I recently finished stuffing and sewing all the pieces together for Barnabee the knit bee from Let’s Knit magazine issue 143 the pattern is by Val Pierce. The original pattern had Barnabee with a black cap that was sewn onto his head and the antennae was sewn on top of the cap
My Barnabee has a very long head and the cap didn’t look right so I didn’t use it and instead crocheted some hair on his head and added smaller antennae. All the other parts are the same and he is quite a big stuffy with many arms for hugging!
Barnabee was made with Loops & Threads Impeccable in Yellow and Vanna’s Choice in Charcoal with some odd yarn for the wings in Aran.
I have long had an interest in sewing toys to go along with knitting and crocheting them but I have not had the time or energy to get started on it. Awhile ago I came across this adorable pattern from Shiny Happy World for Warren the Charity Bear. I loved how simple it seemed to be but with enough variety in nose design and other elements to make the bears really cute. I have also been collecting and saving some old sweaters that couldn’t really make it as clothing but could be upcycled to toys. Now that I have more time due to being home all the time, I decided to finally get started on making some Warren bears. It has been really fun and I have been able to practice my handsewing!
I have now made 13 Warren bears, from a variety of materials and I love them all! They are really quick to make once the pattern is cut out of the fabric.
Thanks to Wendi at Shiny Happy World for providing the pattern!
Say hello to Fletcher! He is a very large frog that I knit in Lion Brand Homespun in Green Apple. He is adorable and very large but soft since Homespun has a lovely softness to it. I have made this frog pattern a number of times from Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long.
As well as a large knit and crochet book and magazine collection, I have a number of other craft books including a number about sewing toys and sewing felt decor and toys. I have pulled all these books out recently to look through them as part of my Other Crafting days. I have settled on a few sewing projects I would like to work on and this weekend I traced and cut out the patterns for the owl from Make Your Own Soft Toys by Rob Merrett.
Here are the Owl patterns cut out from three different fabrics that I had as part of my stash. One is a fairly thick tweed fabric, one has a floral pattern and the dark brown fabric on the left is a very soft fabric with a floral pattern that can’t really be seen in this photograph. The wings, feet, beak and belly are cut out of felt to be sewn on to the fabric body and stuffed.
I am going on holidays in a few days so the sewing project will have to sit for a while until I get back but I am pleased with the fabric choices and how the patterns look so far, I think the owls will look really cute. Not sure what I am going to do with all these new owl friends but I’ll figure that out later.
I love a good pattern book or magazine and find that there are so many great ideas that I have no end of things that I want to make. Sometimes I have inspiration to create my own designs. I draw (very badly) some pictures or write out what I think it would look like and try to give it a go. When I am creating for my annual craft fair, I like to focus on making my own designs to sell. This year I was working on creating items where the legs of the toy were knit or crochet in one piece with the body. I like this idea because it means less sewing of parts onto the toy and the toys can usually stand up! I had various success with this – I made some started from the legs up:
This is Bartley, one of the Travel Buddies, so named because they look like they are ready for a trip, with hats and bags! The Travel Buddies are made with the legs first and then moving up the body, this creates very sturdy legs but I ran into issues with shaping the body and moving up to the head – with Donald and Walter having ridiculously small heads. I do give credit to Angela Turner who designed a Bunny in Knit Today issue 122 which I made a few years ago. That design was my inspiration for the travel buddies and their legs.
I then moved to starting with the head and ending with the legs. That created the Potato Men above, Pierre (brown scarf) and Andre (red scarf). They are adorable and the concept worked well except sewing the legs together for the potato men was not very straight forward. Anyway, some great lessons learned and things to do differently next time!
Most of these guys were knit with Loops & Threads Impeccable, in various colours.
This Warthog pattern is from Sara Keen’s book Knitted Wild Animals. There are lots of fun animal patterns from this book, including a hippo, lion and koala. In the past I have made the Moose and Zebra.
For Warren, I used Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Maple Tweed and Brown.
This is a polar bear for a co-worker who is having a baby. The pattern is from Knitted Toy Travels by Laura Long.
I had to make two of them because I was struggling with the chubby legs. The second one is made from Red Heart Soft. It is my favourite yarn for baby toys because it is silky, has a nice sheen to it and it is still easy to clean.
I started working on this crochet shark from Vanessa Mooncie’s Crocheted Sea Creatures and I had to put it aside while I made the cats and the frog recently. I started working on it again and I got to this point where the mouth has been created but not much else. It looks hilarious and I had to share.
The shark is conveniently on the cover of the book so you can see what it is eventually supposed to look like.
I found the instructions for the mouth confusing and there was not a good photo in the whole book of the underside of the shark or the sharks mouth so I could get a good idea of what it should look like. There is a chart with the pattern, but I find crochet pattern charts difficult read.
Anyway, I hope to have this guy done soon. Maybe next week!
I taught myself to knit in my late teens after I got tired of jewelry making. It is by far my favourite craft and I knit accessories and decor items but I especially enjoy making toys. I have also taught myself to crochet. I have made some blankets as well as crochet toys. I would love to venture into sewing, embroidery and cross stitch. I also love tea, books, detective shows and Mr. Darcy.
hugolovesbags 