Scotty Dog - sewing pattern

Scotty Dog

After my first son was born, I felt some kind of maternal sewing compulsion. I wanted to make him soft toys but I wasn't satisfied with patterns I was finding online. I decided to sit down with my pencil and design my first 3D soft toy. I figured every boy should have a dog (despite him later adopting a cat rag doll as his most favorite thing in the world) and I wanted it to have interesting dimension. I wanted to be able to make it with fun cotton fabric prints, and I wanted it to be simple enough to reproduce efficiently to maybe sell later. Whether you spell it Scotty or Scottie, you can't argue that he's adorable.

Even though Scotty was born nearly 6 years ago, he hasn't lost any of his charm. More Scotties have been born into this world since then. Wouldn't you like to have one of your own?

The sewing pattern for Scotty can be found here.

Kenji's Ichigo - crochet pattern

Kenji's Ichigo

A few weeks ago I finished up this little beauty. Kenji's drawing was simple, but very cute. And I loved his hiragana writing above it. I made the basic body shape and then made a bunch of random strawberry plant pieces for him to show me what details there should be and where they should go.

It's so much fun to combine flora and fauna together. I don't know if I would have thought to do it on my own if Kenji hadn't done it first.

As usual when I start with a Kenji design as inspiration, he owns all the rights to this pattern and receives all the proceeds.

You can find the Ichigo pattern here.

Kenji's Spotty - crochet pattern

Kenji's Spotty

After making Bumble, I was gaining confidence and really wanted to turn this drawing into an amigurumi. I think it's my favorite one of all time by Kenji. I had to learn so many new things to bring this one to life.

I started with the head because I knew that would be the most challenging part and I could always make the easier parts of the rest of the body fit. My first prototype was much smaller but I just couldn't get the face to look right. I nearly doubled the size and it went so much better. It's still a small amigurumi standing at about 8" from tip of antennae to toes.

If you like Spotty and want to make one of your own, you can find the pattern here.

Sandwich play set - crochet pattern

Crochet Sandwich Play Set: free pattern

I absolutely love textile toys for my own boys. They aren't hard like wooden toys which can break other things if thrown. They are far more durable than plastic. They are washable, at least they are with the materials I choose. And they are practically 100% child safe.

When searching for a play set for building sandwiches I ran into a bit of trouble finding what I wanted. There was not a single pattern that had all the parts I wanted. Not to mention when looking for a free pattern for a crochet sandwich play set I felt very limited. When I tried putting different patterns together, the end result pieces didn't fit well, as in a lettuce might have been huge and hung over the side of the bread. I also found that everyone seemed to have the exact same pattern for parts like the bread, so I adjusted my other pieces to fit with that universal bread pattern.

My boys like to split the sandwich play set in half to make a BLT on white and a ham, egg, and cheese on toast.



We have moved! You can find this pattern for free

HERE

Kenji's Bumble - crochet pattern

Kenji's Bumble

Earlier this year I finally took up crochet. I felt like my sewing skills were still hindered when it came to wanting to make tiny, detailed things. I was impressed with what I saw others accomplishing with a hook so I took the plunge. As I was following several patterns written by other people, my then 5 year old son, Kenji, started writing me "patterns" and asking me to wave my magic wand (hook) around and make them real. Well, I couldn't let him down so I tried my best to write my own pattern. (His pattern was a little hard to follow, lol.) I started with Bumble because it was fairly simple and straightforward without any weird shapes required.

Bumble became a very quick and easy crochet toy pattern that is perfect for beginners.



We have moved! You can find this pattern for free

Here

And so it begins.

I have been designing sewing creations for quite some time, but I found that fabric sometimes limited my ability to bring my thoughts into reality. A few months ago I finally gave in and taught myself to crochet. I've found great pleasure in bringing some of my 5 year old's drawings to life as amigurumi. Now I've found I can't stop. It's so much fun!

I'm always doing one kind of creative thing or another. My small circle of close friends are always telling me to make YouTube videos to share my ideas. Well, I'm not really sold on the idea of making videos so I guess I'm compromising with starting a blog.

I'm driven by the thought that maybe somewhere out there in this great big world some other people can find joy with stuff that comes out of my brain.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you like what you find here and decide to join me on this journey.