Crazy Cute Cthulhu Pillow/Plush Ready Now

So my most recent creation is now up on Etsy, the Crazy Cute Cthulhu Pillow. Right now I only have the finished pillow up and ready, but hopefully soon(ish) I'll have the pattern and instructions ready as well for sale in my shop. If you're interested in taking looking, the pillow can be found here:


http://www.etsy.com/listing/96307576/crazy-cute-cthulhu-pillowplush

So I'm probably going to take a break on making new stuff for my Etsy store for a week or two. I really would like to finish my Renaissance dress, so I'm going to focus on that for a while.

Meanwhile...

Yes, I'm still working on my Renaissance dress (very slowly) and I'm creating new pillow/plush patterns to sell on Etsy, but in the meantime, a friend of mine paid me to make a large new tote for her to use for work. So over the weekend I made her this.

Stay tuned because I should have a new pattern posted this weekend. :)

Companion Cube Sewing Pattern Available Now... For Science!

I just completed another pattern + tutorial package for my Etsy store. You can now make your very own Companion Cube from Portal! If you are interested in purchasing, you can find it here: www.etsy.com/shop/SewLeslieCrafts. The pattern comes with step by step instructions full of color photos. I have completed cubes available in my shop as well.

Finished Companion Cube

Remember, the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak.

Tutorial - How to Make a Totoro Pillow

If you are interesting in the pattern for this Totoro pillow, see my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/SewLeslieCrafts. Along with the printable PDF pattern, you'll also receive more detailed instructions and more step by step photos. You can also find finished pillows for sale as I have them available.

So here's the basic idea behind making your when Totoro buddy.

To make your very own cuddly Totoro pillow, you'll need the following materials:

Fabric (I used fleece, but flannel or felt will also work nicely)
Pellon Wonder Under
Coordinating thread

Cut the main grey body pieces and the ears. Before cutting the rest of the pieces, you'll want to iron on the Pellon Wonder Under to the fabric. You'll need the Wonder Under for the tummy, eyes, nose, and what I call the "tummy marks." It's easiest to draw your design onto the paper first and then to cut out your fabric.

Carefully, peel the paper backing off the pieces you've cut out and arrange them on one of the main body pieces.

Here I'm peeling the paper backing, but leaving the adhesive behind.

Arrange the pieces on the body and iron in place. After this is done, make sure the pieces permanently stay in place by stitching around the perimeter of each piece.

To attach the ears, arrange them like the following picture...

The ears should by filled with a little stuffing. Sandwich the ears like so between the two body pieces and stitch around the border, stitching through the ears. Leave about a 3 inch opening at the bottom of you pillow so you can stuff it.

Stuff your pillow. After the pillow is filled, hand stitch the opening closed.

Nah Nah Nah Nah... Batman!

For his birthday, I made for my boyfriend some Batman flannel pajama pants. I think they turned out pretty good, with the exception of the pockets which I accidentally placed too low. They're usable, so I left them as they were and called them cargo pockets. ;) This was the first time I've ever made a pattern from scratch. I took Ryan's measurement's (somewhat ruining the surprise, but what can you do?) and made the pants according to them. In addition to the pockets, the pants have a loose fitting elastic waist with a string to tighten it (as requested by Ryan).

I know it's a bit hard to see, but here is the pattern in progress. The pattern making book I used was really terrific.

Voila! Finished pants.

The only thing I would do differently in the future (besides not inadvertently making cargo pockets) is to taper the leg just a little bit. I wanted them to be loose fitting so the cuff is actually the same diameter as the thigh, but it hindsight, it may be a tad too baggy. I may make the cuff be a few inches smaller next time.

Question...

So I can see that the post regarding the crown making tutorial has been getting a lot of traffic. I've been wondering if anyone has made their own. If so, please let me know and I'll post it to my blog. :)

Like always, you can email me at sewlesliecrafts@gmail.com

Renaissance Dress: Update #1

So I finally have started to put some real work into my new Renaissance dress. I've made some progress with the bodice, as you can see below. The top picture is the lining and the bottom picture is the exterior with the lining in place. Again, I apologize for my terrible photography skills. They were taken with my phone.

Tonight I'll probably install the boning.

In other news, I made my first pattern entirely from scratch and it actually worked out extremely well. The pattern is for pajama pants for my boyfriend's birthday (Batman pajama pants!). I will definitely post some pictures once they're finished. If you're curious as to how I designed the pattern, I used the wonderful book I posted about back in October with a roll of tracing paper. The instructions were pretty easy to follow. :)