The Sewing Continues!

I've got something like 5 large boxes stuffed with cat toys for Pennsic War in mid-July.  Three boxes for the Bristol Ren Faire now, and am working on 2 boxes full for someone who sells my cat toys out on the west coast.  The living room is looking like we're boxing things up to move!

 

Yesterday was 'Dragonfly' day, I did up at least 30 of them. The day before was focused on catnip mice. The day before that was 'Chipmunk In A Bag'.  I'm aiming at 30 to 50 of each.  More if I'm sending them to two different events.

 

Today is 'Flying Squirrel' day.  I should have cut out 50 but only did 30, I've got to see how much of the long gray fake fur I have before doing more, if I can't get enough tails out of the piece I have left then I don't want to make the rest yet, this fur is only available from Hancock Fabrics around Halloween time.

 

The flying squirrels are fairly easy to make. The tail piece is 1" wide by 3" long. The body is a square shape with gray polar fleece on top, white polar fleece on bottom.  I have it open at the bottom end, the sides are straight up, you curve at the top to do a W with the sewing line, making two paws and the head, then back down straight on the other side. Clip the indents, turn right side out.   Thread the bobbin with white, thread the top of the machine with black or gray.  Do a shallow half circle in on each 'side'.  Stuff the head and front paws, put catnip in the center of the body and a bit more fiberfill stuffing behind that. Insert the tail at the center and close the entire bottom seam on the machine. Add black ears and bead eyes and DONE. 

 

I'd misplaced my pattern piece, but made a new one easy enough, the base and top are 3 1/2" across, the sides are 4" long.  They can be made larger, of course, but smaller is cuter.

I'm An Arms Manufacturer Today

I have a hamster doll (hamster size) and a mouse doll (about hamster size) that I dressed up in that Roman skirt type of thing that Gladiators and Xena the Warrior Princess used to wear.  The skirt was easy enough to do as a wrap around out of two layers of felt, and I detailed the waistband with one of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine. 

 

They are gladiators, but they also needed weapons. It took a bit of playing around but I figured out how to do a blade and a black hilt out of felt on the sewing machine that looks like a Roman short sword.  Since I had a dozen hamsters and a dozen mice, that meant 2 dozen weapons. 

 

It was weird seeing them all lined up, 2 1/2" long, all trimmed on the edges.  Each animal got one sewn to his right paw so they could do battle, the arms can flip back and forth with them too.  They're kind of hysterical! LOL!

Sorry, Life Got In The Way

I'd been rolling along with regular postings till last month. Tons of stuff happened, most of it bad (neighbor issues, a death in the family, lawyers, etc.) so posting fell by the wayside.

 

As it is, I have two Ren Fairs coming up in the next few months and my regular sales of cat toys to fill, the new Cat Doctor clinic account is  still humming along too.  Things are busy. But busy in a way that doesn't allow for creating new things, just trying to play catch up with the standard designs I have.

 

It takes TIME to make 400 mice.  And 2,000 cat toys prior to when they'll be needed.  And find shipping boxes that I do NOT have to pay for (thank you Game Stop store!).  And do up invoice sheets and, and, and..... Argh! 

 

So maybe I should talk about scheduling time that's productive for sewing (late evening), or production styles (do 10 or 20 at a time like they churn out cars at the factory) or checking fabric amounts in case you need to pick up more of certain prints/colors (NO multiple trips back and forth daily for this unless you're also doing a library trip or grocery shopping in that area).  Stuff like that. 

 

Or maybe not. I'm supposed to be sewing 150 dragonflies and haven't even cut out the wings yet.  Gotta go!