New 'Pin' Attempt - Luna Moths

I've been wanting to try making one of those fabric moths that keep showing up online.  Most of those are done out of upholstery fabric. I wanted to do one with polar fleece and possibly felt on the back for stiff wings.  Luna moths and Silk Moths - like the Cecropian or Polythemus or Promethius Moths -- are my favorite but the Luna looks the simplest.

 

Plus I can get the right shade of green in both felt and micro fleece.   I liked the idea of making it life-sized and a search in images in Google gave me a good template to sketch from.  Most of the moths had their wings horizontal like this---

 

But I liked the angled top wings better ---

 

What I'm not sure about is if I should do this AS a pin (or even put a jump ring under the body so it can be safety pinned to a costume or hat) or turn it into a cat toy.  Only the body would be stuffed with catnip, and I'm not sure yet what to make the antenna out of. 

 

I was planning on making the top wings as one piece, and the bottom wings as one piece, sewing them together at the top center before adding the white/yellow furry body to it.  The markings - the eye spots - would be in felt, sewn on by machine.  Assembly on this is simple, the only hand done stuff is attaching the body and the eyes. 

 

 

I Tried Out A New Bat Pattern With Wired Wings

I've been looking for something simpler to make, and smaller, than the hanging bats and located some soft to the touch upholstery fabric in the remnant bin at the fabric store recently.  It's fairly thick, sort of like a foam backing on it, but it makes some cool feeling wings.  I sewed two layers together like I do the felt bird wings, and did a sewn channel along the upper edge where I inserted some wire. 

 

I use 14 gauge electrical wire which I get by the 500 yd spool, it's plastic coated. You have to use a needle nose pliers to bend the end back on itself so it won't chew through the fabric, but it's a nice way to wire something without the wire kinking up (unlike floral wire). 

 

One end down one side of the wings, one down the other side, meet at the center and twist together. Then lay the body of the bat on top and tack it down. I used fake fur and once tacked down I sheared the fur close down on the muzzle of the bat.  Two bead eyes, a set of ears, and it looks pretty good.  The wing vein was done same as I do all my wings, you fold where the vein is and sew a narrow line, this gives the 'finger' on the wing a nice visual.

 

He turned out cute. I brought him along to brunch with a friend - who liked him - and then two waitresses came over and picked the bat up to look at it too (unusual for there).  They both liked it too. 

 

Hmm.  Reactions from the general public, all three on the positive side. Cool!

I Found 'Leather' Type Fabric!

For a while now I've been looking for something soft, fuzzy in a way, and very leather-like to make lifelike bat wings for small, wired bats.  Wired in the wings that is.  I found some remnant fabric at the local store that is greyish (not much chance of finding black) and which feels wonderful.  It's got to be some sort of upholstery fabric. 

 

I want to do furry bodies, and full size leather wings, maybe with a 11 or 14" wingspan.  Wiring the wings won't be difficult, and it'll make them able to not only fold down, but also let people wrap these around their wrist or use them as hat or costume decorations. 

 

Nothing unravels on this, it can be sewn and cut without issue, is super flexible and has such a great texture feel to it!  Love it!  They'll be at Bristol Ren Faire this season, watch for them!

(Hey!  Thank you Russia!  12 page views in one day! )

Speckled Petting Mink (with tiny bow on the tail)

Been finishing up some online orders so haven't had time to post.  I actually got onto Pinterest finally (dragged kicking and screaming there, I don't need something else keeping me on the computer so much!!!).  Looked through there a bit for ideas, but at the moment there's only one new project that's going to be worked on this week.

 

PETTING MINK!  Speckled ones!

 

When the local JoAnn Fabrics store closes last spring they got to the point where the fabrics were sold by the 'bolt' at 75% off and I'd picked up a good 5 yards of thick pile fake fur (normally $14 a yard) for cheap.  I was planning on making baby owls out of it but the texture is so great it's like you want to keep petting it for the tactile feel!

 

You can't keep petting baby owls with the wings getting in the way so I pulled the old idea of 'hunting mink' I'd done for Pennsic years ago and am going to use the same pattern for these.  Basically life size limp mink with tails but no feet. Lightly stuffed, the face shaped to a point with some of the fur shaved down, nice shiny black eyes and two felt ears on them.  For the Ren Fairs this will be a nice little CHEAP item, basically they're just tubes with a bit of stuffing. They will get tails, and to fancy them up a bit I'll tie a red bow at the base of each tail. 

 

The hunting mink sold well when I did those years back, these should go well too.  Even as low as $4 each, since I saved a bundle on the fabric.  It looks similar to this but more brownish.