16 August 2007

Some Bunny Loves You

Allow me to introduce you to "Sunny"; my first attempt at Amigurumi:


My sewing needs some serious improvement. I'm hoping that will come over time. My main obstacle is patience (which is why I am crocheting more than I am knitting). Sewing is finicky and I want to get it done as fast as possible and I think, with this project anyway, that it's fairly obvious I did not spend the time on it that I should have. (And it's too bad I found this tutorial after I had already sewed the head to the body!). I had originally intended this project as a baby shower gift, but I think I can do much better, and I've got some time, so I'll keep this one for myself.

Since the first pieces I did were the head and body, I see now that they are not nearly tight enough. It's very important that your stitches are tight so you don't see the stuffing. If your fingers don't hurt, your stitches aren't tight enough.


I used this pattern (free if you sign-up with the site), but I made one ear (which was a total bitch to do!) and I hated the end result. Fortunately, I also came across this pattern, so I used those ears instead. MUCH better. I added a couple of extra rows to the ears, but I think I will add more next time so the ears are a bit longer... actually a lot longer. It'd be cute if they were the entire length of his body (like in that first pattern).

I also think I will use that fake bean/beady stuffing on the limbs instead of the poly-fil. They'd be great with some weight to them instead of the gravity-defying puffiness.

I do wanna mention that for the baby shower gifts, I will be using felt eyes and not tiny bits of plastic that baby could choke on. That would be bad!

OK -- onto the next one!....

15 August 2007

Golden Stitch

Okay, so it's been a while! What can I say - I've been busy!

I'm finally finding some time to get back into the swing, er, string of things (heh), and I came across an adorable pattern for a Golden Snitch. It looked fairly simple so I picked up some 100% cotton, 4-ply worsted Lily® Sugar n' Cream yarn in white and yellow, and some stuffing. 45 minutes later I had my Snitch!





Since I had the stuffing and this small project was such a success, this has got me going on Amigurumi. I have started on a bunny, but the one thing I'm not liking about it is the sewing. If you know me, but at all, you'll know I have a serious hate-on for sewing. I sewed the head to the body yesterday and it was a disaster. It might have something to do with the fact that, because I have avoided sewing my entire life - I pay my dry cleaner to sew buttons, fer heck sakes! - I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm hoping I can detach the two pieces without damaging them so I can give it another go. Plus, the bunny may have been a tad too ambitious... Maybe something smaller would have been better.

At any rate, I'll let you know how it went in my next post. In the meantime, and if you're into Amigurumi, check out Roxycraft for some amazing stuff!