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First attempts at translating Z’s drawings into softies
By Jennifer | October 28, 2008 | 9 comments / Comment now
After years of struggling with an old, not-quite-working sewing machine, I finally splurged and bought a Janome a few months ago. (I got the Heart Truth model, which does 50 different stitches; it's a great deal at under $400 for a great brand). I love sewing with it - I had no idea that sewing was so fun and easy when you have a machine that doesn't hang up every 37 stitches.
Newly inspired, I tried my hand at making some softies for Z. I had her draw a couple of pictures and pick the one she wanted to turn into a softie. We dug through my fabric scraps for some fabric and got to work, with the idea being that we would try to represent what she had drawn as specifically as possible - body shape, limb proportions, and facial features.
Z was thrilled with them. She loved that she made them and has been very interested in doing more sewing. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my first try at softies. My one difficulty was getting those giant arms and legs into the inside of the body so that when I turned it right side out the stitching would be nice. I've never looked at a pattern for softies but I assume that there must be an easier way to do this (other than the obvious making the limbs smaller). Any ideas or tutorials?
As for the sewing machine, it has since been instrumental in creating Z's evolving ideas about her own Halloween costume. At this point, she's a "hippo princess," which is basically a pink cape (thanks, sewing machine!) and a hacked-up stuffed hippo. Must be seen to be believed - I'll have photos after the big day.
I've also been playing with those stitches. Check out what this baby can do!
Newly inspired, I tried my hand at making some softies for Z. I had her draw a couple of pictures and pick the one she wanted to turn into a softie. We dug through my fabric scraps for some fabric and got to work, with the idea being that we would try to represent what she had drawn as specifically as possible - body shape, limb proportions, and facial features.
Z was thrilled with them. She loved that she made them and has been very interested in doing more sewing. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my first try at softies. My one difficulty was getting those giant arms and legs into the inside of the body so that when I turned it right side out the stitching would be nice. I've never looked at a pattern for softies but I assume that there must be an easier way to do this (other than the obvious making the limbs smaller). Any ideas or tutorials?
As for the sewing machine, it has since been instrumental in creating Z's evolving ideas about her own Halloween costume. At this point, she's a "hippo princess," which is basically a pink cape (thanks, sewing machine!) and a hacked-up stuffed hippo. Must be seen to be believed - I'll have photos after the big day.
I've also been playing with those stitches. Check out what this baby can do!
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What a great idea!! I’ll have to remember this one when my little guy starts drawing real pictures. (scribbles might be kind of hard to do!)
Those are great! What a cute idea…
Excellent timing! I need sewing machine advice (my freecycled one just bit it). ZRecs to the rescue as usual!
awesome!
I think the issue you are having with the arms could be fixed by changing your order of sewing it together. You need to sew each side of the softie together first, in flat form- so you’d attach the front of the arms to the front of the body, and separately the back of the arms to the back of the body. Like making two, two dimensional, identical drawing depictions. Then you’d sew them together, turn inside out, add buttons, and stuff.
Hope that makes sense. It is hard to describe without a drawing or demonstration.
I love this idea. I see so many great things while browsing the internet and think “I can do that”. I received a sewing machine for Christmas last year and have been making things ever since. My last project was wool felt crowns.
Next on the list, softies!
Have any tips on when and how to let children begin sewing? My 4 year old niece is very interested any time I get out my machine. So far, I let her stand behind me and watch or let her design parts of the project herself (like color choice and designs on her crown).
@Leigh - I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. It makes perfect sense the way you described it. Z’s drawing a lot more cool animals, people, and monsters now so I’ll give it another shot doing it the way you described and post an update.
I love sewing. I made my daughter’s Halloween costume, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I was really surprised I could do it. My daughter just saw a picture of your softies and fell in love.
What a cute idea!