I love Google - you can find just about anything. So, when my family was invited to a cephalopod first birthday party, I turned to Google for the answer to my gift-giving conundrum.
I found a
link to a pattern for an 8 foot squid pillow....because that's what every 1 y/o needs right? Well, this kid got a giant Star Wars animal rug thing for his baby shower and they were THRILLED, so I thought it was be pretty in line with their tastes.
It was a great pattern. If you should ever want to make it, stop by and snag it. I wished that it had more pictures to show me exactly what the heck I was doing in some places, so here for your information, or merely curious amusement, is a pictorial of Squiddy:
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| A pile of supplies - fleece, felt, cotton, thread, paper for the pattern - stuffing not pictured |
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| Newspapers sell off the extra end of rolls from printing for super cheap - excellent for DIY patterns |
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| Trusty ruler and cutting board - excellent for lining up angles and measuring out the pattern pieces |
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| Measuring out the pieces |
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| Free-handed the rounding of the legs |
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| A better view at the leg - along with some toddler artwork to help me along |
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| It was tricky to get the long legs right at the end |
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| Used my ruler to line up my angles |
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| So this is where geometry is useful! |
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| Measuring out the body |
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| A better look at the body measurements |
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| The top of the body |
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| A full shot of the body |
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| An overview of some of the pieces |
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| Measuring out piece 4 |
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| Good thing my living room isn't any smaller! |
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| To make sure it was the same all around, I folded this in fourths and cut around the edge |
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| Folded the body in half to get a symmetrical body |
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| Traced on the parts - rather than pinning |
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| The lines on the contrast fabric |
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| The cutting |
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| More cutting |
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| A pile of the cut pieces |
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| Remember, right sides together! |
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| A view of the fin sewn together |
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| Now the tricky part of sticking the fin into the body - fin in folks! |
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| All four edges should be lined up now - right sides of the fin touching the right sides of the body (which have their right sides facing in) |
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| Sew it all together, stuffing the fin as you go |
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| It gets a little tricky stuffing the fin as you go! |
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| Flip it all right side out and you've got a stuffed fin! |
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| Both fins are stuffed and connected! |
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| Stuffing the body took some time.... |
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| Luckily, I had help changing out bobbins and such |
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| When it comes to stuffing the legs - get any long implement you have - knitting needle, chopstick - anything - it helps! |
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| Sewed the head together - it's ready for the body! |
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| Attaching legs to the head - their anatomy was a little confusing for me |
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| A better shot of the leg attached - note the top of the leg is resting on the right side out of the head fabric |
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| I pinned all the legs at once to make sure the spacing was good |
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| One leg at a time, it started to take shape |
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| It has legs! |
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| Gotta connect the head and the body |
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| A leeetle tricky with the stuffing...pretty much the story of this project! |
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| It's connected! |
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| Stuffed the scraps into the head (along with some more stuffing) |
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| The circle covering the bottom of the head - hand stitched on |
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| Her actual job was evening out the stuffing |
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| A squid without eyeballs is just creepy |
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| I shall call him Squiddy and he will be my friend |
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| TA - DA!!!! |
WOW! That's amazing!
ReplyDeleteIt was truly a ridiculous, over-the-top present, but it was a hit with his family. It's always so fun to show up with something so outlandish :)
DeleteLOVE IT! If I ever make one, I'll reference this. Maybe I should pin it????
ReplyDelete