Patchwork Mouse

Finished the Digger. It came out really well, although the nose is a bit too skinny. I used the "small bear #3" pattern as the basis, with a rounder tummy and slightly bigger butt. I lengthened the arms--a bit too much--because I was confused about which bear is #3. (It's Aeryn, not Blackie. He's #2. I think.) I also shortened the legs a little bit and made the feet a little smaller.

The claws are a stiff felt that I found at JoAnn. Michaels had some that was thicker than normal, but not really as stiff as I wanted. It would have worked, but I'm glad I found the other.

Aeryn's vest fit Digger, but I redesigned it a little to account for the jagged collar. It should be a bit longer still, but it's not bad.

It's actually harder to sew stuffie-sized clothes than it is full size ones. The seams are a lot shorter, but they're cramped enough to be challenging. On the plus side, they don't have to be as finished as people clothes.

I did find light gray fur after all. It's so terrific, I bought three yards.

Finally made up the polar bear blouse. I have five panels left over (because I accidentally over-bought) which I'll probably try to sell on eBay.

I also redid the skirt pattern and parts of the blouse pattern including the collar and the lower-front.

And I mostly cut out another blouse, which turned out to be one of the wolf blouses, with the dark blue batik. It was just going to be the batik, until I realized how well it goes with these wolf panels.

I want to add a yoke to the long-sleeve blouses, so I can make pleats and have more ease across the back. I don't have enough of the tuxedo cat fabric for that, so I'm going to use a plain fabric for the inner yoke, where it won't show. When I mentioned that as a possibility, someone pointed out that the outer yoke could be a coordinating fabric, too.

I don't want to that for the tuxedo cat blouse--cuffs and collar are enough. But it occurs to me that, if I make a coordinating yoke, I'll have enough butterfly fabric to make that long sleeve after all!

It will be dependent on finding a fabric that will go really, really well with the butterflies. But I like this idea.