"I mean of COURSE you're a girl dragon! You're just reeking of feminine beauty..." - Donkey

My niece is to thank for putting the idea of making a dragon into my head.  I watched and thought of many movies that had dragons in them: Spirited Away, Dragon Hunter, The Hobbit, Tales from EarthSea, Shrek, Never Ending Story, Pete's Dragon.  This dragon, Dee Dee, was mostly influenced by How to Train Your Dragon because they were so many different, colorful and fun dragons in it.

 

Next, I dove into my sock and glove stash.  All unused.  Dee Dee the Dragon ended up being made out of 1 sock with toes for her main body, an orange glove for her spikey tail and various socks for her mouth, tongue, tail, bottom, teeth and wing.  The non-knit parts were velvet for the top of her nose, felt and buttons for her eyes.

Dee Dee has a beaded bottom for weight and a pretty little bow on her back that I decided to leave on from her main body sock.  Thanks to my co-workers who helped to name Dee Dee.  She is currently up for adoption through my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/74530308/dee-dee-the-dragon-fun-plush-fantasy.

Remi the Rabbit

Happy Easter!  Happy Spring!  

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Remi the Rabbit

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My newest creation is named Remi the Rabbit because he is made out of remnants of many fabrics.  He has fabrics from New York when I was working in the theater, hand dyed fabrics from Fiber Artist Deborah Gregory, and donated scraps from many dear friends.  After I cut, sew and resewed these fabrics together I decided to add ribbons and unique fibers I acquired when I was weaving in the Fiber Studio at SCAD.

 

Remi was adopted through my etsy store

Remi is fully jointed.  This means his arms, legs and heads can all rotate.  I used plastic joints and eyes for the first time since there has been much demand for my Fuffalumps to be gifts for babies and toddlers.  He has plastic pellets encased in his feet so that he can stand.  He is about 10" tall.

 

creationsbyjdb

Why a rabbit?  They seem to keep popping up in my life this year.  Besides the fact that this is the Year of the Rabbit, there was a giant rabbit fossil discovered on a Spanish island, I purchased my first pair of Japanese Tabi socks have many rabbits on them and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland has always been a favorite of mine.

Update:  Remi was adopted the day after this blog was posted and is now living in Wichita KS with many of his rabbit cousins.  Remi II was born just as William and Kate shared their second kiss on April 29, 2011.  He has also been adopted as a gift.  I didn't track how long Remi took but I did for Remi II since many people were curious, 12.5 hours.

"Tinkerlicious" Fuffalump

I decided to make my niece a Fuffalump for her birthday.  

 She enjoys making Fuffalump faces and recently sent me a book she made called These are the Cutest Fuffalumps.

 

On left, book made by Megan.  On right, swaggy pattern.

For the book, I believe Megan used her sister's Fuffalump, Swaggy, as the model and played with all different kinds of designs for his "fur." 

First step was to text her mom, Mary, to see what her current favorite colors were.  Next step, music.  My "classic" iPod recently broke so, this is my new Nano iPod which I'm loving!

I always get inspired with fabrics.  Even though I organized a lot of my stash, I still found myself going through all of my boxes looking for the perfect fabric for my niece.

 I saw some Pink Panther polka-dot flannel fabric that I got for a project a couple of years ago.  Perfect!  Megan and I actually watched Pink Panther cartoons at the beach house this past Summer.

Swaggy pattern on Pink Panther Fabric.

Break time.  The Office, Season 4 streamed through Netflix.  Beau took a break too.

Beau asks, "Break time done already?  Where's my treat?  Why are you making a cat?"

 After I cut, sewed and stuffed the main body of the Fuffalump, it looked like it was dancing. 

I remembered taking Megan to ballet class a couple of years ago so, I decided to make a tutu for this kitty.  I had some tulle on a spool (rhymes) from when I made a Barbie bridal veil.  Also, I always keep the elastic tops from socks that became Fuffalumps.  There was a pink one that worked out nicely as the waist of the tutu.

Next, I attached the tail.  I used a bead and buttons for the eyes, bead for the mouth, a red button nose and untwisted wool floss for the whiskers.  For inside the ears, I cut out pieces from an old wool Gap sweater of mine that had a permanent stain on the front.  Loved that sweater and glad I could add something very personal to Megan's Fuffalump.

 

 Wrapped and shipped Megan's Fuffalump.

  This very small image is from my cell phone.  Her mom took the picture and sent it to me.

Megan loves her new Fuffalump and took her to ballet class as soon as she received it.  She named her Tinkerlicious.  Megan is going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween and I think she combined that with pinkerlicious because she's pink.

Platypus Fuffalump's Journey

I got an order from a very good friend to make a Fuffalump for her nephew.  She wasn't specific about which Fuffalump but said he did like Perry the Platypus from the show Phineas and Ferb.  Me too!  My nephew actually gave me a shirt of Perry and we both have the stuffed animal which I made a detective hat for each.  Yes, I love "platypi."  I have collected them ever since High School.

 

Perry

 First thing I do when creating a Fuffalump is look through my stashes of fabrics.  I pulled out what I thought to be good "boy" fabrics.  In the process, I came across some navy blue and gray socks that my friend had given me to be used in a future creation.  I thought, how perfect!  Soon after, I found an old fleece sweater in my stash that couldn't be worn anymore.  It matched the socks, including the snowflake design!

 

Next up was to create a pattern.  I decided to use one of the sweater snowflakes for his bill and the sock bits would be legs.

 

Once I cut out the fabric, I pinned it, sewed it, stuffed it and then hand sewed the bill, eyes and legs to the body.  I tried attaching a tongue but it just didn't look right.  Platypi are quiet animals, sneaky like Perry.  Something was missing though...

I showed it to Jason and he agreed with me that something needed to be decorated on his back: beads, buttons, embroidery?   I actually imagined a swirly design on his back while I was sewing him.  So, I got out my bin of embroidery floss.  Voila!  Hope my friend likes it.  I sent her some images.

the inspiration behind nereid dolphinia fuffalump

 

nereid (neer'-ee-ed) dolphinia fuffalump

Nereid was made with no pattern or plan.  All I knew was that I was staring at a bunch of wonderful, hand dyed blue scraps from Fiber Artist Deborah Gregory and wanted to make something special.   So, I began cutting, sewing, pressing, placing, recutting, resewing, and reassembling on my ironing board.  I had some names running through my head while I was making her like Squidess and Dolphin Maid.  The more she came together, the more I realized she was influenced by my recent viewing of the movies Avatar and Splash.  Nice mix, huh?  So, I thought, Avataid?  Mermatar?  Madison?   I decided to ask my facebook friends for help naming her and here are some of their suggestionss: Mernava, Mernatar, Avamaid, Ayame, Ai (indigo), Siren, Amphitrite, Shellie, Aquatica, Azul (blue in spanish), Finny, Yemaya, Swishy Fish, Squidish and, of course, Nereid and Dolphinia.   Nereids are Greek sea nymphs who are friendly and helpful to sailors in trouble and tend to hang out with Poseidon. Dolphinia also seemed to fit.

For Nereid's face I did some new things.  I used felt and a button for one eye whereas I usually stack buttons or just use felt.  I also flipped a pony bead (plastic) on its side so she is either surprised or singing.

Nereid Dolphinia Fuffalump is up for adoption on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40687483

The Fuffalump Dog Toy Challenge

This challenge came about because a woman at work said she wanted one of my Fuffalumps as a toy for her small dog but didn't want to pay a lot for it.  I accepted the challenge!

For the design, I had it stuck in my mind that it had to be my Stressy the Stress Monster pattern.  The first one I made had beads and buttons for his eyes and teeth.  When I showed him off, some people said they wanted to throw him and wondered if I could make Stressy with fabric facial features.

Also, I wanted the doggie toy to have Frozen Fuffalump's teeth so that he was "growling" back at the dog.  I noticed that my mini poodle seemed to like the stuffed toys that were either his size or larger.

For material, I saw from Beau's toy box that he liked the fake fur stuffed toys.  I really didn't have any scraps large enough or bright enough.  Then, I had a eureka moment when I saw a couple towels I was saving up for a special project.  One towel was bright yellow and the other was white.  The yellow one was brand new and was meant to be a duster or dish cloth I think.  The white one had a black stain that never came out and with enough usable non-stained area for Stressy.  I also had saved the squeakers from some of Beau's toys that he destroyed so, one of those went into the middle surrounded by stuffing.

 

SQUEEEEEEK!

In order to bring the cost down, I thought of figure drawing classes in Art school and how we would have very quick warm up poses so you had to sketch very quickly and I loved the energy that went into those drawings.   So, my goal was to make this Fuffalump as fast as I could and I ended up discovering some new Fuffalump techniques along the way.   

I cut out the pieces of towel, eyes and mouth (magic markered).  I usually hand stitch the facial features of my Fuffalumps but this time I used the machine and sewed them on the main front piece before attaching it to the back piece.  I loved going round and round on the eyes.  Very free form.

update: Thank you for the comments.  I agree that medium and big dogs would tear this apart in a second and that would be a shame.  I think this works better for small dogs or people who just want something new for their dog to fetch.  I got an order a few days ago for another one so, I'm off to find some inexpensive towels.  I'm also going to make one for my miniature poodle, Beau, and see how he likes it.

Fun Fuffalump Film Quote

"All my live I've been waiting for someone and when I find her, she's...she's a fish."