Unpredictable pattern

Sewing patterns are funny things. The same pattern, depending on the fabric you use and how it's stitched, can result in several completely different critters (or garments, or curtains, or zombie hamsters, or whatever it is you're sewing). But you'd expect that if you used the same fabric and the same method to stitch it up each time, you'd get a consistent result.

Well, you might. But I don't.

I made a basic pattern for a bunny last year and made several from the same fabric, using the same technique each time. I foolishly thought they'd all be the same, which would be good as my friend Marion had asked me to make two identical bunnies for her two nieces. Somehow I ended up with one rather warped, leaning-to-one-side rabbit, to which I've since added fangs and a long pink nose...

... and this guy, whose arms don't match - one is heaps larger than the other. I turned him into a Zombunny with an exploding heart.

And finally, I ended up with these cute little ballerina bunnies, which are almost exactly identical

... except that one is quite a traditionally thin ballerina bunny and the other is more generously proportioned, and when they're next to each other it's really obvious! Gah!!

Herd the one about the conjoined twin elephant brigade?

Remember the conjoined twin elephants that appeared here a while back? I've spent the past few weeks making more, since everyone who's seen them has fallen in lurve and wants one to call their own. OK, that may be an exaggeration, but I do have a few orders to fill, hurrah. I've taken to stitching them up on the train on the way to work - it gives me something to do and something for other commuters to wonder about!

Lola says...

After a hard day sewing...
















...you deserve a good stretch on the couch!

How do you measure up?

My friend Cass bought a bright red double-breasted overcoat that was missing a button. She didn't really mind since it was less than $10 at an op shop. I figured we could either sew a replacement button on, or put a cute badge where the button should be...or both. This is what I came up with - what do you think?

Rabbiting on about critters

This week I made a rabbit for a workmate, Megan, who's having a baby. I guess I should say I made it for the baby but secretly, I am hoping she keeps the rabbit for herself - come on, he's a pretty cute rabbit, she deserves to have him all to herself.

I'm really pleased with his cute expression and his jumper. I don't usually make clothes for critters - I'd rather leave that to the experts like Cat-Rabbit, softie-maker extraordinare.
But Megan has a penchant for stripey tops so I thought her critter (er, I mean, her baby's critter) better have a stripey top, too. I made the rabbit's jumper from some bias binding and the sleeve of, er, a jumper. Yep, it seems that particular jumper is destined always to be a jumper of some sort.

The rabbit was made from a grey jumper. Now there's a jumper that knows how to be transformed into other things. This monster is the first thing I made from that jumper about a year ago. I kept the scraps, of course, partly because I knew one day I'd want to use them for another project - like the rabbit - and partly because I am a hoarder. Look, you can't just wake up one day and discover your whole house has been filled with fabric scraps, you have to work on it.

I also made Mr Bunny from the same grey jumper. He's pictured here in a patch of rocket with his buddy the be-jumpered rabbit. I have no idea why that photo has loaded on that angle, but I'll pretend it is because I am an avant garde artiste making a statement about...um... my inability to get it to load correctly.

I still have a few scraps from that jumper. It just keeps on giving. If only chocolate lasted that long!