Tending to the Pilot Light: More Plushies!

Last week was (king) soopers busy! in addition to the Thrifty Gifter Yarn Wrapped Wreaths workshop held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I squeezed in one last TTTPL session on Wednesday night.  We made some really cute little pieces and since it is post-Christmas morning, I can show pictures of the pieces my daughter made for cousins and family as well as the crazy stuff I made for her!

Here's a handmade pattern being cut out to make a cute little unicorn!

Here is the unicorn with all its fringe and pipe cleaner horn and a sweet contrasting blanket stitch around the edges.

This cute Kitty Toy has a jingle bell hidden inside!

Here are the amazing little big-eared creatures my daughter made for family member's stockings... each with its own character.

Here is the GIANT plushie chibi-head doll I made my daughter... tape dispenser shows scale.  It has a wire frame inside and a cute little crochet dress and scarf

Here's a closeup of the eye... I used these Teddy bear eyes I had bought on speculation once while trying to beef up a craft supplies order without bumping up the shipping expense. 

I got the idea for overlapping fleece eyelids from these amazing creatures at the Wonderfair Gallery.

Here's the plushie breakfast plate special I made for my daughter's stocking...can you see the butter melting?!

All in all, I am totally mad for plushies! I even saw a couple of books dedicated to them in the library in my favorite stacks...the 730's to 750's... I could just live back there!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday vacation and am looking forward to lots of creativity in the new year!

Check back often on my new "page" on this blog as I'm going to post a dress-a-day for 2012.

Also, I am bound and determined to finish the year of dresses for the Dress-up Challenge and have just one left to do.  I am not sure why everyone dropped out soon after I took up the hosting of the challenge, but, just for my own sense of accomplishment, I'll make one more post tomorrow with the last two challenge submissions to make an even 12 dresses for the year.  If anyone has any feedback or knows why this project petered out... please leave me a comment below.

Cheers, I'm off to catch some of Lawrence's Final Friday Artwalk tonight - see you there?

Liza

Tending to the Pilot Light: Plushies-Stuffies-Lovies!

Last week we gathered around the table for some adventures in hand sewing!

One of my best selling products is my "Chibi-Head" plushie Boston Terrier

And since it is based on the construction of a baseball, why couldn't the pattern be used for other creatures? or modification of the basic cone shape i had used for some silly rabbit dolls I made last year just for the fun of it.

So, I set up the table with everything I could think of - felt, buttons, decorative and christmas fabric, hot glue, trim, stuffing, fleece, yarn, charms, pompoms, googlie eyes, ribbon, pipe cleaners, and yes, even some glue on jewels... just in case!

I'm going to try and load the video i took of all the "ingredients".  If it does not load, you can get an idea from the picture above... the baskets are full and stretch the full length of two six foot tables.

Here are the INCREDIBLE and totally cute creatures created here at MacKomics Studio!

This last one is one I made on Sunday night to test whether we could be successful within the two hour framework of Tending to the Pilot Light... And... as you can see, I finally got a tree!  no decorations yet, but it's in the stand, smelling divine.

Once again, there are a few more pictures to post, but not until after stockings are stuffed, so certain relatives will not have their surprises ruined....!

This was a great project, even for the novice seamstress, since we worked primarily in fleece which is so stretchy and fuzzy that it hides all imperfections.  I was thrilled to see the projects evolving and even morphing completely... for example, the original design for the "Grouper Claus" above is this sketch for a mousy below.

We had teenagers as young as 15 creating their own patterns, figuring out structure and engineering (upright cat tail above) and of course, great conversations through out the evenings.

I look forward to creating with you in the near future.... I will be continuing this series in 2012 and might be making changes to the format based on feedback from a questionnaire I will send out to all of you on my mailing list.  Please let me know if you do not get the weekly emails regarding these projects and I will add you right away. 

This week is my debut teaching at the Lawrence Public Library for the last session of the Thrifty Gifters Series.  We will be making yarn wrapped wreaths on Tuesday and Thursday in the Auditorium. 

The Tuesday evening session is filled but there is still room left on Thursday.  If you are already signed up for Tuesday but are not going to make it, please contact the library as soon as possible so they can call the wait list!  Here are a few photos of some sample wreaths I've put together.

and here are just SOME of the wreath forms I've made from foam pipe insulators.  I'm happy to say I've solved the issues I encountered with the first round of these wreaths and even repaired the wonky crooked first wreath I made.  If you made wreaths here at Tending to the Pilot Light and they have become, let us say, less than circular.... please let me know, and I can FIX the problem!

I'll be adding a few more pictures of the preparations later and of course a big post after this week.

I'm very excited about this workshop and am busy this weekend transforming the last skeins of yarn into balls, cutting tons of die shapes out of paper, felt, and fleece and collecting the last few embellishments we might need.

Important note regarding Tending to the Pilot Light this week... I will have the tables set up for Wednesday night only with a follow-on week of plushies/stuffies/lovies.

Please just let me know if you will be coming!

Best wishes to all who visit here.

Liza

PS. There was one more session of Plushies for 2011... see pics HERE