I have an old friend to share today.. in the form of a softie pattern. I think he's my very most favorite softie to date. I was positively beside myself when he was coming together. This was one of those rare times where the mental vision matched with the final outcome!
LollyChopsters meet Hamie. Hamie.. . the gang!
There are two ways you can put this fella together. The way I am going to share today and the way I am going to share Wednesday (it's going to be a Hamtastic kind of week everyone!).
Today's version of course involves felt (it's Monday after all and I have my 'felt like it on Monday' reputation to uphold here folks)! Wednesday's version is much more low key but still just as cute (and involves absolutely NO felt... bummer right?)!
Firstly... the felt I used is of course from Felt-o-Rama. It's the wool blend in 'taffy'... you can see it HERE. ...and again... no I am not getting paid or free stuff or anything from Ms. Felt-o-Rama (a.k.a. Ms. April Fabulous Felty Pants). I just love her little shop and her service is simply outstanding! oh.. I halfta tell you one more thing... if you sign up for her monthly newsletter... you get a coupon code that will save you 10%. We all know what a cheap-o I am right? Sign up... save money. You won't regret it!
Here is a quick share on how to put this little dumplin' together!
I start every softie pattern with a muslin version first.
He was a tad on the lumpy side...
...and covered in pen marks...
...but I knew he would work his curves out once he was put together properly!
Properly meaning... MomChops would come over and sew him up MC Style!
THANKS MomChops!
After I had cut my pattern out in fabric I then cut out the dart areas
on the paper pattern so I could trace them onto the fabric
(I used vellum to print my pattern cause I seriously heart vellum).
That was the easiest way for me to get the exact placement of the darts.
The way you sew darts together is by lining up the point of the triangle and pinching them together.
You then sew down that line.
Here is a little bit better view.
Leave enough string (of both pieces) from the sewing machine
at the top of the point so you can tie a little knot.
This keeps dart from coming apart.
Here are both darts sewn on one side. The two fabric pieces are ready to be sewn together.
I actually cut out the rest of the paper pattern (along the dotted line)
...and then traced that shape onto the fabric pieces. This gave me the exact place to sew the seam.
Once you have your seam sewn you are going to want to clip your curves
(which is pretty much around the whole Hamie body.. he's a round sorta fella)
Trim your excess seams
(leave the opening part a little longer so you can tuck it in all nice and tidy)
NOTE: We changed the location of the seam opening to right under his snout
(it's correct in the pattern - this pic is showing the wrong location for the opening).
We found that when it was along his bottom it caused a major cause of the humpty dumpties!
We cannot have that now can we?
I think I just heard a collective groan from the gals out there who do not have a Sizzix.
I am sorry you guys. I had to use it. It was too cute to not do any other way!
I do have a little secret to share (it's prolly just a secret to me and the rest of you already knew this).
You can actually stack the felt squares on top of each other (I found that 3 works best).
When I figured this out. I sat there for a second and observed a moment of silence for my poor elbow.
The roughly 500 cranks on the machine for the felt topiary projects...
...could have been reduced to a mere 165 cranks.
Yep... you read that right. I did all that cranking for NOTHING!
Cranky sigh.
Dearest Elbow of Mine... I'll make it up to you someday. I swears.
I used a leaf shape for the Hamie Back Spikes.
Sew pretty. Sew Hamtastic.
Here is a close-up of the leaves on Hamie.
I placed them with simple head pins for now.
But as soon as I am done typing up this little post I am going to tack them all down.
I already have about 8 tacked down now and it's going rather Hamtacularly.
I'll share the details of how I am doing this Wednesday!
Hamie the Hedgie
AND AND AND... O.M.T. ok well actually two.
FLICKR GROUP UPDATE!!!!
1) I created a page that has links to my Flickr groups AND I created a NEW Flickr group for you guys to post all of your Butterfly Projects in! PLEASE (begging... seriously. begging...)... please post your pics there! Pretty please with a cute little Hamie pattern on top? You can get to the page from the top right side under 'Free Stuff and Food' or you can just go check it out HERE.
TWO..
2) hmmm.. I forgot what 2 was supposed to be.
Download and Print Freebie page updated!!
3) I also updated the download and print freebies page this past weekend. It was WAY out of date (nothing new posted since December)... lazy Lolly. You can see that page from the same menu at the top right or you can just cheat and go see it HERE (you cheater chopsters you).
Did you say giveaway!?!?
4) Am I allowed a 4th one since I originally said there would only be two more things? hmmm.. Frank said it was ok just this once so here goes...don't forget to enter the giveaway this week. Go check out that little fella HERE.
See... that was not too bad right?
Chicken fried HUGS with gravy on top,
P.S. xoxoxoxo
