Thursday, August 22, 2013

When a Giant Squid is in Order

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:

A pile of supplies - fleece, felt, cotton, thread, paper for the pattern - stuffing not pictured

Newspapers sell off the extra end of rolls from printing for super cheap - excellent for DIY patterns

Trusty ruler and cutting board - excellent for lining up angles and measuring out the pattern pieces

Measuring out the pieces

Free-handed the rounding of the legs

A better view at the leg - along with some toddler artwork to help me along

It was tricky to get the long legs right at the end

Used my ruler to line up my angles

So this is where geometry is useful!

Measuring out the body

A better look at the body measurements

The top of the body

A full shot of the body

An overview of some of the pieces

Measuring out piece 4

Good thing my living room isn't any smaller!

To make sure it was the same all around, I folded this in fourths and cut around the edge

Folded the body in half to get a symmetrical body

Traced on the parts - rather than pinning

The lines on the contrast fabric

The cutting

More cutting

A pile of the cut pieces

Remember, right sides together!

A view of the fin sewn together

Now the tricky part of sticking the fin into the body - fin in folks!

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)

Sew it all together, stuffing the fin as you go

It gets a little tricky stuffing the fin as you go!

Flip it all right side out and you've got a stuffed fin!

Both fins are stuffed and connected!

Stuffing the body took some time....

Luckily, I had help changing out bobbins and such

When it comes to stuffing the legs - get any long implement you have - knitting needle, chopstick - anything - it helps!

Sewed the head together - it's ready for the body!

Attaching legs to the head - their anatomy was a little confusing for me

A better shot of the leg attached - note the top of the leg is resting on the right side out of the head fabric

I pinned all the legs at once to make sure the spacing was good

One leg at a time, it started to take shape

It has legs!

Gotta connect the head and the body

A leeetle tricky with the stuffing...pretty much the story of this project!

It's connected!

Stuffed the scraps into the head (along with some more stuffing)

The circle covering the bottom of the head - hand stitched on

Her actual job was evening out the stuffing

A squid without eyeballs is just creepy

I shall call him Squiddy and he will be my friend

TA - DA!!!!

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It 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 :)

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  2. LOVE IT! If I ever make one, I'll reference this. Maybe I should pin it????

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