Bunny Boo Who?

 My latest Stuffie is a sort of bunny creature, I wanted to try to make a pattern for myself again, and had actually planned on making a pair of these, but so far have only managed "Peachie" Bunny Boo. Here is the process thus far.

 I started by adding Stiffy, yes that is what it is called, to cut-out fabric circles. These are my basic faces, the style I like to use, but I stiffen the fabric to make it easier to work with. It makes embroidery easier, although it makes turning out the completed doll structure difficult.

 I chose a selection of matching fabrics, all with peach and orange, touches of blue and brown as well. I really like to make dolls that aren't too obviously intended for girls or boys, at least when it comes to Stuffies. I want the owner to be able to decide on their own name and gender of the doll, and I want them to appeal to all children, since they are meant for gentle play.

 I cut out my fabrics, I have alternating prints on the arms, legs, and ears, so that they are one print facing front, and an alternate on the back. It means watching carefully so that when I switch the pattern pieces to make the matching arms and legs, that I cut them the right way. I used my new sewing machine to sew this project, my first time using the machine almost exclusively, it was really challenging to work on the small curves, I need to learn what plate to use under the fabric, I think the fabric would be easier to manipulate on the darning plate as opposed to one with feet that grab it. It does save time though, which is wonderful.

 After hand drawing the face onto the bunny [for some reason I omitted the classic buck-teeth, oh well] I used embroidery thread to stitch it into place. With curved faces, I always opt for a plain stitch, since it looks neater. My recent acquisition of pinking shears [yay!], means that I can really make the edges of the circle faces look sweet.

 I hand embroidered the face in place fully, and choose two beautiful mismatched light blue buttons to give it a lot of character.I think this face is absolutely adorable, one of the best I have done yet.  I then made my Bunny Boo's tail, this was a technique I have been dying to try. I made a fabric Yo-yo out of a peachy fabric, then added a tiny bit of PolyFil stuffing to the cavity inside to make a bit of a puffy tail. I think it turned out nicely for my first Yo-yo.

 I stuffed all my limbs and ears next, then I then got ready to sew all the elements in place. I started by re-tracing my template in disappearing fabric pen on the wrong side of my body pieces.  I sewed the tail in place on the back, the put right side together and pinned in all my limbs and the ears.  I ran the whole thing through the sewing machine, trying to ensure that all the parts were well sewn into the body. I was mostly successful, although one ear wasn't fully secured so it required some hand-finishing.

 I like the bent Bunny Boo ear, it gives it a little more Wonky character, which is my thing, and it looks funny.  I left enough room on the right side of the doll, from under the ear to above the arm to turn the whole doll out.  All those stuffed pieces and the firm face fabric make for a difficult turn out. I was mostly pleased with how the doll looked pre-stuffing.

In these pictures, you can see how the alternating prints went down on the arms and legs, and you can also see the puffy tail that I secured into place by hand. I think the patterns work nicely together.

 The final steps are of course stuffing up the body cavity. It took a lot of PolyFil to fill this fellow, it is a much bigger body then I have done before. I need to be conscious of this fact when designing patterns, because I really need to make sure I have enough supplies on hand to complete the projects I start.

 My completed "Peachie" Bunny Boo, sitting atop my current storage system, several reusable shopping totes and random cardboard boxes. At some point I will have to organize my crafting space to better store my materials, not only because I want it to look neater, but I want to be able to find what I need when I need it. Hopefully my niece, my brother's daughter, will like her bunny, as she is the intended owner of this sweet Stuffie.  Onward and upward.

It's Time To See Polle

When my nephew saw my original Rag-Bot design, he told me that he wanted one too. How can I resist a request from my "schmoopie". Of course, being the one kiddo that has learned how adaptable 'art' can be, he ordered up a few modifications to the original design.

I started with my base template, and this time I was really interested to see how different the process would be using a sewing machine. I was able to get a good deal on a basic Singer machine, so I decided to go for it even though I hadn't used a sewing machine since I was 12 years old. Let's just say that the learning curve is pretty darn steep.

My nephew chose all his fabrics and how he wanted me to use them, as in front and back, of the limbs, and the body. He wanted a fairly large printed 'Aliens' poly-cotton blend print for the body, so I tried to get a good piece of the fabric so that you could see some of the design on the back at least. Arms and legs were to be two-patterned, with opposites on the arms vs. the legs.  The antennae was to be in a black 'Space' print that seemed to match well.

I created the basic white face panel as I always do on a piece of white flannel, and I stiffened it with the liquid product and let it dry. I drew the face on in pencil first, marking eye placement, and then drawing the smile in a permanent black marker.

An addition to the design that was a 'must', according to my nephew, was adding 'ears' to my pattern. I created them by sewing a half moon shape on a red print, then by turning the half-circle right sides out and  basically just rough stitching them into a folded ear shape.

After managing to sort out some problems with a jammed needle and thread breaking on my machine, I was able to stitch up all the pieces, including the altered antennae, which has a 'round' shape as opposed to the 'Y' shape of the original version.  It looks mostly octagonal, since it was my first time trying to sew a round seam on the machine, but I think it still works just fine. I turned the pieces so out so that the right sides were out, and I stuffed them all, with the exception of the ears, which I wanted to leave "floppy". I pinned the pieces where they were to be sewn into the main body.  [Yes, my tape measure has a little pig on it, I am a sucker for cute]

After figuring out how to adjust the stitch size and tension to account for a thicker fabric, I was able to sew the face patch onto the head of the doll.  I used white poly-cotton blend thread, so the stitches disappear. I also secured the  buttons for the eyes in place with the same thread, making sure they were well anchored.

 Next I used a black embroidery floss to stitch over the drawn on mouth, to give it a 3D effect, and add a more hand finished look. I also opted for a basic stitch and framed the panel in, since I used a pinking shear to finish the edges.  Normally I use an 'X' stitch, but with the jagged edge, the detail would have gotten lost.  I went on to reinforce the eyes with the black embroidery floss as well.

After pinning all the limbs, etc. into place with like sides together, and all the 'parts' on the inside, I used the machine to stitch around the edge of the doll.  I left a bottom corner open, and carefully pulled out one limb at a time, and then turned the entire doll right side out.

As you can see, all the limbs and the ears, antennae, etc. are sewn in place. The machine really did a nice job reinforcing all the limbs. I opted to secure only the antennae and ears with extra stitching in black embroidery floss to reinforce the shape of the ear and give added support to the heavy antennae. The stuffing opening is on the bottom right side. I had my nephew help stuff this fellow up, giving him the opportunity to choose how 'firm' or 'soft' he liked it. 

The finished doll, named "Polle" by my nephew. I asked him how to spell it, and he said P-O-L-L-E, which rhymes with Roley Poly of course.  I love letting him name his own dolls, it's really fun to give him as much ownership as possible in the process.

Here is Polle and his new owner, my 6 year old nephew, who was at this point of the evening was very tired and not too thrilled with posing for the camera.  This was the only 'natural' face I could get from him, the rest of the pictures made him look like Pee-Wee-Herman on a sugar high.

Polle appears to like hanging out in the rungs of the stairs, he is a good playable size, big enough to be cuddled, but small enough for travel. My next few Stuffies will likely be up for sale in my Etsy shop, so I better get sewing.