Ammended Fish Pattern

Ok, I switched things up to simplify the fish without changing things too much.

 

The base of the pattern (tail end) is 6" across. The shape is a rounded triangle (sides puffed out a bit like an arch, not straight lines) and the peak (nose of the fish) on the triangle is 5" from the base.  All other factors stay the same.  Only stuff the front half, gather behind the stuffing, tie off/stitch closed, then slice up the tail in wide ribbons.

 

Make them in orange or black, either one looks good.  Calico is do-able too but that means appliqueing orange and black patches over a white background.

FINALLY I Have A Fish Pattern I Like

It's taken a long time, many trials, and a lot of ugly awful designs, but yesterday I did finally come up with a fish pattern I liked.  I used up all my orange polar fleece (about 3/4ths of a yard) and made over 30 Goldfish. 

 

The pattern is a 5" x 5" tilted square, you sew down 3/4ths of two sides to do a V shape with open ends.  The upper fin is a 2 layer folded square of orange felt sticking up (facing back, very important!).  Stuff the sewn side. Wrap thread around the back of the stuffed area and stitch that tight.  Take a scissors and slice down the loose ends 1" wide to make the tail.  Add eyes and two little orange felt side fins and they're done.

 

VERY fast and easy.  No fuss, no muss.  I like how they turned out and they're 'real' goldfish size.

I Wonder If This Counts As 'Being In The Ivory Trade'?

Today I used up the last of the cream color fabric making unicorn horns. It's a really great short napped upholstery fabric with embossed swirls, very soft to the touch yet stiff.  Thanks to the backing it has 'structure' to it and doesn't flop. 

 

It made 39 horns each 12 inches long, they're catnip stuffed.  Both Bristol and Pennsic sold out of them this year.  They're one of the few long items that can and will stand up to cat claws when the cat is kicking them to death.

 

It would be nice to find more of this fabric at JoAnn Fabrics but it was from one of the flat bolts in the Red Tag remnant section so was basically a one time find.  Though this year I did also locate a solid greyish brown in the same nap, just missing the swirling embossed pattern on it.  It's too dark (and dingy) for making unicorn horns out of though.  The cream color was much the better choice.  I believe I found the original stuff at $9 a yard and should have gotten more than a yard and a half of it.  At the time I wasn't sure what to make out of it, but it was so soft and textured I had to buy it.

 

The good thing about the pattern is that there's virtually NO waste when cutting up the entire length of fabric.

Shrimp In The Works This Week

I love the variation people have come up with for fake shrimp made from felt.  There's a huge variation out there now, including some who have heads/antennae/legs, others that are the cleaned and cooked variety. 


Here's my version. I do them a tad longer now, but they all have a curve to them. The blue is the 'raw' one, the pink and orange are the most popular though.

Here's what I've found on the internet -- sorry if the pictures pushed down so far, something is wonky with how they pasted in.

VERY nicely done shrimp. The person used orange feathers for the tail.

Simplified version, but sewing on all those little orange triangles.... whoo!

I like this, but trying to make all the cuts in the orange overlay.... too much work. Especially tacking down around all the open areas.

Cute!  VERY cute!

Another overlay style, but on sushi rice.  They squared up the tail on this one.

Back To Sushi Making!

OMG, I completely forgot about making Cthulhu spawn sushi!  I made it in felt and polar fleece last year for the ren faire and never wrote down the pattern.  It only came back to me today when I was looking through 'felt food sushi' pictures on google.  Argh!  Missed opportunity!

 

I can do the same pattern as a baby octopus in gray (Cthulhu is green) and instead of the X'd out eyes I'd do slanted lines or bead dots and a 2 stitch 'happy mouth'.  They'll still be wrapped with a black band of 'seaweed' for contrast. 

 

Looking through the new pictures of felt food I did see someone came up with a new looking 'wrap' with black seaweed too. I've made those in the past but hers looked simpler and with cleaner lines. Minimal sewing too!  I'm incorporating those ideas into the next batch.  And after playing around with a scissors and paper I'm doing the wraps as an oddly shaped rectangle instead of a square, it rolls better and looks nicer.  Far less fuss too. 

 

Oh, and the magician wands, they look nice. I did up 27 of them last night.

Hairball Expeliarius!!!!!

Hmm, someone suggested I try making a magic wand as a cat toy.  There's two kinds, the Harry Potter kind that look like carved wood, or the stage magician kind which is much simpler and can more easily be done as a catnip filled toy.  I'm going for the stage kind.

 

I picked up some embossed black denim fabric the other day and the new shooting star print for the 'magic tip' of the wand.  It would have been nice to get a metallic gold or silver, but that fabric won't stand up to cat playing or teeth punctures.  I went with all standard fabrics for general sturdiness.

 

The added GOOD part is that it'll all be just straight machine sewing, with the closure at the bottom done by machine so no hand detailing will be required.  Hopefully they'll turn out nice.  I've got a pattern piece drawn up that makes the finished size about 8 inches long.

 

Something new at any rate.