Four kangaroos later… She has a nice wide open pocket ready for a joey. There are so many factors to take into consideration when you are designing in three-dimensions. So many variables and so many ways to go wrong. It took two tries to get the stance of the legs right, but then the chest…
Archives for May 2011
kangaroo prototypes
I'm deep in the throes of drafting a pattern for a kangaroo. It can be a tedious process, full of hope and anticipation and then frustration when the next draft, all sewn and stuffed, is still not right. It's going to be amazing, right? Hang in there. Keep going. I've been listening to these podcasts…
Winged Migration: A Group Show at Bookhou
I am thrilled to tell you about an upcoming group show I will be part of in Toronto this summer. The show opens at bookhou June 29 and runs through the month of July. It is called "Winged Migration" and will feature birds by me, Gennine Zlatkis, Margaret Oomen, Arounna Khounnoraj, and Abigail Brown. I'm…
monkey
I had a huge design breakthrough the other night. It suddenly became completely clear to me how to design a muzzle, or any three-dimensional protruding shape. I have sewn dozens of patterns with muzzles that were part of the face pattern, and I sort of got how they worked, but not well enough to easily…
pattern development
I'm working on a new pattern. These are six head prototypes. Through making them I learned how to create a round monkey muzzle. Today I made muslins of the body and the legs. Pattern development is a long, messy process!
playing around with basic shapes
There is going to be a section in the book about designing toys based on basic shapes. I am working on a sample project and sewing instructions for my editor, Thom (hi Thom!). The project is due the first week of June. In order to escape from that feeling of being so crazy overwhelmed that…
snake
Man this guy took forever to stuff. I found this fabric at a church rummage sale on Saturday. It is some kind of wool-polyester blend, probably originally intended for making a women's suit jacket. It just looked like a snake to me. I couldn't resist. And it was 25 cents for two yards.
At long last I have started a pinterest board for keeping track of all the amazing soft toys I see. There are so many beautiful softies to look at and to get inspired by and I love having them all in one place to peruse whenever I want. I will continue to add to my…
Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother's Day to you! And to my mom, Myra, who is in Crete right now on vacation with my dad having a great adventure, I'm sure. Here we are in August of 1981 on my 6th birthday. My brother, Matt, is 11 and my sister, Rachel, is less than a month old (she is…
lizard
I took that green herringbone and made a lizard with wool felt spikes. So much fun. I get such a tremendous feeling of satisfaction with every new animal that materializes. I cut some felted wool balls in half and used them as bases for his eyes. I've never done that before, but I like it! …