Squealfest 2011: Nerdle the Turtle

I couldn’t stop squealing for days after I made him. He makes me so happy!

In my quest to make a total of 4 stuffies this month, I began with an idea I found scrawled in my day planner from a very long time ago. All it said was “Nerdle!” And then I remembered the afternoon when M and I were talking nonsense (probably about how much I love turtles and tortoises!) and somehow the idea of a Nerdle was born. I’ve wanted to make him ever since.

So I began with some preliminary sketches and tried to think about how I was going to make the basic shape of his body, how I would shape his glasses, how they would stay on his head, etc. For Nerdle, I knew it would be important for his shell to be rounded and not flat as if I were making a “sandwich” style stuffie. This was achieved by darts running along the four “corners” of his shell. It was so easy to create that shape! I must do more with darts…I can see them having all kinds of applications, from rounded bodies to a little bulk to the top of the head.

After my sketch was done, I scoured my fabric stash for just the right materials. I found an old vest my grandpa made for me when I was probably 12 years old. It doesn’t fit right anymore, but the fabric was perfect! It even has a tactile texture. For the under-shell, I knew I wanted to use some corduroy to create that sort of “lined” look.

Since the shell was made of stiff fabrics, I thought it pertinent to use a softer, squishier fabric for the legs, head, and tail. I always like that distinction between the hard shell and the vulnerable inside-bits. I could go on and on about turtles and tortoises, but one of my favorite things about them is their little neck-folds. They look like old people and it’s so cute! I also love watching them eat. They have pink tongues!

Case in point:

You have to squeal at that!

Anyway, the design process was relatively easy, but I still came across some snags. Mostly, I’m still learning by trial and error how gussets work. I knew I wanted a specific shape for the head that required a gusset (a strip of fabric sewn in between a seam to give the piece dimension). At first, I was very tempted to skip this and make an easier “sandwich style” head with only two pieces. But the theme of this project, it seems, was to be patient and make the best product possible. And it was worth it!

I had to re-make his head three times to get it right, and I sewed his shell/legs/tail on twice. This is a big step for me. I am not the editing type. I want to do something and have it be over. Even with my writing, it is difficult for me to go back and make major edits because once I get it out there, I am on to the next thing.

However, I’ve found that taking the time and care to go back and edit your work makes such a big difference! There was a time in the process when I almost decided to just press on without fixing my obvious mistake (his legs were sticking out longer than I wanted them to be). I thought to myself, “well, I’ll just use this one as a learning tool and then make another one later.” But something within me in that moment said not to settle for less than the best. I suppose I was so in love with the idea of Nerdle that I wanted him to be the best he could be! So I got out the seam ripper and got to work.

And here he is! Not bad for the first stuffie of 2011. As with all of my stuffies, I love him a lot. A lot!

Happily misshapen

I’m back from my unplanned blogging hiatus with splendid news! I am now employed as a stuffie-maker! I’m still kind of in shock about the whole thing…here I am, chilling out at home, doing one of the things I most love to do, not wearing pants, and earning money while I’m at it! I’m super excited about making stuffies from this artist’s sketches. He seems to love stuffies as much as I do and has an eye for the strange but cute…exactly what I like!

So this week, I’ve been working on a little owlie for my job, and I’m pretty happy with him. I decided to employ some new techniques for little details that I hadn’t yet had an opportunity to try, and I think he’s definitely just well made if nothing else. I will show some peeks of him on here if I get permission first.

Other work has been letting up a little bit from the past month or so, but I’m finding myself with less free time than I have in the past. I attempt to make the most of what I’ve got, though, and OfficeBear and I are trying to make the most of the predictable and gentle rhythms of a typical day at the office. I’ve noticed my favorite times of day are the simplest: The quiet and thoughtful drive to work, dripping oatmeal on OfficeBear mid-morning, tea and snack time in the afternoon, a shower after I run. I can count on these happy moments daily; they are so satisfying to me.

Last week, I made my final prototype for the first AnchorsAflight managerie: Yellie-phant.

Yellie takes pride in bringing a bit of sunshine into the greyest of days. He is sleepy most of the time, but when he’s hungry, he’ll sniff around for a snack, tasting this and that and whatever comes his way.

I left Yellie to be my last in the menagerie as I could tell he would be challenging. He was, but not as much as I had originally thought. I built up my skills making all of the rest of my friends, and my new knowledge helped greatly in the construction of this pachyderm.

I began by sketching ideas of what the pattern pieces might look like and how I wanted the finished product to look and feel. Then I did my usual process of sketching the pieces on packing paper, cutting them out, and making revisions as I went. When choosing the fabric, I knew I wanted a cute bit of vintage accent fabric for the ears, so I went through my (not big enough yet) vintage scrap fabric stash and found an adorable yellow/orange/green/white 1960s print. The problem was I only had a very small square of it, but I figured I could eek out two ear-insides from that bit. To make the body, I found an old yellow t-shirt of Taty’s and a white t-shirt scrap from my stash for the belly.

I then cut the fabric into my pattern pieces, pinned them all together, and started sewing. I was surprised at how seemingly easy it was to sew everything and the flat version of Yellie looked great:
But I also knew that the only way to determine his real shape was to stuff him. The problem with more complicated patterns (like this one) is that there is more of a chance for warping or just general misshapenness. I was sort of doing this on the fly, just guessing at general shapes and sizes, so I figured I’d have to make some adjustments. Sure enough, when I stuffed him, I could tell his trunk was a little warped off to the side. This was because when I was pinning it, no matter how careful I was, I couldn’t get the pieces to match up exactly. But everything else turned out pretty well…a couple sewing mistakes here and there where my machine was being uncooperative, but overall, not bad for such a complicated project.

Once I put his ears and eyes on and he was all stuffed and squishy, I knew I had a cute one on my hands. His misshapen face has even grown on me; I think it gives him character…like a permanently quizzical look. My last task was to make his tail and sew up his butt. I realized that poor Yellie was having a difficult time standing on his legs because his head was pushed downward a little and he was resting on his trunk, so I pulled the fabric on his back and tucked it so that he would not be resting on his face. This didn’t create the cleanest line, but for the next one I make, I’ll know what pattern revisions to do to avoid that. Plus, who can resist a wrinkly elephant butt, right?
I found this great tutorial via CRAFT magazine on how to make twisted cord, so I had to try it with orange embroidery thread for his tail. Sure beats braiding!

Yellie is now a permanent fixture around these parts, napping in whatever cozy spot he can find in pillow-crevaces or comforter swirls. He is baby-soft and I under-stuffed him for super squishiness! He's also a great listener:I hope you like him as much as I do!

"Aw, you guys made me ink!"

Continuing the showcase of my first menagerie of stuffies, I present to you: Speckle the spotted squidlet! Speckle is a little shy and startles easily, but once she gets to know you, she’ll always ask for a pat on the top of her spotted head. She enjoys lazily drifting through open water in the afternoons and dancing with starfish into the night.

When I was sketching up my little squidlet, I played with many cephalopod ideas, but I thought a simple baby octo would be good for a learning project. It seems octopi have been sort of “trendy” for quite some time now…I see them in tattoos quite often and I see this necklace all over the place.

I’m not usually one to follow trends, but I must say I have had some cephalopod fancies, including that necklace. Actually, I’ve been wanting to make one idea a reality for quite some time now but am not sure how to do it: I want to make an octopus necklace by softening two dinner forks and molding the tines to make tentacles. Then I’ll glue them together and naturally put a couple of googly eyes on them. I just need a means to get the flatware soft enough to mold. Any ideas, anyone?

Moving on from that tangent, I think my tiny squidlet was largely a success. As is my fashion, I used a technique from a pattern I had made before: this free felt toadstool pattern from Cathy Gaubert’s e-book, Fa la la la felt.

I just cut a circle in fabric, did a running stitch around the circumference in embroidery thread, then pulled it tight into a little drawstring bag, just like the toadstool head! Then I stuffed her head with stuffin,’ made her little stubby tentacles and attached them, and added a little pentagonal cover so her underside was smooth. After admiring my work for a bit, I realized that because I sewed on her eyes before I attached the tentacles, her eyes were a little too far down, so I had to take a few minutes to re-position them higher on her head. I originally only gave her the two eyes, but in my sketch, my squidlet had a shy little smile that I liked so much I decided it needed to be included. I’m glad I did it, but I feel like it would show up better if it was in felt instead of embroidery thread. Next time.

Thanks, Taty and Alison for providing the castoff clothes to make this little cutie! The spots are from Alison’s old pajama shorts and the grey underside is an old band t-shirt of Taty’s. I’d say 90% of the fabric I use is from old clothes, and most of that is from Alison and Taty. Thanks again for being my fabric source, guys!

And with that, I think I shall go play with my new spotted friend and work on making a few more stuffie companions. Check back soon…I’ve still got a backlog of stuffies to introduce to you!

Meet Whally

My apologies for getting you all excited and then delaying the update. I was waiting on a decent camera with which to capture the squeal-worthy loveliness of my new friends. I have been busy since last we spoke, sketching and designing and stitching and such.

Here is the first of my menagerie:

Meet Whally! Whally enjoys poking around the arctic waters with his ivory horn, making friends with fishies and sometimes eating them accidentally. He propels himself through the icy sea with his powerful tail and likes to flap his stumpy fins when he’s happy.

I couldn’t have imagined anything better would come of my little sketches when Whally finally came into being. I still can’t look at him without squealing. Surprisingly, it looks like the first pattern I drafted for him won’t need any changes at all. He was surprisingly simple to make, although he did take a few hours.

I searched my fabric/old clothes stash and found some hefty grey twill for his body that went perfectly with some striped upholstery fabric for his belly, both of which I bought at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse (a place I will probably mention quite a few times in this blog) a while ago. I was sort of planning on making pillows or curtains out of this, but Whally was definitely a superior choice.

After choosing fabric, I looked at my sketch and drafted a pattern on some of that paper that comes in shipped boxes sometimes…I like that it’s big enough for pattern-making and also recycled and free! I haven’t made many patterns of my own, but I have learned a ton from making stuffies from patterns and tutorials I find online. For instance, I could see that Whally’s shape could use some of the principles of these fabric birds from Spool’s free pattern. If I were to give some advice to people who want to start making their own stuffies, I’d say make several from others’ patterns first. That way you acquire valuable skills you can apply to your own designs!

The horn was probably the most difficult part, as I knew I wanted it to be sturdy enough to stand out from his head like, well, a horn (apparently on Narwhals they’re called “tusks,” but we all know that since they’re the unicorns of the sea, they have horns). I decided to roll up some felt into a cone shape and sew that together, and it was fairly simple once I figured out what shape to cut the felt so that it would roll into that cone shape. Next time, I may add some ribbon in a spiral pattern to get a different effect.

Overall, I think Whally is a great success, and I’m happy to have a new friend around to cuddle. I plan on updating you on the other friends I’ve made very shortly, so check back soon!