Halloween Owl Giveaway and some Halloween Hooters.

After I made my Halloween plush dolls I had an overwhelming desire to make Halloween owls too. So..I did. I would have made more but I ran out of felt in the colors I needed...figures.

Any hoo, I made a fun one for my Halloween giveaway. He's a little mini but sweet as can be. He's a Witch Owl. Magical and fun. Casting happy spells as he flies through the forest.

He's 11 inches tall (27.5cm) Made of eco felt and fabric and all hand sewn.

Giveaway Info.

1. Just leave a comment with a way to contact you if you win.
2. Become a follower of my blog if you don't already follow me.. 

Simple and easy. If you want to blog or tweet or facebook about my giveaway then thanks, but you don't have to to win.

Giveaway starts today September 20th and ends October 1st. 

Halloween Hooters

Available in my etsy shop today.

Mini Halloween Owls going in the shop, minus the giveaway one.

Large and small Witch Owls

Large Halloween Owls

Hope you enjoyed seeing my Hooters!

Making of A Queen

Don't know if you are interested or not but I wanted a photo record of the construction of my Queen of Hearts Doll and lacking anything else to post today I decided to do this. Hopefully you'll find it interesting. Warning there are naked doll boobs here!

 Original drawing of the face.

  
This is the largest doll or plush I've ever attempted so far. Her final height is about 21.25 inches tall I think. Her arms are button jointed and move but her legs aren't and don't since the dress I had in mind didn't allow her to sit. After making and attaching her bosom I thought they were too freakishly stripper large and thought I'd have to re-do them but in the end they worked out perfectly. I spent lots of time completely drawing out the doll and how everything would fit together and how her face would look but decided to just wing it on the clothes. HUGE mistake! I don't know what I was thinking! I actually cried at one point thinking I bit off more than I could chew with this one! But Sassy always gets the job done!

  
Here she is in all her naked glory! She was cold and upset that she had no clothes. She unfortunately stood this way glaring at me for almost 2 weeks while I racked my brains for a way to make her clothes and make them queenly enough! If you know anything about me you know I'm a hand sewer and his whole doll and her clothes are completely hand sewn which added to my anxiety.

 A doll friend of mine once told me to make clothes patterns using paper towels. It was a really helpful suggestion! My idea for her skirt was to have 4 flat sides kind of like playing cards stacked upright.

Somehow I didn't get any photos of the creation of the corset. Sigh! I am so proud of how that turned out! The thing about felt is it can be thin and something I've discovered to give it stability is to embroider on it. It's impossible to see in these photos but the front and back of the fan piece of the corset has decorative stitching on it as does the red inset of the corset itself. 

  
The corset, fan piece and the red lace trimmed panties required hours of work.

 When I finally designed and sewed the dress I realized she wouldn't be able to stand on her own and spent some anxious moments trying to figure that out. Did I mention I've NEVER done this before?! So my idea was to make a long tutu kind of underskirt thing. It has two layers, black underneath and red on top. Only because I didn't buy enough black but you can't see it anyhow so who cares?

 Once her headdress and jewelry were on she was ready to go!

A better view of her back. She's standing on a cardboard circle so her dress wouldn't get muddy. It's been crazy rainy here.

I would have done more detail to her dress but I was running out of time and still needed to make her flamingo croquet mallet and a down and dirty 1/2 an hour to make hedgehog ball.

I love her and learned so much in the making of her. I can't wait till next year for ADO's next blog event! I received so many lovely comments from some awesome "real" doll makers that I'd like to make more dolls.

Thanks so much for reading thru this long and rambling post! Will show a sneak peek of a new project tomorrow.

Whoa Nellie, Here Come The Seahorses!

Finished the prototype of my new Seahorses plush I'm going to be putting in my shop.

 

Their tails can be twinned together.

My daughter loves these so much she wants me to make an over sized one for her new room re-do. These are prototypes because I don't have any product tags yet. I found a great seller on etsy who makes them. Once my tags are here I can finish up everything I have going on and show you my "official" tagged plush.

Trolls!

I'm not actually writing about these Trolls but since I am on the subject thought I'd show some of my Russ Troll collection. These were huge when I was a kid and I never had one and was jealous of my friends who had whole collections of them. So as an adult I started picking them up at yard sales etc. I recently found a box of them stored away and decided to give them a home in my studio. This is only some of them, maybe one day I'll share my complete Troll obsession with you! O.k. so maybe this post is a little bit about these Trolls! LOL!

Now on to the real reason for this post. For some reason, who knows why Trolls have been on my mind lately. I know I'm weird, but that's o.k. cause I like myself that way. Sitting watching t.v. I did a quick sketch (kind of embarrassed to show you) then made a quick pattern on the computer.

In the beginning Trolls were flat, without features or life.

They come into the world naked and grumpy.

(kind of like me in the morning, only not naked)

Even with warm tunics they still are not happy.

(Must be a Troll personality trait)

Please meet Granite. He's a Rock Troll. They live in

caves but prefer a good bridge where they can waylay

humans, play mind games, impose tolls and crunch bones.

  

They also have the cutest bums but hate to show them.

(this one bit me after I took the photo)

I have a forest Troll in progress so stay tuned for his debut.

Sassy's Tribute To Molly The Barn Owl

Molly and Magee and their nest of eggs has become an internet

sensation and I, like many people have sat glued to the computer

watching and waiting for the eggs to hatch. If you know me at

all then you know I have a "thing" for owls so I decided to

make a little plush as a tribute to Molly.

First, please let me say I'm not really a professional, I just make 

fun things that I enjoy showing to people. This is my interpretation 

of Molly and my first attempt at something so realistic. She's

made entirely from eco felt and completely hand sewn. This is 

probably the most detailed piece I've ever done. Enjoy!

Pattern pinned together.

Another view.

Completed Front View.

Side and Back View.

Nesting.

I'd love to hear what you think of her!