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.

I may be gone on and off from this little blog for a few weeks.  I need to spend my time sewing (not blogging) for this sale.  So, I’ll leave you with 7 random things about me.  Christine from sewchristine tagged me with the 7 things meme and though I’m still on the fence about these meme things (brings back a crazy chain letter obsession I had in fifth grade) I thought what the hell.

1. I’ve been to Syria

2. I only have one bobbin

3. when I use scissors my jaw moves up and down

4. I am the youngest of six

5. I love a good turkish breakfast

6. I majored in philosophy

7.  I made this cake and it was much better than a ding dong.

there are rules to this whole thing and here they are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So I am tagging

1. shiso mama

2. hyena in petticoats

3. five green acres

4. write mama write

5. beetlegirl design

6. domesticali

7. dear meagan

this was a lot harder than it looks.  And even though it only needs a few buttons (wheels, headlights, tail lights) I can’t bring myself to finish it.  I thought I’d move on from diggers and try my hand at dump trucks.  The body of the truck wasn’t so bad–a lot of confusing parts, but it worked out okay.  But the actually dumping part (I have to learn me some technical terms if I’m going to keep making these things) was pretty damn frustrating.  I used timtex (well something like timtex but fusable–it was all they had–and I just fused both sides to cotton batting) and holy crap is that stuff hard to deal with.  Granted I probably shouldn’t be using it on something so small, but I couldn’t figure out how to make all the sides of the dumper sturdy.  It comes together just like a bag with a lining would, except if your bag has an extra thick layer of stiff as hell interfacing then it turns out that the inside is smaller than the outside and the lining you made has to be remade smaller (but whoops not that small, make it again).  Turning that sucker out was such a pain that I had to take a break half way through.  But now that I’m looking at it a day later (and complaining all over the place about it) I’m starting to like it again.  So really I have to rethink the pattern–any suggestions?  But I am happy about on thing: it dumps.

I’m working on my entry for the Holiday Softie Awards.  Well really I’m sitting on the couch whining to no one imparticular about being sick and trying to motivate myself to actually work on my entry for the Holiday Softie Awards.   So far it’s working pretty well, but there are a few more components and I’m a little nervous about tackling those.  I don’t want to give it away before it’s done, but you could probably figure it out.  Any guesses?

My daughter and I did a little craft project, but seeing as we are all sick it really wasn’t much of a project.  I taped a a big sheet of paper to a table (it would probably have worked better on the floor, but I didn’t want her little brother messing with it) and we colored little scenes for her toys:  a table she could draw food on, a road for all the cars, she drew a lake and I put in a diving board and some sea creatures, and a playground.  We color all the time, but I don’t usually think of getting her other toys “involved.”  She could add new things when she thought of them and her little people ate and swam and drove all around.  It made for a nice morning of rainy day play.