While She Naps

sewing through more patterns

I've had this book, Soft Animals A to Z by Carolyn Vosburg Hall, for a while, and although I'd read all the patterns I had never sewn anything from it.

It is a fairly new book as soft toy pattern books go, published in 2003, and it is ambitious.  26 patterns of every  sort of animal.  Lots to learn, for sure.

I chose the pig to start with because I liked the way the ears are attached. 

There is a slit cut in each side body, really more like a triangular dart. The pre-sewn and turned ears are inserted into the dart after the side bodies are attached to one another and then the dart is sewn up, trapping the ears in the seam while also shaping the head. Cool!

Okay, more about under bodies.  The under body on this pattern reaches all the way to the snout and as it gets near the cheeks it widens.  The cheeks come out looking really full and, well, piggy. 

Overall I really like this pattern. It is really well drawn and well designed. I think the tail could be thinner and longer, but that's a small thing and easy to redraw. 

ram - second try

I edited the ram pattern and gave it another try and I'm happier with this version.

In a fit of studio cleaning the other day I accidentally threw out the under gusset, head, and head gusset pattern pieces.  At first I was really annoyed at myself, but then I decided maybe it was a good thing because it forced me to really try again from scratch. 

This ram has longer, wider legs, a shorter chin and an awesome under body gusset.  Here is the back end of the under body

Nice and narrow, pulling the legs in, with wide oval darts at the top of each leg.

And here is the front end of the under body

It extends all the way up to the chest.  I'm learning.

I really liked the horns on version 1 so I took them off and attached them to version 2.

These new animals are big, at least for me.  This ram is 17" tall. And I love the felt. So many surface designs are possible with felt.  Once I have mastered all the elements of four-legged animal design I will work more with the body material both before and after sewing.

ram - first try

After Rudi's camel and lamb I thought I would try to apply some new skills to a first draft of a ram pattern. It is really helpful to see the ram photographed.

I need to make  a number of edits to the pattern. Even though I tried to exaggerate the length and width of the legs, they are still skinny and short.  And I think I need to make soles for the feet. Soles are such a pain to sew because they are small and fiddly, but really they add a lot to the finished animal.

The under gusset is not shaped quite right. In the back, it could be narrower so that the back legs are drawn together and don't splay quite so much.  In the front it could be longer, reaching up to the chest.  I find the under gusset the hardest piece to envision.  Still working on developing that skill.

I like the overall head shape and the head gusset is just right. I added two small neck darts which gives the head a fullness that is perfect.  And because the head is attached separately I could make a herd of sheep and rams and have their heads turned in various directions as though they were looking at one another, or at a nearby predator, or prey. The chin, though, is a bit long. I had made a little beard to cover it, but Charlie came in last night and saw it and burst into hysterical laughter which I took to be a bad sign.  I like the stitched horns, though, and I like that they're huge. 

Okay, so that is ram version 1.  Back to the work table.

Rudi's lamb

In between writing pattern instructions for the last six projects in the book I made Rudi's lamb.  I'm still enjoying sewing with wool felt.  I had a few felt punched flowers left over from another project and made the lamb a little floral garland to wear around her neck. 

The top of the legs on this pattern extend beyond the under gusset and are sewn to each other.  That is interesting for sure and the first time I've used that construction method. I think it might serve to bring the legs in tightly so that they don't splay at all.  Clever.  The legs on Rudi's patterns are all wider than I would have drawn them, but they make the animal sturdier in the end.  I think drawing the legs wider than you think they need to be might be a good trick. Like the camel, the pattern for the tail is also very cool.  Overall a good project.

learning from patterns

Now that the mass of sewing for the book is just about done (nearly 40 birds, whew!), I have a renewed interest in designing four-legged animals. Believe it or not, I feel like my mass of knowledge about fabric birds is now in this repository and suddenly I feel totally ready, and free, to move on to something knew.  I still love my birds, don't get me wrong, but I feel like making more birds is the easy path. Easy and endless and I need to push myself forward to explore and to learn.

I've made four-legged animals before.  For a long while I made jointed animals. I like how the joints invite people to play with the finished animal, but jointed toys avoid the issue of creating darts and gussets that make the animal stand up and be proportionate. 

I've designed some good elephants and a few different dogs, but I really would like to come a better understanding of all the different options, all the diferent methods, of four-legged animal design. 

The best place to start, I think, is the same way I started four and a half years ago when I first began making softies: 1970's craft books.  My favorite vintage toy making book is Good Design in Soft Toys by Rudi de Sarigny.  This book is a classic and one I've read many times.  I've learned a lot from Rudi already, but I think if I work my way through more of his patterns I will become better versed in gussets and darts, attaching legs and shaping faces. 

I know that I'm not alone in loving this book. Many wonderful people make his patterns.  Here is Rudi's duck, which I'm sure you've seen made up by many crafters around the blogosphere:

And here is Rudi's lamb which I'm sure you will also recognize. Stephanie makes very sweet versions of many of these.

And I am hoping to work my way through some of his patterns, too. I've always liked Rudi's camel. I made it yesterday from wool felt and already I am learning.

 

First, I forgot how great wool felt is for sewing softies. I have been sewing in cotton for three year. I learned a very cool way of connecting the under part of each leg to the underbody gusset.  I also think the darts that create the hoof are pretty cool. Even the tail is cool. 

There are so many excellent images of rams around the craft and design blogs right now. This amazing show is a big inspiration, and Nicole's wonderful work, too.  In the end, I'd like to make my own ram using some of the knew techniques I learn. I hope you'll bear with me as I make new things that I cannot sell. I am working to learn so that in the end it will be possible for me to create in three-dimensions all the ideas I have in my head.

handmade hat

I finally made this hat from Amy's book.  I've wanted to make it for a long while and now that we finally have a 21st century printer that can create an enlarged copy (!) I was able to enlarge the pattern to the proper size.  This project was super satisfying. It took ten minutes total, from cutting the fabric to tying the finished hat onto Stella's head.

Roxanne chatted with me the whole time and picked colors for her own hat, which I made for her last night after she was in bed. I put it at her place at the table and she found it this morning at breakfast.  Now Charlie wants one.  Not so sure about that.

hope you had a happy one

Stella dressed as her beloved Pink Kitty for Halloween.  Unfortunately Kitty has become a rather limp, gray, raggy sort of cat. Stella, though, was very happy being as pink as could be. 

She and Abe were quite a pair. 

swan

I made this fabric swan while developing some new patterns.  She is in my shop now.

Abe

Roxanne as her favorite president.  Turns out very few of her fellow kindergarteners know of Abraham Lincoln, but their parents think it's a riot.

finger puppets for Loretta

I have a new niece, Loretta.  I haven't met her yet, but I hear she is adorable and resembles my father.  This must mean she is a bit swarthy with thinning hair. I couldn't resist making her a set of hand-stitched finger puppets from Kata Golda's book. She will get these for Hanukkah.

I almost never sew while my children are here.  In order to get into my creative groove I need a quiet house. I usually sew in the morning while they are at school or in the late evening once they've gone to sleep.

 

I've found with these hand-stitched felt projects that I can sew with my children playing nearby.  The pattern is all right there in the book.  All I need is the big box of wool felt scraps, some embroidery floss, scissors, pins and an needle. 

 

I made all of these puppets while Stella played with the felt scraps, making a little cape for her stuffed monkey.

I am not a knitter and I always look enviously at so many knitting women's ability to make something while taking care of children.  Making these little felt things let's me do both and that is very nice.

apples and pumpkins

We went to Dowse Orchard on Sunday afternoon to enjoy the beautiful fall day and to pick the last apples of the season.  We also chose our Halloween pumpkins and went on a tractor ride.  We went late in the afternoon and the colors were so saturated.  It was amazing. 

Shabbat child

Stella was the Shabbat child at nursery school on Firday.  She took her duties very seriously, passing out cups and challah  to everyone.  And she picked the first Shabbat song to sing with the class.  And she got to be line leader going out to the playground AND back in again.  Charlie and I can't believe how big she's gotten.

sneak peek week: day five

sneak peek week: day 4

sneak peek week: day 3

sneak peek week: day 2

sneak peek week

Well, after that last post I thought I would do a few image-only posts to give you a sneak peek at the projects I am designing for the book.   How about five images, one each day, to give you an idea of what is going on around here.  Welcome to sneak peek week!

what's going on

Okay, I am officially in the black hole of craft book writing. I sew and sew, draw and create, and sew some more and in the end have no pictures to post here.  This is a bit frustrating, but that's okay.

I think this is a common experience among craft bloggers who write books. So here's reporting from the black hole.

I've made 16 bird patterns and I have at least two more to create. That feels significant.  For each pattern I have to draft it on paper, take pictures as I make it at every stage, write up the pattern and label all the pictures, and then finish sewing it up.  In addition to the 18 birds there are numerous side bars and extensions that need to be designed, photographed and sewn. 

I  like some parts of the process more than others for sure. I would happily sew away the day and forget to photograph as I go (this has already happened several times causing  me to have to make yet another bird and remember to photograph it the second time around). I really like writing the creative parts, where I explain how I came to make that particular bird, what makes it unique.

I am trying to discipline myself to write the technical parts as I go so that I'm not left with a whole bunch of to do  on December 1 with only 10 days to go until my deadline.  I'm sure, though, that there will be tears and stress and more tears around that time anyway. 

I have so many ideas, so many ways to extend each project. I feel like I could continue to make birds and variations on birds endlessly for this book and it is hard to accept that at some point I will have to call it a day and turn it all in.

I have been stretched as a crafter in such a great way during this process.  I've used different materials, tried new techniques, created brand new birds patterns I've always wanted to try but in the past had gotten bogged down and never gotten to. There is nothing like a manuscript deadline to get you moving and to make all those ideas take form.

My table of contents is like a big to do list and it is almost all checked off. We are officially out of counter space to store all the birds.  I'm going to miss them when they are in Colorado for their January photo shoot without me.

My editor is at Quilt Market in Houston this week.  Just the thought that my book will be at Quilt Market, that my birds might be seen by such a wide audience, makes my heart skip.  It's coming together, even though this post has no pictures.  I can accept that. 

Book Review: Hand-Stitched Felt by Kata Golda

I recently received a copy of a very sweet new craft book by Kata Golda called Hand-Stitched Felt: 25 Whimsical Sewing Projects.  I had noticed Kata's softies before in some catalogs and wondered how these little handmade felt softies ended up in there.  She tells her story in the introduction of the book. It turns out Kata' is very successful selling her creative, handmade felt animals and and other goodies at retail stores all over the country.  Like me, she began sewing when she became a mother.  In the years since her business really developed and now she has employees and a web shop and hundreds of retailers that carry her work including ABC Carpet and Kate's Paperie in New York.

The book is very lovely to read and to look at.  One of the things I like best is all of Kata's little drawings that are overlayed on the photos of her work. And I love the hand lettered chapter titles. 

I had a few minutes this morning and needed a break from obsessively working on my own book (whew!  it's been intense this week) so I decided to make the Everyday Journal on page 63.  It really took only a few minutes (I used my machine instead of hand-sewing the felt together, but still) and the little book I made is so adorable. I really like it!  A great way to use up wool felt scraps for sure. 

These little journals would make adorable gifts, with a set of colored pencils, for any little person. They'd also be great in goody bags. 

Sometimes I give away books that publishers give me to review, but not this time. This one's a keeper.

the Sukkah is up

The Sukkah is up!  We put the walls up on Friday afternoon in about 45 minutes.  This is our Sukkah's fourth anniversary and we're old pros now.  It rained all day Saturday and threatened rain for Sunday morning so our annual Sukkah party didn't happen, but we managed to put the roof on and the walls on Sunday and then all the decorations. 

I really think Martha Stewart Living should do a Sukkah.  I can see this spread of photos of an amazing Sukkah decked out in impeccable Martha fashion with harvest golds and oranges, full of pumpkins and gourds.  Can't you see it?  Maybe with a menu and recipes for a Sukkah party, too.

I'm sewing a swimming bird today for the book. And writing introductions for each bird project.

Here is a little project we like to do with scraps, trims, buttons and all the other stuff that ends up on the sewing room floor.  Embelished paper dolls.  These are great to do with a playdate, too.  Put out a big tray full of scraps  - maybe some wrapping paper, gems, yarn - and get started. 

Fold a piece of 8.5x11 paper in  half and in half again, like an accordian.  Draw a simple doll shape making sure that the arms extend all the way to the edge of the paper on each side.  Cut it out, unfold and viola. Four paper dolls.  Draw some faces and then decorate.  

I'm sad to hear that two of my favorite magazines, Gourmet and Cookie, are both folding.  I really like Gourmet. I've cooked dozens of Gourment Everyday dishes, some of which have become weekly staples around here. Cookie was always fun to read. I liked the reviews of new kid's music and books, and the nice style photos of kid's rooms.  I love magazines and it makes me so sad to see the good ones go.