And The Sheepishness Carries On...

 Ever since I bought more of the vintage blanket fabric, I have wanted to design my own lamb toy rather than adapt someone else's pattern.  Admittedly, designing a toy for me is more like drawing the animal from a side view then cutting out the shape and adding a couple of gussets!

I'm quite happy with how this little chap has turned out though - everything seemed to fit together nicely and once he was stuffed, the shapes were what I was after.

He has a smart green bow with a rusty looking bell too!  If you are interested, he's for sale in my Etsy shop now.

Also for sale in my shop now is the painted egg.  Needless to say, it did not win anything in the competition at work as children were judges and as always, they went for the egg that made them laugh!  So rather than waste the amount of work that went into this, I thought it only right to see if anyone else would like it.

Suffering from a strained shoulder at the moment which makes everything to do with my right arm very painful - I do hope it doesn't affect my knitting.  Silly thing is, I have no idea how I did it so don't know how to alleviate it!

Upcycled Lamb...

Well hello, little guy!  I spent half of yesterday sewing this lamb based on a pattern in Abby Glassenberg's really useful book Stuffed Animals: From Concept to Construction.  I used the ram pattern but altered various bit and pieces to fit in with what I wanted to do.

I went to Unravel last Sunday, and part of my haul that I brought home was a lovely soft piece of vintage blanket - all white, slightly felted, and very cuddly.  I wanted to make a very simple toy to make the most of the fabric, something huggable.

Cutting the pattern was hard work - the blanket is quite thick.  Sewing was hard too, in some places the layers of fabric were almost 3/4 inch thick.  Happily, the blanket is so soft that a needle passed through like butter, I just had to remember to pull the thread really taut in order to keep all the layers together.

I'm not sure if he looks as 'lamby' as I wanted, but he certainly is cute.  There are a few things I would alter if I was to make him again, but I am definitely going to work in old blanket again, it makes for a very warm and cuddly finish.