elsie marley

just a few pictures of what I’ve been working on, before everything I’m working on is for christmas.

I guess this qualifies for braid wednesday as well!

I actually took this picture last wednesday, but found myself picking up this little project again today. They are vinyl hexagons: a little crafty, a little s&m.  That’s how I roll.  No, really, this project isn’t going to make any sense until it’s done and then only if it works. So I guess you’ll just have to wait.

I haven’t even turned my computer on the last couple days. I’ve been reading. Books. Fancy that.  So please if there is crafty awesomeness that I am missing on the internets, shoot me a link in the comments.

I know advent starts today and the calendar should really be done, but oh well. My kids don’t understand time yet, so one day late isn’t that big of a deal. I dreamed it up one very late night and honestly I don’t even know if it’ll work, but hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow to show you the finished version.  Any guesses to what it’ll be? Any fancy advent calendars that you are still working on feverishly?

This is a little tug boat I’m working on. Pattern making is the pits: sew, sew, sew, rip, rip, rip. The top bits are done, but the actually boat needs some more tiny changes. I haven’t been much for the plush lately, but I think I’m much more suited to it than making clothes. It’s challenging, but still quick, which is great when you have to remake the same toy over and over again. I’m very happy with the piping, but somehow the plaids almost match when I didn’t want them to match at all. If my son would start napping again this would be done in no time, but now who knows.

I found this great Alexander Henry print after reading Last Minute Patchwork Gifts (which is fantastic) and falling for the whole cloth quilt that’s in the book. I finally got around to putting the quilt sandwich together at the last craft night (yee haw! red wine and sharp scissors!).  The back turned out pretty good–if I do say so myself.

everything wasn’t so wrinkly when I put it together I swear. It’s been folded up in my bag waiting for me to attempt the hand quilting. Anyone have any advice?  The baby isn’t even born yet (no, mom, I’m not pregnant) so I’m way ahead of schedule. For once. And if the olympics keep sucking me in and making me stay up waaay past bedtime, then it’ll be done it no time.

on my desk. wednesday.

This was supposed to be the fourth moustachioed plush (the others are here) but I just can’t decide if I like it or not.  It was definitely a pain in the butt to make. It took forever to try to make the face at least a little three dimensional and after I gave up I realized how I should have done it (though now I forget) and then all the fussy cuts.  He does have a little body that’s done and his legs are in pieces, but I just don’t know if it’s worth it to put him together. His face is so flat that it reminds me of a tiki doll. The moustache helps–it’s a bushy Tom Selleck number–but I still don’t know. What do you think? Should I sew him up and put him in the shop or scrap it and start over?

I’m still working on the animals I was talking about a while back.  There has been more unnecessary law & order watching than sewing, but there is some progress. I’ve never actually drafted a pattern for one of my toys before and it’s pretty time consuming–especially when you have an anal retentive side.  I wanted the elephant to have a big head gusset that would extend down to his trunk and I couldn’t just whip this up.  This is my first attempt and though it looked the way I imagined, his trunk stuck out straight–Pinocchio style–when I stuffed him.  I made a few more and could have kept on making a little muslin menagerie, but I’m trying to make my toys less straight and narrow and more folky and improvised (strangely it’s the latter that needs a pattern).

So I cut into this amazing sparkley striped linen I got from namolio’s shop. I was going to make all the animals from thrifted outfits, and some still will be, but I was trying to cram too many ideas into one toy: stripes or patterned faces, moustached, thrifted outfit transformed into plush toy.  Besides this grey linen was a little wrinkly just like a naked elephant.

Here he is almost done.  He (ah! no name! any suggestions?) is sporting this fantastic fake moustache sent to my by Melinda (thank you again!).  And after seeing little elephante sporting this polka dot moustache, I don’t know if I should use a completely different print for the moustache or make it out of the denim I used for his pants or the grey linen again, or embroider a big fluffy one. I need feed back from all of you who have made it to the end of this post.

My husband cleaned up my website for me this weekend and I whipped up some brioche for him, well and me too.  It’s not completely done, but there is a new links page which you should go see.  The rest of my weekend was spent in Chicago with an old friend and some lovely food and wine.  I picked up some books at Mitsuwa that I’ll show you tomorrow, because right now I’m off to bed.  good night.

I always appreciate it when other plush artists post about their creative process. And though I am far from an artist and my process is quite random, I did make a few drawings for some animals I want to make. Since I saw this bear, I’ve been thinking about making a doll from a pair of pants. I think this elephant looks a little like an old timey strong man from the circus, except for his puny arms I guess (I’m not very good at limbs). But we’ll see how he turns out because I’m still new to pattern making. The idea of making toys from clothes is really exciting–not just using the fabric, but integrating the look of the shirt or dress or hell the whole outfit into the finished doll. It would be like the feature Domino magazine had where they took an outfit and turned it into a room, do they still do that? I always thought that was such a clever idea, but they never seemed to get it right somehow.

I’m rambling. Here is an actual artist who makes some mighty fine plush stuff: sien keegan.