A pink velvet elephant - really?!!

And once again ………. it’s been a while, I know!!! I can’t even say I’ve been prolific, but I have a couple of things to show – in the velvet line, as mentioned in my last post, which was ages and ages ago! So, first of all meet Abigail

Yes, I know, a pink velvet elephant – well what else?? Abigail is from a pattern by Angela from PC Bangles (Etsy). I love baby elephants, don’t you, they’re so cute. Did anyone (in the UK) recently watch ‘Elephant Diaries’ on BBC2? I spent most of my time crying, laughing and cooing – it was lovely! 

Her cardigan is hand knitted by me …. the pattern was made up as I went along as I don’t happen to have a knitting pattern for a 7-inch elephant LOL. It’s not perfect, but I think Abi loves it; and it’s keeping her warm!! If anyone knows of any clothes knitting patterns for small toys, I’d be grateful for a link.

Did I mention how flippin’ difficult velvet is to sew with!!!! It frays constantly. In the end, I put some of that Fray Check around the edges, but I was covered all over with bits from where it was fraying – I think that’s because it’s a pile fabric rather than a woven fabric like cotton – the end result feels lovely though. All hand stitched too. That too is because of the pile – have you ever attempted to machine-sew velvet – it moves and contorts all over the place! So, pinning, tacking AND THEN hand-sewing is the only answer

Anyway, my other velvet finish is this heart scissor keep. 

This is from the Maggie Bonanomi book I bought not long ago – the one with the velvet green peapod pincushion (last post)! Again, all hand-stitched because of the movement of the velvet; and also because it has cardboard between the velvet and the cotton to keep it firm. 

The velvet is some I hand-dyed not so long ago and I was very pleased with this colour in particular – kind of a chocolatey brown and I managed to find some nice vintage style fabric that goes well with it from my stash. I hope you like this too!

So that’s it for now – I might be back a bit sooner, because I do have another couple of things to show (NOT velvet), but I’ll leave them for another day

Bye bye for now