a while!

I'm also making a couple of plushies - this is from my infected plushie line :) Unfortunately I couldn't find a nice fuzzy felt in anything other than beige. I tried to dye some but it didn't take as it's a synthetic. Didn't think it would. Oh well. I don't want to buy any acid dye to try to see if that would work. So Measlie here is pretty pale.

Posted by judi at 4:57 PM | Comments (2)

More baby pics

This is my 8 week old nephew with his plushie ... really gives you a perspective on the size of the plushie, lol.

Plush, plush

I have nearly sold out of the plush down at The Stash so I bought a bunch more fleece and I'm making more. I'm SO glad they are being loved! These are the latest two .. this is LizzieBeth - Lizzie wants to be a stripper but Beth wants to be an electrical engineer - they aren't really happy with each other right now.

Then we have EllieMae - she told me her story but the radio was on and she was whispering. I asked her to repeat it but she refused. So, who knows?

and and and ... I got a start on four severed hands today ! It feels good to be making something again!

Tastes like chicken !

Poxley twins - infectious plushies

They're baaaack .... they have been waiting for their faces and spots since November! Since my muse is on vacation along with half the other Muses around I figured I'd try to finish them up. I didn't realize until I was done with the spots that I was doing the blanket stitch backwards. Oops. But I like the way it looks - gives a bit of extra color. Yeah, any excuse, eh, Jude? These two will be going up for sale at my Etsy shop along with the rest of my plushies sometime this week. The usual $30 plus shipping. If you want one just email me and I won't put it up at Etsy. They are cute, aren't they!

Will you respect me in the morning?

My husband says that if I don't stop making these crazies then no one will respect me as a doll maker any more. He said 'you used to be a pretty good doll maker, now look at you...". Men. He just doesn't get it. I'm actually lucky I managed to pry myself away from the computer long enough to make this little sock monster! She has some scars on her back - socks aren't as forgiving as cotton! But she just thinks they are battle wounds. Do ya think I should tell my husband to ... 'put a sock in it?' ... groan ....

Danger ahead ...

Bernie is living in Iowa and it seems he is in danger of being squished by a couple of giant SpongeBobs ... I do worry about these guys and the homes they are going to .... but I was told he's actually their buddy ... maybe they are his bodyguards .. i don't know ...

Plushie groupie

The craft fair was a bust as far as the plushies were concerned. I sold the little pink one on the far right. So the rest are up for sale .. $30 plus shipping ... email if you're interested ... they'll go up on Etsy eventually but they'll get lost in the crowd there. Did you know there are nearly 98,000 sellers on Etsy now? Amazing. Anyhow - all the plushies except the little chubby one in the middle are available ...

... and thanks for all the congrats on my 500th posting! ...

The last of the Plushies!

This is it for now. I am done. I still have a ton of fleece and felt but I can't bring myself to make any more of these right now. Good luck to me finding somewhere to store it all, LOL. I am going to take a group shot of all my plush toys before I head out to the craft show this weekend. But for now, Finestra and I want to wish all my American friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

Equal Opportunity in the Plush World

We don't discriminate in my plush world. Anyone can be a fighter or a wrestler. Consuela here is evidence of that. She recently won her first fight but not without a bruise or two.

I taught a plush toy class yesterday at the quilt shop, I had one student - a young mother in her early 30s. This did not surprise me because I see so many artists in their 20s and 30s making these dolls and the customer base at the quilt shop is way older than that. I think if I was to teach these again I would have to go to somewhere like JoAnn Fabrics rather than the quilt shops. But I had fun with Marissa - she is a beginning sewer so the one-on-one instruction was in her favor!

Two more wrestlers

When I was in Mexico this past February some of the stall vendors were selling wrestling masks. These were full head masks but I decided for my version it would just be the face.

If you look closely at the yellow one you'll see I used the negative spaces from the Don King plush's mustache and mouth for the facial features.
I don't particularly care for this brown plush's shape with this mask. I like the mask but it is more scary than fun. Not such a success. I think I am approaching plushie burn-out. Who'da thunk it!

Moving into wrestling?

Thought I would try a wrestler. Didn't get the mask quite right but it will work. Notice the change in the arm pattern...

The Blue Marauder

Building the team - a plush toy team, that is!

You have to have a manager if you have fighters! Remind you of anyone????

Is this the loser? More plushie fun.

This is Hiram. He didn't fare as well in the boxing ring as his friend did but he's still quite the happy fellow. You see, even though he lost he managed to rake in tons of money. He'll need it to fix his eye.

The Pugilist ... I'm on a roll now!

Another basic shape - a light bulb with legs! I love this guy - I think he is my new favorite! He is fast and easy to make too so I think I'm going to make a few of him for the craft fair. Gotta love these pants, eh???

A demented Mr. Potato Head ???

My friend Sherry sent me a cartoon illustration that she thought would make a cute plushie. Something got a bit lost in the translation though. Conner is definitely one of a kind!

Meet Bob and Suesan ...

I went and paid for a table at a craft show that will be held on Thanksgiving weekend. I am going to try to sell the plushies and maybe some Northern Mermaids. I"m sharing the table with my daughter's best friend who makes beaded necklaces. We got the last space along the upstairs wall so we can actually put a second table in our space - make it kind of an L. I'm not thrilled with being upstairs but I waited too long to sign up. Hopefully next year I'll be on the mailing list so I'll know about it earlier. I finished up a few plushies today and I have two that need faces. I couldn't get a face I liked for them today. Who would have thought I'd have trouble with plushie faces!!!!

Anyhow - up there on the left is Suesan. Thought I'd make a 'cutesy' plushie ...plus I wanted to try sewing felt on for hair. I lost too much to the seam allowance - next time I'll have to leave more on the face. But I like it. Over to the right is Bob, another killer bee. Bob was born with his stripes going the wrong way and he's been confused ever since. Poor guy. Bob is the last of his line. The killer bees have died out with him. Too hard to stuff well.

Back to work on plushies

I think I've recovered a bit from grandbaby madness, LOL. My good friend Judi A. commissioned me to make a plushie for her niece who broke her arm recently. She left it up to me as to body shape, color, etc. So I went bright and cheery with a sewing themed body fabric (as Judi is also a seamstress/doll maker). Judi said her niece is 'sling buddies' with her Dad (who is ill) so I figured the plushie should be a sling buddy too!

I have also sewn up two more 'poxley' bodies today. I think I'm going to sew a bunch of bodies and limbs and put them together as the mood strikes me.

Baby toys

Okay, I promise not to turn this into a grandma's brag book, LOL. But I had to share this .. the plushie looks HUGE next to the baby! Don't they look like pals!

Who am I ?

I have to say that this body shape is my very favorite. It just says 'hug me'. It must since my 3 yr old niece is sleeping with her Poxley. But I'm not quite sure what this guy's story is. The eye patch idea came from Gerrie but somehow the little cape and tie got added in. Makes me think of a little kid playing dress up with anything available. The ribbon on his eye patch didn't quite meet at the back (measure twice, cut once, sigh) so I stuck a small splat as a closure. I like the furry fabric though, it's very pastel. Since I didn't use any buttons this one is safe to give to my new grandbaby who should be here in about 10 days!

Back at 'em

Hey ... how do you like the new blog colors? It's not quite finished, got a couple little things to fix still. But it's a nice change.

Anyhow - I made this a few days ago - this is Splat, she got hit by a baseball at a recent Mets game. Although she's still a little shell shocked, she has a better view of the world now - it's a split level view.

Schizo and Phrenia - a confused plushie

My friend Kai has been coming up with names for crazy plushies and this one caught my fancy. I thought she should be one doll with two personalities. I was going to name her Sybil (remember that book/movie?) but figured my Mom would get insulted as that is *her* name. Although I don't think she ever reads my blog so I could get away with it if I wanted to!!!

I am taking commissions for these things if you think of something you want - just $30 plush shipping (pardon the pun).

I think this one is 'spot on' !

Meet Poxley, he is Measley's little brother. He's a few inches shorter and a lovely lime green color. He was told to stay away from Measley but did he listen? Oh no, of course not! Now he has the itchies too!


Technical note: I hate sewing around a fairly complicated shape like this unless it is a template so even though I said I wasn't going to do it again, I did. This time I stuffed him before I sewed the spots and the face on and it worked out great. How do you like his little belly button and little butt cheeks?

Oh - he's going to my 3 year old niece in Colorado! I hope she likes him.

An infectious plushie

This is not my fault. This is the fault of the girls on FabricDollArt. They think I should do a line of sick plushies - or diseased plushies - or something. So this is Measley - he's rather spotty and since he drank all the Calamine lotion he is doomed to itch, itch, itch.

Now on a technical note, I made a big mistake when I made this guy. I sewed around him template style, turned him right side out, and then tried to sew all the spots and the face on. Not fun and it took me way too long. If I use this pattern again I'll cut it out first, do the decorative work, and THEN sew it together. He's the biggest one yet - 17 inches from top to bottom.

I'm as stuffed up as he is

Meet Phlegming. He's a little monster who has taken up residence in my house. I think he's taken up residence in my head actually. His favorite thing to play with is Kleenex and he's just nasty. I have tried everything I can think of to get rid of him but it's not working. So tomorrow I will go see a doctor exorcist and hopefully he'll be gone soon.

What's not to love???

Meet Farrah. She had an accident with a threshing machine when she was just a wee bit. It has never stopped her though, or even slowed her down. When she wants to get gussied up for a barn dance all the other females are totally outclassed.

Bernie - the killer bee - more plushie joy!

I am learning something new with each plushie I make. This guy taught me it's extremely difficult to stuff a thin neck when the opening is on the bottom. The stuffing wants to migrate down. Took me about three tries to get it firm. Don't think I'll be using this shape again (which is a bowling pin, by the way). A true bee shape wouldn't be able to sit down, LOL. I used my new BigKick machine for the felt eyes and the heart! Whoo hoo! Have to add that this guy is huge - must be about 14" or so.

I must say I laughed like a lunatic when I first turned him inside out and saw that face with the antennae! I'm glad no one was home!!! They would have locked me away! These little things are bringing me such joy.

So - this is Bernie the killer bee. He doesn't understand why no one is afraid of him. He is a good defender of the hive though, he has won many medals from the Queen Bea, although he only wears his purple heart.

It's all about color

I'm still playing with plushies - and probably will for a while yet. I have quite a few kids to make these for, not just the grandbaby that's coming. I am trying to incorporate different textures and colors in these as I experiment. But look - it's not a monster, LOL.

More plushies

So I'm still experimenting with these plushies. This little guy is a pancake pattern and he's made out of wool felt. HA. Wool felt is NOT fun to turn. I won't be doing this again. He doesn't even feel that good. Not that he has an upset tummy or anything - he's just not soft and cuddly.

Hmmmm, and then there is the one I made today. If you thought I was strange before just wait until you see this one ....

You have to understand that it is hunting season in Alaska. I figure if my husband doesn't get a moose he can have this one ....

Plushie love

I've been enamored of the monster plushies for a while now. There are some great young indie designers out there and I get a huge kick out of what their imaginations come up with. Yesterday when I was in JoAnn's hitting the Labor Day sale I found this great book called Plush-o-rama - awesomely fun plushies! So I bought it and today I read through it so I remembered how to put these little types of creatures together. It's been a while since I've sewn arms and legs INSIDE the body and then turned everything. I drew these two up today and I'm totally tickled by them. I laugh every time I look at them. Think they will make good toys for the grandbaby??

This is Marsha. She's a bit upset because she lost her dill pickle.

This is Aunt Edna. She looks a bit sour because, well, she just ate a dill pickle. Shhhhh ...