Revisiting fleecy embroidered toys

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday I tried a new approach to the stuffed toy made in the hoop: making an opening to begin with in the back side.

How? you wonder. By piecing the back from two pieces of fleece with an opening in the seam for stuffing later.

The final back side of the kitty. (The seam line can be brushed out if one wants, the minky style fleece has a definite, though short, pile.)

While trimming I accidentally cut the seam allowance off on one of the paws, but that was easily repaired.

The only tricky thing about this pieced back was the sudden discovery that it is really important to tack down the seam allowances of the center back seam. (The seam allowance got eaten up by the foot, and it was a bit tricky to cut it free. Plus there was a small hole in the fabric at the end.) With that adjustment, the trick worked. And an opening that is hand stitched closed with seam allowance at the opening is sturdier than one that is just pulled together with stitches across a slit, and a better looking result than cobbling together seam allowances at the slit that will work like an unplanned dart. IMHO.

This is one of the Minkee Pals toys. It's about hand-sized, and you use the small (not miniature) hoop to make it.

Obviously, since the fleece I have is white, the colors were changed. I think they work out okay. And even though I bought the white remnant expressly to make these critters, I am going to use up the rest of the white: it's officially from stash now. (Found the remnant at Hobby Lobby.)

The kitty can be a toy for a baby, as everything is securely stitched down. It can be a small Christmas gift. It can be a package tie-on. It's a little bit small for a fidget, I think, but the back side is uninterrupted pile so it could even be that. Maybe it could be tucked into a pocket on a fidget, with a little tethering ribbon so it doesn't get lost. A flock of them could be party favors for a children's party.

Easter tidbits...

Hello, everyone.

This year I found a sugar free chocolate rabbit! A small victory, but I can eat Easter candy with the rest of the bunch...separately.

Being stuck in the house most of the time has turned into sewing, too.

 Five more masks have been made. Not sure who should receive them just now, going to get some given away before making more.

Joanns.com has been sending out emails a lot about patterns for masks, and they've even come up with some pieced ones that a quilter can make patch patterns in. I've just been using up the stash that  is the right size and laying decent sized scrap chunks to one side for future use.

And I needed a break from the mask sewing!

A spring-themed zipper pouch

This is another little in-the-hoop pouch like the purple one. Scrap short zipper, an off cut from one of the masks in the above photo, and other fabric lying around. (The green rosebuds print was made into a mask too, but that one's been shipped out to a relative. I think.)

It was nice to use the embroidery machine for that project. (Link is to my local quilt shop, where DH got me my Janome Memory Craft 500e embroidery machine.) I'll probably do some more pouches of this type in various color combinations. They're useful. And textured fabrics can be used with care. There are also some pieces of linen ready to be made into embroidered coasters...I gave pairs of matching coasters away to family for Easter this year.

Piles of (American-made) plastic pony beads have arrived from mail order. They will probably be used in fidgets. (As movable items along a ribbon) Along with the various fake fur fabrics, random on-sale zippers, and odd cuts of fleece and whatnot. The fidgets are fun to make, but they do demand a certain amount of creative focus to come out right. I found that making a fidget for someone I knew was a lot easier, just because I had a sense of the kinds of themes they like. 

Christmas season was busy, so...

Hello, everyone.

As the title says, Christmas season was busy. It's still busy, so crafty things were photographed then and are being posted now.

These were an idea from Pinterest.

I made a triangle template from an old file folder.

The stripey fabric was pieced from stash on hand, various greens and Christmas-y bits, some not rectangular, various widths for interest. Used spray glue to adhere the thin batting to the backing piece, then to adhere the pieced top to the batting. I think I quilted in the ditch at this point. Traced the template and sewed the outlines. Then cut apart. (Used the wavy blade on my rotary cutter.) Added ribbon loop at top, in white, and ribbon loop at bottom for trunk, in brown. Or black.

They're a good size for package tie-ons, or favors.

I kind of think if you could solve the cutting into an inside corner problem you could make really cute hearts on the same principle.

Maybe one could do it in reds and make diamond shape or lozenge shaped ornaments, too.