BALLS, BALLS, BALLS..........

I'm in such a good mood today. Its sunny - yay :o) And look what I've got to play with:


Loads and loads of felt balls! Over 1000 apparently, although I haven't actually bothered counting them! And they are all the way from Nepal. I've got a plan for them that I am very excited about :o)

Just waiting for a few more balls to arrive and then all will be revealed. In the meantime I'm just enjoying looking at them!!

Dotty xx

MOOOOOOO!

How cool is my Easter chocolate cow? He's so cute I almost don't want to eat him.......I'm sure I'll manage though!

Hope you are having a lovely Easter break.

Dotty xx

More monster action...

Before I stop going on about monsters I just thought I'd show you a cute little family I made. These are my latest monsters and I think they are probably also my favourites.

Mum:

Kids:

And a group shot:

I need to come up with a name for this monster family but I haven't managed to think of anything appropriate yet. Still thinking! Suspiciously one of the kids has arms and the others don't - I decided to see what they'd look like with arms but I think I prefer them without!

I'm working on some more monsters at the moment - I've got a new idea for a shape and also I want to have a go with some different fabrics (pinstripe monster anyone?). I'll post some pics when I've made some progress.

In the meantime I'll be posting about some of the other things I've been making. I'm also thinking of doing a regular(ish) post on some of the stuff I've made using other peoples patterns and tutorials - there's so much inspiration out there and using other peoples ideas has taught me loads.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter break

Dotty xx

PS. If you get monster withdrawal symptoms then head over to Wilkie's site, Turnip Creations. There are some really great monsters and aliens on there, check it out.

Aaaarrrggghhh! They're everywhere!

The monsters seem to be taking over the garden.

Hiding in the pots...

With the logs....

In the plants...

Out on the grass...

Climbing trees......

Even openly frolicking in the primroses....

I've managed to cage the two headed beast.....

but I'm going to need some help with the others. HELP ME!!

Dotty xx

Octomonster!!

Hang on, there's something scary swimming into view....



OH NO! ITS OCTOMONSTER!

Ok...so he doesn't actually have eight legs but I reckon he is definitely some type of sea monster. Look at those suckers....

Adding all those dots took ages but I think it was worth it in the end! I think I will actually make an eight legged one next time.

Dotty xx

What's that hiding in the daffodils?

Another scary monster?

Grrrrr...... Look at those teeth!

He might bite. Maybe we should keep our distance.....

Ok...maybe he isn't that scary! He just wants to say hello! None of my monsters seem to be particularly scary - I think I might have to start calling them something else!!

Dotty xx

Conquering the Sewing Machine

The best part of making the sock monsters was giving them a face and adding embellishments, this is what gave them their personality. I decided to learn how to use my Mum's sewing machine and got very excited about how much time I would save on the basic sewing - more time to spend embellishing and embroidering! More time to spend sewing buttons and ribbons! Yay!

Full of enthusiasm I dragged my mum's machine to the kitchen table, declaring to my parents that I was going to teach myself to use it. Surely it couldn't be that complicated. I looked at the machine. It looked at me. I looked at the instructions. Hmmmm. This looks confusing. Bobbins....feed dogs.....zipper feet.....what??! No, I must be able to do this - when I was young I had a cute little kid's sewing machine which my Grandma taught me to do patchwork on. Somehow it didn't seem so complicated then.

Back to the instructions. The problem was that these seemed to assume a certain degree of knowledge which I didn't really have. I puzzled over the instructions. I had a mini tantrum. Then I went to fetch my mum! Mum is hardly an expert on these things (she only bought the machine to take up trousers which are always too long for her) but I thought she might know more than me.

Between us we managed to get the machine threaded, break and fix the bobbin case and FINALLY do some basic stitches. Some of this started to seem familiar again. I stopped sulking. Maybe my plan would work after all. Ooooh, those funny decorative stitches were pretty cool. I could use that when I was making faces for my monsters.... Hurrah! Excitement regained I spent some time practicing the different stitches, experimenting with different stitch lengths and widths and had a go at sewing a curve - wobbly!

I pretty soon got bored with practising and wanted to have a go at actually making something. I grabbed some felt, sketched a quick pattern and got started. Ta-da! My first machine sewn monster:

Ok, I know he isn't too great but not bad for a first attempt? I sort of forgot that if I sewed on the line of my patten then when I turned it the right way out it would be a bit smaller than planned! I also didn't have any suitable lavender coloured thread to stitch up the stuffing hole so I ended up having to do a kind of decorative stitch all the way round the outside. I know, I know it basically made the machine stitching pointless and it turned out a bit messy! Ho-hum. All good practice anyway!

Undeterred I decided to make another felt monster. I liked the basic pattern but he needed to be bigger. I also decided to make him double sided - different colours and expressions on each side. I did this partly because I thought it would be cool but mainly because I didn't have enough felt to do all of the body in one colour!! Take two:

Yay, that's better. Still not perfect but a great improvement. Plus I added dots. I love dots :o)

I was starting to enjoy myself now! I raced to the shops to get more felt with lots more ideas for things to make.

A week or so later I was getting pretty proficient with the machine and had made a few different things but I did go back to this design and make one more monster for my friend Vicky who had inspired me to start crafting again a few weeks earlier. This is her monster:

Bright enough for ya? Hmmm, maybe I did get a bit over exited in that felt shop! Still loving those dots though.

I will post more photos of the things I have made next time. I've got to get back to the machine now....

Bye

Dotty xx