Ronnie told me I needed to sew some stuffed animals, since, in her words, "homemade stuff is so much cuter." I've been intimidated by toy-making because when I first started sewing, my sister and I made a VERRRRRY simple rag doll for Newborn Penny, and I remembered it being such a tedious process. But then again, that was two years ago and, well, now I have two years of sewing experience under my belt. And Ronnie's right: our house deserves to have funny little stuffed animals strewn about. So, I decided to give it a shot.
I bought Hsiu-Lan Kuei's fantastic Sew Me, Love Me to give me some pointers, and asked the girls to pick out a project they wanted me to try. They picked "Bedtime Bear" - an adorable teddy made from two socks. I stole some groovy socks from Penny and a bag of dried beans from my pantry and headed to the studio. My creation of course looks nothing like Bedtime Bear (you really thought I could follow a pattern!?!), but I still adored the result. And so did the girls, even though they said it looked more like Bedtime DOG.
Alexa said the dog needed some clothes, so I made a little smock and undies out of some vintage Strawberry Shortcake material I had in the scrap pile. After I showed her the cute little clothes, Alexa informed me the dog is a BOY and I should have made HIM something else. OH WELL.
Ronnie and Alexa agreed since Penny is the baby (for now), she can officially have Bear/Dog, but they made me promise I will make animals for them this week, too. I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with. And this toy-making is giving me all sorts of goofy ideas for the shop, too - Star Wars Squid, anyone?
