Duck – Hopefully Creative

Duck to Go

Quacking and carrying away.

Waffle Patterns, the designer of the Penguin Bag and the Whale Bag, released two new bag patterns recently. A piggy (biggetje) and a rubber duck (eendje). I loved them, and they went on sale upon release and I couldn’t help myself. Does one need four animal bags? Probably not. Do I have them now and do they come out to play? Absolutely.

Beak view of black bag shaped like a rubber duck.

Side view of black bag shaped like a rubber duck.

I grabbed some of the same black fabric and gray lining that I used for the Penguin and got to work. As usual with waffle pattern bags, the internal bag was a little bit too small for my liking, but I only figured that out after already cutting it out and adding a zipper to the bottom. So I performed some minor surgery and added a strip all the way around the edges so that the bag innards are now a lot bigger. The wings double as extra pockets. They are not very big, but I did put the optional snap in them for some extra closure.

Apart from that, the instructions were very good again. If I remember correctly, I followed them pretty closely. There is no nap indicated on the pattern, but my fabric has some. So I tried to think about it while cutting out the duck. That was quite helpful, and he’s very pettable now. I think only one section is upside down, but I wasn’t going to take it back out again. The beak was already quite hard to sew.

Bottom view of black bag shaped like a rubber duck.

The duck has one hand strap, and it’s supposed to have a shoulder strap. I stole that one from the penguin temporarily, until I have the materials to make it its own strap. The one problem it still has is that the zipped opening is very small. Only 12-ish centimeters and my hand is not big, but it’s fairly hard to get into it. It can hold my wallet and pens, but not much else. But it wasn’t intended for a giant trek. Still, I think he’s very cute and I look forward to taking him on the go!

Duck and Slobber

Two baby gifts, a stuffed duck and some spit bibs.

Some time in the past, I was asked by a friend if I could reproduce her sister’s stuffed duck that had seen some wear. So I looked around, found the Crazy Duck Sewing Pattern and thought I could make it work. She was very happy and asked me to make another for a new family member that should be arriving. So I asked for preferred colours and we settled on yellow with orange details. Since it’s for a young baby, I didn’t use safety eyes but embroidery to create his face.

Bottom of yellow duck with orange feet and beak

Top of yellow duck with orange feet and beak

I also found some precut slobber cloths or spit bibs in my hoard when I was reorganizing. I figured I should put them together and they could make a nice set. So I located some white terry cloth that I had no idea existed and cut out the triangles. They were sew together and the snaps were added. I had some leftover triangular terry cloth, so I also made the mice one. That one I’ll keep for future additions. I love these, such quick and fun projects.

Two white, triangular spit bibs one showing the front and one showing the back.

Orange dinosaur wearing a white, triangular spit bib with a pattern of orange girls jump roping and yellow boys on skateboards.

I hope babies necks are about the same size as my dinosaur’s..

Ducky!

Imitating nature with a white duck.

Back to regular programming with wellness fleece, felt features and CholyKnight free patterns. This time it was the (Turtle) Duck pattern. On the front it had an example with a white duck, which I thought was lovely. I have seen white ducks around, so I figured I’d stay pretty close to the original.

It’s got an ochre beak and orange feet. I don’t own any wellness fleece that is more yellow than this ochre, so this is what I use. I’m of course still a little on the lookout for yellow fleece, but I’m also not in a hurry. Shouldn’t add to the stash if this whole thing is supposed to be a stash-busting exercise, right. Anyway, it came together easily and has a pellet pouch located near its rear. That’s to keep him upright as his head would otherwise completely ruin the center of gravity and he’d be on his face the whole time.

I think he’s cute, even if his eyes are a little demonic, and I really like him. Ducks are always awesome.

Next up will be this guy’s very close relative, mr. Turtle Duck.

Ducks part 2

So, here are the details of the duck’n’lizard skirt. I scoured the web comic looking for nice pictures of the duck and lizard that I could crop and enlarge to be the same size (250 pixels either wide or high). I found quite a lot of them, and subsequently printed them out on tissue paper. I cut them out, and taped them to a strip of white fabric. Then I embroidered them.

Took a while, but I managed to get them all done. Here are the strips in full, with my feet for scale (and because I couldn’t not take a picture of my feet).

Here are the ducks and lizards in a bit more detail, oh and a stuffed rabbit. I think they are wonderful! When I wear the skirt, it doesn’t seem too childish, so that’s good! I really like it! Ducks forever!

So thanks Dave for making such a fantastic web comic! I’ll enjoy the ducks!

Ducks Part 1

Ducks, funny creatures those. I’m reading a web comic called Sheldon (http://www.sheldoncomics.com/), which is awesome and is about a billionaire boy who invented (or something) a talking duck and who also has a lizard type thing. Anyways, I really like the style of art and the creatures are so funny. So I wanted to used them in a something. It took me quite a while to think of said something, but I figured something out.

I first e-mailed the author to see if I could use his drawings, and he said:
“For personal stuff, of course! Just nothing that can be sold, etc.
Thanks for asking!
Dave”

I may have squealed when I actually got an e-mail back. He’s like.. famous (in my head), even if it may have been an assistant or something, but probably not. Anyways, I do not intent to sell it. “What is .. it?” you may be asking. It is a skirt with a duck/lizard border. I first embroidered the ducks and lizards, which you will see in a later post in more detail. Then I sewed the bands onto black linen, of which the entire piece was used and therefore determined exactly what I could make (length and width wise).

I chose to make a skirt, with 5 pleats in the front and 5 in the back, in-seam pockets, a side seam zipper and a loop on the side for keys. It is two rectangles of approximately equal size, that were pleated to make it fit my .. below the waist. It’s built up from just rectangles. The top is finished with some of the biastape I made from the same fabric. The first two pictures are the front and back, it’s black, photographed in the bathroom, the detail is .. crap at best. Trust me when I say it looks really nice in real life, ok?

Then we get to the pocket with the zipper next to it. Luckily the zipper and pockets are hidden in the pleats. So you can’t really see them. I like that, a lot. On the right is the loop on which I can hang my keys. The only annoying part is that it is on the left, when I usually have them on my right. Therefore, I don’t know if it’ll see much use, but at least I thought of it?

Last but not least, the insides, nicely finished with a lining. I gathered the lining instead of pleating it. I think it probably works.

Lining

I’m very curious to find out how it ends up after a wash cycle. The reason being that I used some sort of starch on it, to make it shift less. Hopefully it will not fall to flat, but we’ll see. Tomorrow, I’ll show the details of the ducks and lizards. Hopefully!

Tag: Duck