Biff

I just couldn't give up on my quest to create a slightly obscure creature. Simon now has a BFF. Simon was slightly disappointing so I gave up the robot theme and created a monster (hee hee) for my little monster (said with love). Biff was inspired by some scrapbooking paper I have of a stripe-legged monster with pointy teeth. I just finished a shower curtain using the polka dots for a contrast fabric. I thought it paired great with the gray wool felt. Notice that Biff has a heart on his butt showing his softer side. :) He may be a ferocious monster, but there's still love inside.

Simon Bolthouse

So, for some reason, the idea of creating a robot doll for Maggie just popped into my head. Very random, I know, but that's the way I operate. Not totally random- I was inspired by my good friend, Amy, to make Maggie a doll after she made her Molly Monkey. The doll turned out cute, but with very long and thin arms and legs. Her name is Natalie, in case you were wondering. My daughter is 10 months old and not able to name things. Naming items is my specialty and is much better than calling stuffed toys "dolly" and "bear". How mundane.

Back to the topic at hand: Simon Bolthouse. Simon is perhaps the dorkiest thing I've ever created, yet there's something I like about him. That's probably good since Maggie throws him on the floor every time I give him to her.


If I were to make a Simon again, I would reconfigure his eyes. He looks a little too alien-like for my taste, which takes away from him intellectualism, don't you think? :) His body is made of wool felt and I used scraps of polka dots and stripes for appendages. His control panel contains gray wool felt and buttons plus some rick rack so he can measure frequencies and wavelengths, whatever that means. Because my husband develops software and is a major techie, I thought I'd throw a little binary code on Simon's control panel. (I think he was impressed that I knew what binary code was.) Simon's neck looked a little strange so I added a lavender ribbon to show that even though he is a very technical creature, he has some creative flair. ;)

Ga Ga for Jumpers!

I've made 11 jumpers in the past two months- most of them for a craft show that turned out to be more like a large garage sale. My booth was beside a bearded man who was selling fishing lures and who spelled salmon with a "d" at the end on his sign. How can you claim to be an expert at "luring" in a specific type of fish yet not know how to spell it? I fought the urge the entire time to do two things: 1) chuck his staticy radio at him and 2) explain that salmon does not have a silent "d".

Anyway, I found a cute pattern from Newlook and modified it a bit. I tried it out first by making one for my daughter. Instead of sewing a strap to the back yoke and one to the front and having them tie in a knot on the shoulder, I sewed one on the back yoke and brought it through a button hole to knot on the front yoke. I liked this look. I have Maggie wear it with leggings most of the time. I enjoy that layered look.



So- the craft show wasn't a complete waste of time. I got three special orders, which reminds me...time to start working on those!

Here are some of my favorites that I've made. Let me know what you think. Honest opinions are valuable to me!