Toy – Hopefully Creative

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..

Tiny Potato

Making the Tiny Motivational Potato reality.

I am a tiny potato
And I believe in you
You can do the thing

It was my friend’s birthday recently and I decided to make the tiny potato for the occasion. I used the
Knit Potato by Carina Lee as the basis and added a pocket to his back for some cute greetings. The saying has been used by us a lot in the past, so I though it would be fun(ny), to make a tiny potato. I started the project in the evening and finished it that night. It’s really a lot more pink like the source image than this pictures make you believe. He’s such a doofus and I love him immensely.

Giraffe Version 3

Giraffes are for babies.

Months ago, I had a chat with the colleague who made the Safari Mobile about what she wanted to get for a gift. I showed her some of the stuffed animals from the past and she immediately fell in love with the giraffe (and who wouldn’t!). So I set out to make the giraffe during my holiday in June. She asked for realistic colours so I googled giraffe and set out to find some brown felt. I chose to do his body in the off-white that I had, because none of the other colours would really work. The horns, legs and tail would be brown, with his snout and inner ears white.

As usual, a Choly Knight/Sew Desu Ne pattern comes together really easily. It starts with meditative stitching of the spots and other details. Then sewing the pieces together where all the notches actually line up and then stuffing it to within an inch of its life. Once I had the head and the body both finished, I tried to pin the head on to see where it should go. It was a little lopsided and it looked so cute that I left it that way and sewed it on crooked. Look at his little face! I love him so much and I hope his new family will too.

Turtle

Who could say no to that adorable turtle face, even if he is a bit head-heavy.

It might have been a while, but this little turtle has been finished since June 6th, but my motivation for writing has been lacking. This turtle is, of course, a free Choly Knight/Sew Desu Ne pattern. This one was a little bit more difficult because the shell requires stopping before the end of the seam in order to have everything fit together nicely. I also sewed a wrong side to a right side in the ‘shell edge’, which meant a lot of unpicking invisible thread in high pile fabric. Not my favourite activity for sure.

The pattern has a few different options. You can choose nostrils or a smile, I chose the nostrils. You can also choose what shape the extremities would have, either flippers (my choice) or arms/legs, which basically are very similar to the tail that I used. In the examples, the shell is empty or embroidered. I chose to leave it empty because embroidery wouldn’t show up on this fabric when I tried it before.

I do think his eyes and nostril combination is particularly cute. Up next might be a frog? I think? I put eyes one of the remaining cut patterns, but I forgot which one it was. There are so many projects on my to do list that my word file ‘Projects’ has 20 separate projects listed, and it’s not complete. Curse my overactive imagination!

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!

Fennec Fox

Little fennec fox plush completed.

I’m still not over the whole ‘make a plushie zoo’-phase of making. So this is another one that got finished recently. This is the Fennec Fox by Sew Desu Ne/CholyKnight. Another nice free pattern that came together pretty smoothly. The eyebrows on mine are a little.. odd looking, but apart from that, it’s all good.

I had to make his head a little smaller than the original pattern because I fused his face on a little crooked. If I’d sew him as he should have been, his face would have been extremely lopsided. I also sewed most of his bottom by hand because the pulling by the machine had distorted certain bits along the way. He’s quite soft and has some pellets in a little pouch in the bottom to keep him stable. So now I’m also slowly using up the bag of pellets that’s been hanging out in my sewing room. Maybe, one day, the hoard will be reduced back to a stash size. I just don’t think it’ll be soon.

Narwhal!

So quick, so easy, so narwhal

Stash reduction is the name of game at the moment.

I’ve selected a good few toy patterns and am determined to make enough plushies to allow the pushy-fabric box to actually close again. Next up is a really tiny, really easy Narwhal!

Again, I used a free pattern by SewDesuNe/CholyKnight, appropriately called Narwhal Plush. He’s only got 4 pattern pieces and a total 8 pieces of plush fabric. So not very much of the stash was used, but at least some has a new shape now.

I like the way they had me made the tusk. It’s a small cone where you use small gathering stitches to give it that signature spiral look. Next up should be a Fennec Fox. I’ve got all the pieces cut, it just needs to be assembled.

Penguin!

A bite-size penguin has been added to the family.

As mentioned in Kevin the Owl, I’ve somehow amassed a decent stash of cuddly fabric that I need to sew up. So yesterday after work, I decided to take another stab at it. This would involve a really cute free penguin pattern from Sew Desu Ne/Cholyknight. It’s a penguin lying on its tummy with an adorable tail sticking up. He’s made of black, white and ochre cuddly fabric and some black and white felt.

Last night, I sewed on the eyes and prepared the face by adding the black forehead and sewing that down. Then this morning, the rest of him got sewn together in about 2 hours. I’m for sure not the fastest sewer, but it was a nice process nonetheless. Most of the pattern came together easily apart from adding the tummy. I think I stretched the fabric a little so I had to really manipulate it to fit and then I went back for a bit that was not very oval-shaped anymore. Still, he worked out wonderfully well.

He’s quite small, which is nice. The one thing I changed from the pattern is that I didn’t add pink blush ovals under his eyes. I don’t like pink and he’s cute enough as is. I’m not at all sure what I’ll do with him, but he’ll probably be hanging out in my house for the foreseeable future.

Dinosaur Tag Toy

Making a tag toy in the shape of a dinosaur for a little one.

With the friends’ spawn officially entering air-breathing life, time for a visit. One cannot show up empty handed, so I sewed a little gift. Found this project and decided that would do. Not only was it a dinosaur, but apparently tag-things are much fun for tiny humans or something. So I printed the pattern and got out some of the leftovers of making owl pajamas many years ago. I definitely don’t keep leftovers in my hoard for too long, nooooooo. I also found some ribbon-bits from eons ago and set to work.

It’s very straightforward, just pin loops pointing to the dino tummy along the backside, and sew those down on the right side. Sew the other dino-side to the loopy-side while leaving a section open. Turn, stuff and sew the hole closed again. Easy peasy lemon-squeezy. It’s also funny how all the ribbons feel just slightly different. In conclusion, easy and quick project that was fun to make!

Otter Friend

A friend of mine is a fan of otters and since it’s his birthday soon, I figured I’d get him his own otter. I used the free fluffmonger pattern for Squakers the Otter and hand sewed the small version in an evening while watching the darts. It only requires a little bit of fabric so that was quite handy. I only made two changes to the otter. The first was to make his ears a single layer, since they would be way to fiddly otherwise and the fabric doesn’t ravel anyway. The second was to omit the heart and just have him hold his own hands and an improvised fish.

You can also give him something else to hold, since the fish is not sewn to him. Perhaps an ikea pencil or an even smaller baby baby otter?

I think he’s really cute, and I’ve found that fluffmonger has more free cute animal patterns, so they may become useful in the future too!

Tag: Toy