Amy Butler and More Polka Dots

Sometimes I look back on my week and I am amazed at how much or how little of something I’ve done.  This week was a lot of home cooked meals (go me!), a lot of banana splits with homemade fudge sauce and a lot of sewing.  And absolutely no scrubbing of bathtubs or laundry.  Meh.  You get some you lose some. Of course with all that sewing Scott’s birthday present still isn’t done (Sunday, I swear!).  This week  Sew+Tell is an Amy Butler challenge, with prizes to be had!

To start the Amy Butler fest, I made a fall version of the Birdie Sling.  I made this same pattern about a year and a half ago for my sister.  And I love the pattern, but I’ve clearly got some weird poochiness going on.  My last one had it too… I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but a quick google search of birdie sling images showed me I’m not the only one with issues.  (But clearly us issue girls are in the minority.)  After I took these pictures I tore it apart to fix some of that weirdness.  And now it’s unfinished but not weird or poochy.  Does it still count as a finish if at one point today It WAS finished?  The chocolatey fabric is a soft suedey bit of loveliness and the bag is lined in the same brown floral.  (Both from Walmart.)

But more fun than making another purse (I’m on a fall purse kick lately! (here and here)  I better call this one an overnighter.)  I got to do some more with those orange Amy Butler polka dots (from the Lotus collection).  And I might even like it better than the pumpkin.  No, that’s a lie.  There is no might about it.  I love this.

This is the new friend at our house.  Everyone wants to sit by him at lunch.  A few weeks ago when I spotted (ha!) these polka dots I couldn’t help but imagine a whole family of giraffe’s walking around in spots.  I have long loved this pattern from hop.skip.jump and after three yards of polka dots mysteriously made it to my house, I bought the pattern.  And there never was a happier, or cuter pair.  I cut him out on Tuesday night, saw a squirrel (SQUIRREL!!!) and got sidetracked by the pumpkin project.  But that actually worked out for the best.

Around midnight on Wednesday I sewed my little giraffe parts together and put them in a stack.  And Thursday morning that little stack, a bag of polyfill and a few sewing supplies went on a very long car ride with me.  We drove to a small town a few hours away with Scott so he could do a little work and Creamie could go down a different slide at a different park a gillion times.  Turns out stuffing a long skinny animal neck with enough polyfil to make it stand up straight is a very long laborious, but perfectly lap-controlled project.  It was the perfect bit of car craftiness.

And the whole four hours roundtrip ride was puncuated with a little voice from the backseat “Hold Giraffe!  Hold it!”  Followed by me, fingers full of needles and polyfill and giraffe parts, in my grown up voice from the front seat “As soon as he is done I promise you can hold him.”  And then a more under the breath voice “Why in the crap is this neck so long!  Are you serious?  I can still get MORE stuffing in that neck?  Ahhh, why didn’t I leave a bigger stuffing hole in this thing! And on and on…” And finally, four hours plus a few minutes later he was finished.  And when I set him down for a quick photoshoot Creamie sidled right up next to him and said “Hi Giraffe.  Hi.”  And then they started telling jokes.  And they were both laughing it was so funny.

[ This is Creamie saying “Rockabye.  Nigh’night.  Rockabye.  Hug.” ]

They are good friends now.  Creamie even sang him a song and rocked him to sleep.  The pattern calls for this little guy to be made from wool, but I couldn’t resist the idea of a polka dot giraffe.  I think the wool would have been easier though.  Also I left out the button joints on the arms and legs.  Because he belongs to a one year old.  Well, and her mother.  I’m going to have a hard time letting this one down off the shelf.  Mostly due to the incredible amount of time that went into stuffing that neck.  You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuffing that has been compacted in that tiny neck with a ballpoint pen.  Just the neck and body took me more than an hour to stuff.  I’ve decided that making softies is 10% machine sewing, 70% stuffing and 20% hand sewing.  You know, with all that wealth of knowledge I have in the softie making department.  Perhaps the problem is I am a total rookie…

But the giraffe seems happy to be finished and to have some new friends to hang out with.  Even if he is head and shoulders neck above them.  (That cute little frog was knitted by my amazingly talented SIL Stephanie.  Creamie sleeps with him most every night.)

I’m off to look at Sew+Tell: Amy Butler Edition.  And then I’m off to a mountain cabin to laugh the night away with some cute girlfriends of mine.  Right after I finish sewing my new overnight bag back together.