I have passions that go in cycles so I have to be very careful what I start because once the bug bites I can’t get rid of it until the passion has run its course. Sometimes this takes years and I’m desperate to stop one of them stealing my writing.
This time, the obsession is sewing in general, making soft toys in particular. I thought I might share some of them with you.
I started off with owls. Who wouldn’t? They’re simple, instantly recognizable and ripe with opportunity to personalise. some of these are stuffed with super-soft filling, and some filled with dried lavender. As I keep them in the same bag, they all smell lovely.
I can do a couple of these in one night and they’re fun to experiment with. some thing work, some don’t but I used them to practice my needle skills which have been dormant for quite a while. My favourites are the purple one with a feather, and the red and green one with the perpetually surprised expression.
Next, I ventured onto something a little more complicated. After scouring the internet for cat patterns, I settled on this onemAgain, it stretched my sewing and stuffing skills, and I made mistakes I (hopefully) won’t make next time I use this pattern.
After a cat, the natural progression (?) was to an elephant!! Yeah, okay maybe not a natural progression, but that’s the way it went. (via dragon but we’ll come to that in a minute).
The dragon is one of the most complex pieces I have done so far, and although it was fun to do I don’t think I’ll be going there for a while because it really was fiddly and I want to move on to other things. I do love my baby dragon though, I think he has such a sweet expression.
Although the sea horse seems similar to the dragon, he was a LOT easier to sew and I had fun with him. I did manage to screw up the back fin, but I know what I did wrong and I’ll be better next time.
My next project is a multi-coloured teddy, so watch this space.
I’ve also taken up cross stitch again so here’s a peep at a piece I started probably ten years ago and which has been sitting patiently in its sewing bag for almost a decade.