CholyKnight – Hopefully Creative

Octopus Award

Making a plush to celebrate a fellow skater

Our new tradition of making an award for the end of roller derby season took place again. I got to make an award for one of our newest skaters. My inspiration came very late, but when it did, it hit hard. My skater is someone who does all kinds of things; in her daily life she’s a hairdresser and a barber, is getting married soon, moving into her house etc. I wanted to reference all of that, and include her way of turning around on roller skates, which is more of a ‘disco turn’ than a step transition. So I decided to make an octopus plush with a disco ball for helmet.

Gray and yellow octopus plush with a sequin 'helmet' and cardboard icons around its tentacles.

Back of gray and yellow octopus plush with a sequin 'helmet' and cardboard icons around its tentacles.

I already had the Octopus plush pattern from Choly Knight, so I decided to reference that. Since the normal round arms from the pattern wouldn’t be conducive to give a ‘holding something’ impression, I wanted some longer arms. Reddit came to the rescue with this post by CynamonoweKrzeslo, where the sewist also helpfully shared the pattern for their tentacles. I enlarged the pattern a little until it was the size that I wanted and cut some out in a grey fleece and yellow bobble minky. The test-tentacle looked great! So I cut out eight more before heading to bed.

The next morning, I assembled all tentacles and needed to decide on the size of the head. In the end, the original Octopus plush pattern head shape, the eyes and laughing mouth were all enlarged 150% and printed out. This looked great, so I embroidered the eyes and mouth on and assembled the plush together. One of its arms is put into the disco fever pose with a little hook that you can hang a tiny loop on. The helmet is made from foam and an overlay of sequin fabric (for a disco ball effect) – I am still finding sequins in my house. The pattern was based on the normal head shape of the octopus plush with a little extra space. Some ribbon is used for the straps.

Gray and yellow octopus plush, with zoom on the ring and key cardboard icons around its tentacles.

Gray and yellow octopus plush with a focus on the donut and comb cardboard icons around its tentacles.

To reference all the items, which I wanted to keep removable, I chose word icons (to keep a similar style) and printed them on cardstock. I put two together with a loop of sticky tape to get them to stay around the tentacles. There are two roller skates, a ring, a donut, a cupcake, a comb, scissors and keys. I also wrote a rhyming poem to explain what I did. The helmet is also removable, so it can also be a ‘naked’ octopus.

I think he’s adorable and I hope she’ll enjoy having him around!

Kraken Chalk Bag

Intimidating(?) Kraken looking at you when I try to scale a wall.

While I might only boulder once or twice a year, my desire to own all the things means that I’ve been wanting to make a chalk bag for a good long while now. There are lots of examples out there of fun looking chalk bags and that was exactly what I had in mind. So I set out to find a suitable plush pattern to create a bag out of. It took me a while to find what I was looking for and in the end I went with the angry kraken. I had already purchased that pattern from CholyKnight/Sew Desu Ne (here) and made Brian the Derpy Kraken.

I made much use of the instructions from the ‘do it yourself’ chalk bag pattern by Edelrid for most of the proportions. Then the original Kraken bag was printed again on 130% scale. I chopped off the top, and redrew the sides to be a little bit straighter. I needed to be able to put my hand in it, so the opening had to be large enough. The spots were placed in slightly different locations and the side flaps(?) were also redrawn to fit the new proportions. The outside was light blue wellness fleece, the spots and other details are felt. The lining is black fleece and the stretchy blue closure fabric was some jersey. Some blue paracord for the closure and blue tape for the belt loops. His suckers are grey minky fleece.

It was very easy to put together, basically the same as Brian the original. The only difference was adding the lining and closure jersey. I was worried that overlapping the light blue to the inside would be too thick to sew through but that turned out to be fine. Because it’s so thick it really keeps its shape well and stays open. I did make one small change and that was to add some stitches to the middle of the underside to keep that from sagging too far down.

Hopefully, the corona situation eases up again and climbing will be possible so I can test out if he works in situ. I do smile every time I look up and I see him laying there, looking at me. So that’s at least something nice about this project.

Double Giraffe

Two little giraffes, orange for a baby and one with a rainbow.

Sometimes things can be serendipitous. This combination of events happened a few weeks ago. My colleague was telling me about the wallpaper they had been hanging in their soon-to-be-born grandchild’s room. It had giraffes on it and her husband was making a cut out of two giraffes to have the grandchild’s name on it. I remembered seeing a free pattern of a giraffe come by from CholyKnight/SewDesuNe like a week before. I showed the giraffe pattern and we both fell in love.

One of those giraffes needed to grace the new nursery. It just had to happen. So I got to work, asked for some inspiration for the spots, and they had the brilliant idea of doing two colours. The pattern came together fairly easily, and is just adorable. I brought it with me the next Monday when we also celebrated her birthday. Two or three days later and the baby was born, everything was just in time. Serendipity.

While I was making this first one however, I actually looked at the pattern image. It had a pastel-rainbow spotted giraffe on it. My first instinct was that ‘I can do that too!’, so I cut out a second giraffe at the same time as the first. It’s got bright rainbow spots on its side and some more blue/green spots on his head. Again, came together easily and practically at the same time as the orange one.

This one is still hanging out at home until corona has cooled down enough again to bring him elsewhere. Not sure when that will ever be. It does feel like we are stuck in these corona-times for the foreseeable future again.

Well, at least that means easy access to the sewing machine and the opportunity to make more little plushies. I know that there will be a pikachu in the future now that I’ve bought some yellow fluff-stuff!

Dragon or Egg?

Making a little reversible gift in the shape of another dragon.

It’s always nice when I get to make something that will have a special purpose rather then just for my own enjoyment. So I was super exited when I heard that someone needed a birthday gift for their child and they like the stuffed animals I’ve made in the past. The kid’s favourite colour is orange and he likes dragons. Easy right? I decided to buy a new pattern for this project. This reversible dragon that turns into an egg, made by CholyKnight/SewDesuNe.

I’d bought some weird almost striped stuff on a fabric market that didn’t have a goal but I just thought it was cool. I decided it would probably work pretty well for the egg portion of the dragon. It was a little thin, so I did put some fusible interfacing on it and got on with sewing the spots and other markings on the different pieces. The pattern is very clear and explains what you need to do in great detail. I always love how CholyKnight makes patterns as both the free and the paid for versions are really good.

The dragon came together nicely and it does turn into a egg pretty well. I’ve recorded a little video how he goes from dragon to egg. You can find it here. It does feel a little weird when you are actively stuffing something into itself. But it’s a lot of fun to be able to actually do it and then put the little loop around the orange button and have a completed egg or dragon.

The pattern has different options for horns, wings and different types of spikes. I chose to mainly do the spiky spikes and pointy horns. The dragon wings where the most obvious option for me as I didn’t really think butterfly wings were appropriate in this specific case. I think I want to make another one of these for me, but perhaps not yet. Need to first empty out the bin of plushies some way or another.

Magnetic Sloth

The little magnetic sloth that can hang on nearly anything

I’ve now finished all the plushies I cut out that one Sunday some months ago. This last one is a sloth, again a free pattern from Sew Desu Ne / CholyKnight. I chose to use brown for his body and off-white for his face and his claws. This one is the largest of the free patterns that I’ve sewn up. I was almost debating putting a zip in his neck so he could be a bag. In the end, I figured he’d do better as a plush.

It starts with fusing the face pieces and stitching those down. I sewed down the full face with a zigzag. He’s not completely symmetrical, but I think it gives him a little character. Next, the pattern asks for velcro on the claws for him to hang, but I wanted a more invisible solution so I opted for some magnets that I harvested from a broken fly-curtain. The claws require topstitching which turned out to be exactly wide enough to hold my magnets. Score!

After that, you sew up the arms and legs while putting the claws in the middle. I forgot to read all the instructions and didn’t put any stuffing in his limbs. So he’s a little floppy in his extremities, but I’d already completely finished him before I figured that one out. Droopy he will stay. Because of his little magnet claws, you can hang him on nearly anything. In this case, I chose to use a giant L-square to demonstrate this. I think he’s pretty cute, and the cover images show sloths with longer fur that are a lovely option too!

Toothy Shark

Because a shark can never have small teeth.

While finishing up the hamster, I also finished up the shark. The shark is again a free pattern from Sew Desu Ne / CholyKnight. This mighty sea creature was an even easier sew than most other plushies, just sew two darts, stitch together three fins, align them in place, and sew 4 seams (back, two belly and a tail) and it’s done.

The only thing that caused a little bit of trouble was his giant mouth. The iron on teeth are formed from a moon shaped piece with triangle sewing. I wanted to stitch the teeth before I put the mouth piece on, but at the first try the thread managed to catch and pull. So I switched tactics and put some paper under the mouth so I could sew beyond the edge without difficulties. This solved the problem and the mouth was soon affixed to his underside.

In the end, it was very easy to create the shark and I do like him a lot. You can’t necessarily see his teeth when he’s just laying down, but that just means he’s got a fun surprise when you pick him up, right?

Hamster

This little hamster won’t stay upright but he’ll stay cute

In direct contrast to my last post, I only managed to keep the plushy draught to two days.

The thing is.. I’ve been wanting to knit for the last couple of evenings, but the project I want to knit is the starry night sweater. I only have one ball left and half of the front and half of the back to complete. One ball will not be enough for that. So at the end of June I ordered more yarn in hopes that I can dye some more starry night shades and get my sweater finished. The yarn was bought in the UK which is now no longer in the EU so I figured it might take a little while, but after three full weeks there still was no word on my package which was shipped July 1st. I sent a message and received a tracking number which states that my package is being held hostage by immigration. I’m fine with paying VAT on it, which I think is what this is about, but they do need to inform me if that’s the case, which they haven’t done. The tracking info states that it’s ok to be released to my local post office on the 16th (!) and also that the package service still has not received it. You can imagine my dismay that the package which I’ve been waiting for is still in some sort of limbo. Aargh. We’ll see what next week brings.

While waiting for my package, I did want to do something while binge watching Bones and I settled on fusing the faces of the three plushies I still have cut. So the hamster got its face, the shark got its eyes and teeth and the sloth got its face too. I started some sewing but mostly continued the next day by stitching some faces down.

The first one that was finished was the free Hamster/Chinchilla pattern from Sew Desu Ne / Choly Knight. I chose to make the hamster because I was intrigued by the head. It has tiny cheek darts to give him an even fuller face. The instructions were very meticulous about sewing the irregular face shapes together. However, I decided to chuck those out the window and just sew it down in one fell swoop. It’s decent enough I think. I really like his little cross features even if it needed to be pink, my least favourite colour.

He’s got a poly-pellet pouch in his bottom but I didn’t fill it enough to offset his giant head so he regularly tips over. If you actively squash him down on a flat surface, he’ll stay upright, so that’s been the method so far. Sewing went smoothly, no picking out or wrong bastes. I guess some focus does help!

Friggin’ Frog

After some serious trials and tribulations, a tomato frog joins the tribe

When you try to make a cute little frog plush and it fights you every step of the way. That was my experience at least. As usual it’s a free pattern from Sew Desu Ne / CholyKnight aptly named Frog. I’m fairly certain my issues had nothing to do with the actual pattern, but more with fabric choice and not paying enough attention.

Tomato Frog from https://www.everythingreptiles.com/tomato-frog/

Anyway, I wanted to make a red frog and then googled to see if they exist and found the Tomato Frog. Perfect name for a red frog. They seem to have light coloured bellies, so I chose the off-white for that. All the pieces got cut out (so far, so decent). I stuck on the eyes which took a few tries and the nostrils, and I’m fairly certain that by that point the head-bits got stretched out of shape (friggin’ frog moment 1). I recut them and sewed all the possible red bits together. I then chucked the frog in a corner for a few weeks because I didn’t own any more red thread. Then I lost one of the feet (friggin’ frog moment 2) only to remember that it might be in my bag for when I went out to buy matching thread.

Yesterday, I finally got the courage to get going on the frog again. You see, this frog requires visible topstitching for its feet and this fabric does not want to show stitching. In the end, I sat down and hand sewed some toes. Then used long bent tweezers to stuff the toes so that there was some definition. To get some more effect, I even trimmed the webbed bits to see if it would help. I then had to attach the legs to the body. The one side went fine, the other side I basted in place a whopping 4 times (friggin’ frog moment 3) because I first put it in the wrong place – there was a notch?, then upside down twice before finally figuring out how to do it. Going back to the first failed baste.. Why was there a notch on the head?! Turns out, I stitched the head together wrong (friggin’ frog moment 4) and spent the next 45 minutes picking out tiny stitches.

After putting the head back on correctly, and attaching the belly the remainder went well. Just some stuffing to do after all and sewing a frog’s butt closed. While working on the back legs, I kept wondering how someone can think in 3D shapes in such a way to make one ‘moon-shaped’ pattern piece resemble an entire back leg of a frog and I decided to just be in awe. I don’t love this one nearly as much as some of the others. Which is ok, not everyone can be on top. I still have a few more plushies cut out, but I’m probably going to leave them cut and unsewn for a while. We’ll see where the sewing machine and mood take me.

Fluffy-Toothed T-Rex

Feathers are not fleece, but who knows, maybe T-Rexes really were this fluffy?

I think this one is the cutest so far. He doesn’t look like much from the front on account of his eyes being invisible, but from a side angle, very adorable. It’s the free T-Rex pattern from Sew Desu Ne/CholyKnight. After finishing the Turtle Duck, I was supposed to finish a turtle. While the turtle has its eyes by now, it’s not completed. So why did I start on this one, you ask? Because I had blue thread in the sewing machine from completing the not denim pants. I was simply too lazy to change it out so I grabbed my previously cut pieces and got to work.

I’ve still got at least 4 more cut out plushies, since I decided to cut the free plushy patterns that I’d been eying for a while on the same day. All the bits are now waiting in plastic wallets with their appropriate paper pattern pieces. With the cutting out of the way, it took about 3.5 hours to complete this little critter. I’m just never going to be a fast sewer I think.

Of course I have a weakness for dinosaurs, so it’s not a surprise that I like this one. I do find the teeth quite challenging. Fluffy teeth seem wrong in some way. That doesn’t make me want to hug him any less though!

Turtle Duck

This time the duck has a shell and four feet. He has become the elusive Turtle Duck!

As alluded to in the previous post, the (Turtle) Duck pattern by CholyKnight also has a Turtle Duck. In contrast to regular ducks, turtle ducks do not actually exist in nature. They are creatures that were created for the Avatar the Last Airbender universe. It’s effectively a duck with a turtle shell on its back and four feet instead of two. It also required different pieces for the head that allowed a stripe to be formed.

I basically attempted to follow the colour palette as it was on the pattern. A beige for the body, green for the shell, orange for the feet, sand for the beak and a light brown for the head-stripe. Of course my stash composition limited the selection somewhat, so the body is off-white, the shell is more turquoise than true green and the beak is the same colour as the stripe, ochre.

I had to put the shell on a few times before it would line up satisfactorily. This was because both the body and the shell didn’t turn out symmetrical when I sewed them – user error. So when I put the shell on, it looked all crooked. Some forceful maneuvering of the filling in the body and another attempt at shelling and it was as good as it was going to get. This one also has a pellet pouch in the back, but it isn’t as good as keeping the turtle duck from falling face first. I guess I put the head a little too far forward. If I put him on a slight incline, he’s perfectly fine though.

While I didn’t plan on being repetitive, it’s happening and the next plush is a turtle. This one will not be based on the same pattern though, so I guess that’s something?

Tag: CholyKnight