I do like pigeons!

I like pigeons a lot. We sometimes hand feed the ones near the RSPB reserve here in Weymouth. Look at those feathers. That sheen. Could I make one? 

So I gathered together an old (clean) sock, toy filling, string and wool, duct tape and pipe cleaners, and cobbled together this maquette. It’s a bit of a mess. But my daughter Mary adopted it after I’d finished using it to make patterns. 

Made my first pigeon using felted woollens cut without a seam allowance and oversewed with wool thread. Wings are added after the body is complete. The legs are wire covered in small pink woollen pieces and over stitched. I used beads from my stash for the eyes. 

Pigeon number 2 is made using dyed wool cloth, and embroidered thread to hint at those shimmers of magenta and green. 

I feel like their shape is better than the maquette form, and also surprisingly slightly larger. I was really pleased with them. 

This lead to a commission, to make Angus. A bit of a character by all accounts …

The wing markings were created using small fabric shapes and needle felting them. Needle Felting is like magic. 

And just so you know, here is the real Angus. 

Happy Birthday Noncel!

Got together some bits and bobs today to make a special present for a friend ... The rope came from furniture packaging and the twig was found on a local walk.

Here it is, and i do hope she likes it - i now want to make another one right away! Maybe a whole stick full?

Do you remember me showing you this book that was coming out? Well, I will show you more of it tomorrow, but i was very much inspired by a design found in the book to make this gift ...

There's is much more colourful than mine of course ...

Do you like handmade gifts? Its my birthday tomorrow!

Car seat recovering ...

Today I decided that Matty's old seat had the better clips and adjusters, even though the cover was in poor shape, thinning and with small tears!



I took it to pieces, put the straps in water to clean them and washed the seat frame of its grime and sand! Then flatten out the old cover by removing the elastic edge, and use it to make a pattern for a new seat! It looks much to big spread out like this!




and here we have Mary's soft new cover, complete with the 'seatbelt snugglies' she requested!

Rat Head Gets Furry .....

as usual in my fursuit creation, some pieces of old laura ashlet curtain fabric wrapped around the form help me with my pattern making ...



I then use it to cut the fur, adding seam allowance ...



here, there are two sections of pieced together fur, the scalp section and the muzzle part. Neither are sewn to the head at this point, altho the laura ashlet scalp pattern helped me sew the ears symetrically to the head with upholstery thread.



that is why the mouth parts look very slack, and the lower jaw is onlt pinned to the chin area. i fashioned some eyes from card board based on my clients digital drawing of his character ...



i hope these are in roughly the right position to line up withthe holes in the foam. As these eyes re longer, i am not sure tear ducts will look right, but a black boarder should look quite effective ...



what do you think ?

i dont like 'bags for life' because they have flat bottoms ...

and when i go to the supermarket with ma wee fambly i like the way carrier bags sit up and beg to be filled, their bottoms expanding to contain all manner of good and evil items to tote home again ...

so i butchered a carrier bag from my 'local big shop' and made these ... they held almost £50 worth of shopping this week ... yikes do i spend that much? i should go inorganic again ....

and the girls were highly motivated to get their shoes on and help with the shop

for a pattern just sacrifice a carrier bag near you ... the handles were much more comfortable to hold as they dont compress like thin plastic !

be green ! or pink ....

the making of a man ....

this strange shape is a pattern made by cutting fabric to fit and off my duct tape dummy ...the white parts have been removed for cutting out seperately of course, in both long and short white fur ....

the grey fur is made with dark underfur, the back of which is shown in this photo ...