Making Mandrake Roots

I'm sharing part of a booth at the Harry Potter Fest at the end of October this year.  And one of the items I want to make is soft sculpture Mandrake Roots, straight from the Potter movies.  WAY way back years ago when I would have a dealers table at the local science fiction conventions some of the items I'd made were dolls with soft sculptured faces. This was after the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls came out.  Shaping certain fabrics  over soft stuffed insides was pretty easy but I sort of dropped most of that once my dragons started being big sellers.

Looking over what's been done by others on Pinterest and such with 'Mandrake' I was pretty sure that I could easily come up with something, and actually yes, it was a very easy project to do.  A stop at the Dollar Store for silk plants (3 sets of leaves at $1 a set.  I wanted green leaves but this is fall and they only had the browns and oranges) and at JoAnn Fabrics for the gold panne velour (one yard on sale for $3.99) and some yarn ($4.89) for the root tendrils, and that was it. I had black beads for eyes here at home already.

The yarn was Red Heart Scrubby, just one skein.  I got the earth toned one - Almond - which was a mottled cream and dark tan brown variation and the yarn was nubbly enough to be a great texture.  Making 16 Mandrakes (each about 11" tall) used up less than half a skein, and maybe only 1/2 yard of the fabric.  I roughly looped the yarn 3 times around my hand, cut through what dangled and tied a knot in the center for each 'hand' and the 'feet' tendrils.  Varying the length of the loops got me some varied lengths. I did maybe 5 loops for the feet, they looked better being thicker.

The body was free form cut, vaguely in the shape of a yam about 11 inches tall.  Wide-ish at the top, narrowed down to the feet.  I left the opening at the top and sewed the hands and feet in as I went, then turned it right side out, stuffed with fiberfill, inserted silk leaves at the top and closed it up.  Then came the simple needle sculpting to define the legs, add arms by pinching and sewing through, doing frown lines and added the black bead eyes underneath.  They turned out pretty good. 

Fortune Cookie Cat Toys WITH Fortunes

For years I've been making simple fortune cookie cat toys, first with a piece of twill tape sticking out as the fortune, then going to a piece of white polar fleece or felt as the fortune.  The twill tape needed to be sealed on the end so it didn't unravel.  For that I'd dip a finger into Elmer's Glue and 'pat' it on the end of the tape and let dry.  With the fleece or felt I didn't need to do that, but they didn't look as good.

NOW, however, I can do actual printed fortunes that work much better.  And it's so simple.

I snagged an image off the internet which shows what the finished toy looks like, this image uses felt for the fortune though, not my printed tags.  Someone hand sewed this one.  Machine stitching them gives a far cleaner look.

FORTUNE COOKIE CAT TOY:

Cut a 4" circle from orange felt.  I do 20 of them at a time generally.

In Microsoft Word print up a bunch of cat fortunes, size them to a font size of 8 or 9, small works fine with this.  Make sure you have enough space between the lines to allow for clearance when cutting them apart later and have at least 1/2" of clear space in front of the fortune. 

I use fortunes like 'The Chickadee of Happiness Is In Your Future' or 'Beware The Barking Dog' or 'Catnip Is A Gateway Drug'.  Be creative, you can do any sort of text on this as you want.  Print the page out on your printer.  The Dollar Store has clear contact paper for $1, it's 3 feet long and you peel back the paper on it easily.  Put your printed page on that and press, then flip and do the other side as well so both sides are laminated. Cut the individual fortunes apart.  Leave 1/2" of white at one end for inserting into the fortune cookie.

Now fold your circle in half so it looks like an apple slice, start sewing along the edge in red or orange thread, stopping about 1/2" along. Insert your fortune but make sure the stitching line does not cover the text.  The laminate is not going to be a danger to your sewing needle, it has never gummed up mine and I've made quite a few of these.   Continue sewing along the edge till about 1/2 way around the curve. Stop, leaving the needle in the 'down' position so the fabric won't slide, now you stuff the toy.

Using a little bit of stuffing and a pencil, poke that up into the sewn corner.  Then take a slightly larger bit of stuffing and wrap catnip in that, shape it into a lozenge shape and slide that into the opening too.  Continue finishing sewing around the curve and back stich at the end to lock in place. 

Using a scissors, trim the felt down to the stitch line for a clean look. Be EXTRA CAREFUL not to cut into the fortune!!!!! 

Holding the trimmed cookie in one hand, use a finger to poke in the back edge to fold the cookie in half.  Hand stitch that in place to complete the bend, making it look like a real fortune cookie.

TIP:  You can use these without the catnip as just regular gift/joke fortune cookies, or for fun package ties, or even as Christmas ornaments.  The pattern is simple and as I say, can be as creative with the fortunes as you want to be. 

Halloween Kicking Sticks

A few years back there was a fabric out that had rows and rows of dancing skeletons (Halloween type) about 3" tall on the figures, and they were in different colors. Orange, purple and yellow, on a black background.  I got two yards of it and never really did anything with it.  But it was cute so I saved it.  Unfortunately I can't find an image of it online, the fabric has been discontinued for too long.

This is from an Etsy site, the lady uses about the same proportions on her toy as I do, though my feather boa section is a bit longer (about the length of the toy itself).

With someone asking me for Halloween stuff, I decided to make them up as Kicking Sticks with the feather boa ends, using complimentary boa colors.  Bone white, purple, orange and yellow.  They turned out great!  I might be able to use them also at a Harry Potter event. 

At least I found a reason to use the print.  Halloween is so specific, the fabrics that come out for it are usually limited to the holiday.  Though I have used skull printed fabric to make 'questionable mushrooms' that went over great at the Renaissance Festival.  I'd put them in a basket with normal colored portabella style mushrooms, and told people to watch out which one they picked up, that some were very questionable.

HOW TO MAKE A KICKING STICK:

I use BRIGHTLY colored fabric, cotton prints.  The size is 7" x 5 1/2".  You fold it in half the long way.  At the short end you lay a 6" length of feather boa so the end is barely sticking out from the inside.  Each feather boa will give you a number of cut lengths, depending on the size of the boa, some are only 3' long at stores, others run 4 or 6' lengths. 

Sew across the end of the boa and continue on down the length of the fabric, tucking stray feather ends in away from the stitch line.  Turn right side out. Push the corners out a bit at the feather end, then stuff with fiberfill and catnip.  Turn the open end under a bit and machine stitch across.  Done.

They are quick, easy, and you can make quite a few in half an hour's time. No hand sewing either on these. 

TIP:  When cutting the boa sections, do it OUTSIDE!!!!  As you cut each one use your fingers to pull at the end, letting the fragments fall to be taken by the wind. You want to leave that mess outdoors, not have it all over you, your table, your floor, your sewing machine, etc.  There is no easy way to keep things clean indoors if you try cutting it there.  I've tried.

Dragon Toes Are Back

Dragoncon was just this past weekend.  Steph and Sandy took some of my dragon toes down with them and apparently as cat toys they all sold in two days.  40 of them, I should have made more. 

I'd made these several years back, as key chain fobs, but they do make good cat toys too.  They're based on eagle toes, with long 2" claws (in black felt, stuffed a bit) and the fabric I used is anything I can find in a fish scale print. 

Originally they were only 5" long but the ladies wanted them longer so I added two more inches to the length.  Half a yard will make 22 of them.  It was a nice, easy pattern. I spent more time attaching the claws on that I did machine sewing the toes.