Snorlax Door Stop

I have been mulling for a while about getting a door stop as my door closes itself which is very annoying.  I put it off as I couldn't think of what to make but I stumbled across a picture of Snorlax.

Snorlax is a giant pokemon who sleeps and eats, he is in fact a key plot point in the early pokemon games as he blocks your path and you have to figure out how to wake him up.  So he seemed like a good choice for something that's going to sit there blocking something.

 I drew out Snorlax, cut out the individual pieces, then cut them out of the fabric.  I sew the main body together and filled with rice.

Then I sewed the ears, arms, and feet and filled them with toy stuffing, and sewed them on to the body.

Cuddly Little Ewok (from Star Wars!)

In the early, early stages of making a terrarium for boyfriend (basically a little garden in a bowl that you arrange in a scene), and I'm creating a star wars theme.  All I've done so far is make a little Ewok.

 It looks a bit silly- like a misshapen teddy bear with an orange sack on its head- which is essentially an Ewok!  I don't have a bowl or any other equipment so all my little Ewok can do is guard my books.

Felt Tie-Fighter

After a few weeks of looking at an increasingly crumpled paper tie-fighter prototype I finally got my act together and made one from felt.   A tie-fighter, btw, is a flying hexagonal thingymabob form Star Wars much loved by Star Wars fans, and very expensive to buy in lego form.

I copied from this picture:

And my felt version:

 

Ninja Lavender Bag

I struggled to work out what to get boyfriend for our impending anniversary...I love giving and receiving presents, he does not.  And said boyf took seven weeks to give me a birthday present...so I can't hold out much hope for something in return...

But I love giving presents so perhaps this is my present to me? Well that's sad but regardless I have made him...a Ninja lavender bag!

I used my little felt ninja as a guide for how my lavender Ninja should look.  I made the Ninja the same way I made my Mario plushie; I drew my Ninja on some A4 paper, then cut it into the individual pieces.  I had some black cotton fabric from when I attempted to make a work skirt and some peach-ish fabric from an old pillow case for the skin.  I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut each bit out (very simple pattern; black body and arms, and two black strips for face and one peach strip for face).
I used the handle of a paper bag wrapped in black thread for the ninja erm...stick...

Then I bought some lavender on Amazon (£5 for 250g approx), and filled the Ninja with lavender.
He can use it in his wardrobe or under his pillow to aid his poor sleeping. 

Super Mario Plushie

 Bigger is always better- while my Little Felt Mario was cuteish, my Mario Plushie is entirely awesome sauce!  And probably life sized, he is rather short...

I found a plethora of images of the aforementioned plumber on the interwebs (although word to the wise there are some weird images of Princess Peach) to use as a base.  I then drew my own version- Mario's head is pretty much the same size as his body without feet so I divided the paper almost in half.  A third of the top half was his hat, the other two thirds were his face, his arms came half way down his body.  So I just divided the paper up by folding it to offer me a grid to draw on.  I only needed to draw the left half as I folded the fabric over to make sure both sides were symmetrical. I had to modify the drawing a little for the back- no face but hair instead, and slightly different straps for his overalls.

Once I had my Mario drawing, I placed another sheet over the top and traced the drawing so that I could cut out each element- his hands, feet, arms, overalls, face, ears, moustache, side burns, hair, eyes, eyebrow, nose, hat. I then set about cutting these out of fabric- luckily I had plenty of the correct colours left over from when I made the Mario and Luigi Pillow Cases for Valentines Day for Boyfriend.  I kept it all fairly simple apart from using some pretty flowery blue fabric for his overalls, as well as some weird mottled fabric from an old pillowcase that was the closest thing to Mario skin colour (with perhaps a skin disease).

I sewed the individual pieces together to make the front, I sewed the elements onto his face at this point too, then made up the back.  I decided that I needed a lining as my stitching had left tiny gaps that might fail when the plushie was stuffed.  I traced around the outline of his entirety and cut it out of some spare red fabric.  Some how both lining pieces (front and back) came out different sizes and shapes despite the fact I cut them out at the same time, also they were different from the Mario front and back I had made which also didn't match each other- d'oh!  But some pulling and prodding and they all fell in line.  I pinned the front lining to front fabric, and the back to the back, then the front pieces to the back pieces wrong sides together.  I mulled over sewing them right sides together but this would have added the complicated of turning him right side out again at the end.  Also my stitching so far had been visible so I kept the edge stitching also visible.





As I was sewing him up I started adding stuffing, much easier to do this as you go than at the end when you have fiddly bits like arms and legs to fill.  When I got to the top I added an extra piece of red fabric to finish the top of his hat (I probably should have/could have just made one of the original hat pieces bigger for this but I didn't think it through at the time!  Then I finished stuffing and sewed up his head.  I then added another this curve of red fabric for the peak of his cap.  And then I was done :)

Tiny Felt Mario

Well the post title, while lacking in my usual wit and clever way with the English language (there isn't even a single pun), pretty much sums the post up.  I have made a little Super Mario out of felt. 

Ah felt is there nothing you can't do?

I consulted the great internet oracle for images of Mario to copy be inspired by, then drew a few little Marios of my own before cutting it up into bits to get the parts. The parts were then cut from felt and sewed together.  I used red for hat, arms, and chest, pink for face and hands, blue for overalls, and brown for shoes. 

I did a sort of French Knot for his nose after finding a decent video of how to do them, linked here.  Then stitched his eyes and moustache using a basic poke and pull method of the needle through poor little Mario's head. 

And Mario can join the rest of my little characters in my growing felt army:
Android Felties
Zombie and Ninja Felties
Christmas Decoration Felties

 

 

Talk Nerdy To Me T-Shirt

Another geeky one, yay!  I'm not the first person to use 'Talk Nerdy To Me', and I darn well hope I'm not the last.  But I did my own little design on the bottom, also I sewed the wording onto mine, instead of buying a lazyboy pre-made one. 

I typed the wording out in my favourite font (courier new- which looks very typewriter-ish so I thought it was apt) and printed it out.  I pinned it to the t-shirt and sewed over the typing in white.  It looked really good, then I pulled the paper away, and it looked less good!  But I sewed over it and was pleased with the result.

My little design along the bottom looks like asterixes (or is it asterixi?) but then you turn the t-shirt over and it's Pacman!  And the little asterxis are the little things Pacman eats.  I was thinking of doing Ms Pacman (as Marge Simpson said 'Ms Pacman struck a blow for feminism') but I couldn't be bothered to get the red thread and her lipstick and eyelashes freak me out anyway.

Valentines: Mario and Luigi Patchwork Pillow Cases

Here it is, what I've been doing for the last three weeks- and clearly patchwork is not my forte as I am far too impatient and don't own a decent ruler.  But my boyfriend likes Mario and all that geekery, and yet weirdly wants a patchwork quilt of said geekery.  And apparently so does the entire internet as the craft-geek worlds have collided in a rather wonderful way as people make crochet Cthulhu* ski masks, plentiful t-shirt designs with nerdy slogans, and nintendo controller underwear.  In fact Etsy has a section called Geekery alongside clothing, art, or housewares.

And I want in!  Also I wanted to do something nice for my boyfriend, and with Valentines Day approaching it seemed like the perfect idea, obviously a full quilt would be a bit much but a couple of pillow cases would be a piece of cake- surely?

 
I used a picture thingy of Mario boyfriend made with beads as my initial guide, exchanging one bead for one square of fabric.  Then turned the image around and the red parts green to make a guide for Luigi (also made his moustache brown not black). 

 Then I went through my own fabric stash, but had to buy most of the colours I needed.  I decided to keep the  colours plain but add the occasional patterned piece to make it more interesting and crafty. I bought a few plain cotton fat quarters and picked up some small pieces from the remnants bin of my local Samuel Taylors. I made my squares 3x3cm (although when I cut them out I added 1cm of seam allowance), which made a 45x48cm design. For Mario I needed 44 red squares, 25 brown, 7 black, 35 blue, 2 yellow, 38 pink (skin coloured), and 73 for the background which I did in light blue.  Luigi was the same except the red became green and four of the black became brown (for the moustache).

 

After that came the somewhat laborious process of sewing the squares together in rows (also when I discovered that my cutting out skills are fairly poor and none of the squares were the same size doh!).  Then I sewed the rows together, I added two small strips to the top and bottom and wider ones to the sides to make the full pillowcase size.  

Then I took my two piece of light blue fabric, which I had prepared earlier, one being 20cm longer than the other which became that inside hood bit which pillow cases have.  I folded that section over , then layered the shorter blue fabric and the Mario design over the top.  I did French seams, you sew it wrong sides first then turn it inside out and sew it right sides together which hides all the seam mess inside the French seam.  Of course I did it all wrong several times and had to unpick and resew.
Then I got to do it all again for Luigi.

I can now tell you the products were well received, but boyfriend did turn it over to the plain/smoother side of the pillow case to sleep  So nearly perfect. :)

*scary octopus type thing