Quick Post

Have a lot of cleaning to do today. And the cats (or should I say Scat) is being bad today, jumping on the counters and being underfoot. It always puts me in a mood. But I found something in a cabinet that I can't wait to share!! Soooooo excited! I will take pics later and post :)

Fail

I forgot to blog about another cat toy that I made the same day as the Tube o'Nip lol. The problems I went thru trying to make it was only part of the fail. Continue reading to get the Epic Fail.

I wanted to make a little cat toy that they could bat around and toss into the air and do whatever with. So I got the idea to make a little cat head toy. I went to my computer and started to draw it up. Unfortunately on my laptop, the only "graphics" program I have is Paintshop or whatever the hell its called. I have a degree in graphic design, so I'm use to nicer graphics programs. It took me awhile to figure out the rudimentary tools. I finally got my cat head to look how I wanted. I went to print it out and low and behold.... the print screen couldn't find my printer. Long story short, I had to uninstall and the reinstall my printer. Thank god I had only installed it the other day so I still had the disk handy.

So I got it printed out, and of course it was too big. I reduced it. Too small. Tried 2 more times until I got the size I wanted. *WHEW* Printed it and cut it out.

I traced it onto my fabric and cut it out. Sewed it up. Had trouble at the ears when I turned it right side out, but I used the back end of my marking pen so it wasn't too bad. Poured some cat nip into it and stuffed it with stuffing.I even did a decent job of whip stitching the top :)

 

I liked it so much I made another. This time I didn't fill it with as much stuffing.

 

Yes, those are the fabrics I used on a sleep mask and my hubby's Kindle. Gotta reuse those scraps!!

 

Mojo really liked it. He's behind my ironing board pouncing on it lol.

Now comes the Epic Fail. I went to work for a few hours on Saturday. When I got back home, this is what I saw.

 

Yep, the toy was ripped open at the seam and all the stuffing was pulled out!! I almost cried lol. So now I have to figure out a way to make it stronger. That's where mom comes in. Thankfully she has a lot of knowledge in sewing and is a really great sewer herself. She made a lot of clothes for me when I was little. 

So remember kids, not everything you do will work out the way you want. For me, life has always been about trial and error. I guess that goes to crafting too. I will let you know if this Epic Fail gets resolved.

Until then, happy crafting!

Pig-Pig

I made a new critter today. It's a pig lol. Not too many issues sewing it. The biggest issue is I cut the ears wrong and then I had trouble sewing the corrected ears on. Let's get to the pics!

I used a cream colored sock for the nose and a pinkish sock with a purple cuff for the body.

 

I have a book for making these animals and the instructions aren't always clear. But I worked my way thru it. Had to take an hour break because of frustration with the ears. But after that everything went pretty smoothly.

Happy Crafting!!

New Craft!!

I started making what I've been calling Critters. They are stuffed animals made out of socks. I love making their cute little faces. That's when they COME TO LIFE!! lol

They start off with a sock. I really like the socks with the color block heels and toes. The heels (depending on the size of the sock) can become either the face (child's sock) or in this case, the belly.

This is the adult sized sock I started with.  I have a book on making sock creatures so I followed the instructions on cutting out my sock.

I will save you the boring details. I noticed some of my blogs have gotten quite long winded. I sewed the critter by hand and added stuffing. Then came the fun part... making the face!! I had a little trouble of course. After I drew the face on with a watercolor marker, I threaded my needle with thick thread. In order to hide the knots, you are suppose to come up thru the area where you stuffed the critter. (I've been calling it the butt lol) My needle wasn't long enough to reach all the way up to the head. I had to squish the little guy down pretty flat and grab the needle with my teeth and pull it out that way. 

I started on the nose and got all the way down to the bottom. The instructions said to make a french knot at the end. Having never made a french knot, I didn't realize that I was too far away from the bottom of the nose. The hubby said it looked like Critter had snot running down his face lol.

I ended up using my seam ripper and starting over. Didn't like my second nose either. Third time I got a good, snot free nose lol. Then I stitched in the mouth and eyes. Here is the completed critter.

And a close up of the face. Sorry it's blurry but I don't think I did half bad.

And Scat has found a new friend.

Happy Crafting!!