AMELIA

This is Amelia elephant, one of my newbies I showed on Sunday. I've been meaning all week to do individual slots for them, but you know, life takes over (in other words, work!!). Anyway, Amelia is a lovely pale pink colour viscose with the prettiest floral Liberty fabric for her inner ears and two pink ribbons around her head. She also has a beaded choker around her neck and 3 mother of pearl buttons down the front. A touch of ageing around the edges adds to a vintage look. Amelia's height is 8½”/21cms top to toe and 6½”/16cms sitting.

Amelia can be adopted for £60, plus shipping and packaging

UK - £10 Special Delivery

Europe - £15, tracked and signed for

Worldwide - £22, tracked & insured

Tilly the Hefalump!! :0)

I've been itching to make a mohair 'bear' elephant and here she is - Tilly

Can you call an elephant Tilly!!?? Anyway, that's her name. She's made from a dusty blue mohair, with cotton fabric for her inner ears and is fully jointed, with steel shot in her little fat tummy to weight her. She's also carrying a basket of roses on her trunk

I love her to bits, although I hope to improve on the design next time.

Any well-dressed hefalump must of course have a ribbon on her tail, and I didn't forget LOL - see?

And look at these - get the false eyelashes - they were tricky I can tell you!

I'm certainly learning as I go along. I think I need to plan ahead better and be a bit more patient instead of being so eager to get another bear finished. That's what happens when full-time working gets in the flippin' way all the time. I've made two bears in the last 2 weeks only because I've been on leave from work; and to be honest I had hoped to make more, but I have been out and about a bit too, including my first ever 'Bear Fair' at Kensington Town Hall in London ........ gosh, so many gorgeous bears, so much inspiration!!

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

Say hello to …….

Humphrey the Elephant!

Humphrey was a very popular greetings card character a few years ago – not seen so much now, but I used to buy lots of ‘Humphrey’ cards. This is one of the sketches they used to use:-

I made him from a kit I bought from ‘Create & Craft’ on the Freeview Shopping channel on TV – I just had to have him when I saw Debbie Shore making him, although I didn’t realise just how many separate parts there were ……. 25 individual sections to cut out and sew together! The fur is beautifully soft, although that made it difficult to work, but thankfully he still worked out quite well. 

The dungarees didn't come as part of the kit, so I had to make those up myself – really pleased with my bargain too – yellow corduroy for £1 a metre – and I only used half of it, so 50 pence they cost to make ……. Not bad eh? I had no plans for Humphrey when I ordered the kit, and I was going to keep him for myself, but while I was making him, I heard from an old neighbour that their little 3-year old girl has just been diagnosed with leukaemia, which is heart-breaking, so I think I know where Humphrey will be heading off to – I hope he manages to raise a small smile when he’s received!

My next finish is this wall hanging. 

It’s from a pattern called ‘Pleasantly Primitive’ by Kim Diehl from her ‘Simple Blessings’ book, The fabric is a random selection, but based on a similar colour palette used by Kim Diehl. I love it, and it’s now hanging on my dining room wall. The patchwork is by machine and the quilting is by hand for a more rustic/primitive look.

So pleased I managed to get something posted – it’s been a while!