Friday, January 14, 2011

First Craft Book Challenge Project: Palm-Size Softies

As I was going through my craft books at the start of this challenge I found an alarming number of knitting and crochet books bought when I first tried learning to knit and was convinced I was going to be amazing at it. Turns out not so much. So this year it looks like I am going to have to try my hand at knitting and crochet again in order to keep this challenge going! But for now, I am going to stick with what I love, and what I really love at the moment is sewing things out of felt. I made this tiny little red fox as my first project in the Craft Book Challenge.  

Palm-Size Softies, by Hitomi Takahashi, Mikiko Matsui and Akemi Tsubo, is actually my newest craft book, purchased just before Christmas as a little present to myself. The projects in here are so adorable, I will probably be making most of them. Below is a picture from the book of "Mimi", the pattern I used. She is actually a pet for one of the other softies in the book, so she is really really tiny! I altered the tail a little bit, and added white patches to the ears and chest to make a little red fox instead of a little cat.
This pattern was my first time sewing a gusset into a stuffed animal but the book has great cartoon-like illustrations explaining each step and it was easy to figure out. Abigail over at While She Naps is writing a great series of tutorials on making soft toys and has just made a post all about gussets in soft toys. If you are interested in learning more about making or designing your own soft toys you should really check it out!

I have yet to name this little guy, but here he is, in all his various foxy poses: 
I think the scarf really adds that little je ne sais quoi. You can see just how small he really is when he stands beside some little spools of thread!
Are you participating in the Craft Book Challenge? It's not too late to make something for January! Click the button in my sidebar if you are interested in joining in on the fun.

9 comments:

  1. Oh, he is so adorable! I love how you turned a cat into a red fox. My project for the Challenge is far from completion and I should probably be working on it right now.

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  2. Sooo cute and teeny! You did a beautiful job on him, down to the whiskers! I'm posting my Craft Book Challenge result tomorrow, myself.

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  3. very cute :)
    and by the way your stitching looks immaculate, wish i was that neat!

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  4. So cute! I'm really impressed with your stitching. This project turned out great!

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  5. Hi! I'm here via the Craft Book Challenge and just wanted to stop and say that that is the cutest little palm sized fox I've ever seen! So sweet! I was looking at it on Flickr and I was picturing it about 5 or 6 inches tall because the detail was so beautiful, then I saw the pic with the spools of thread and I was doubly impressed!

    Genevieve

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  6. How do you stand the cuteness? Seriously, it's adorable. And so well stitched. I believe I need to add that book to my list of books to get once this challenge is over. I didn't think about the fact that this challenge would introduce me to all kind of other books I may want!

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  7. Absolutely digustingly cute, you could name him: Foxy, or Basil, but it couldn't be Basil Brush because that is already taken.
    Elaine

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