Sunday, August 15, 2010

Building a better elf

I seem to be remaking some of the old ornaments that I have sold on Etsy, I think I've finally got the hang of "up for retail" before the holidays. Did you know the Halloween candy is already discounted in the department stores? Ha! Just joking. This is Peter and Paul, you can see the original post here.

They are from a pattern I made when being inspired by elves, I don't think I wanted them to be so skinny but I went with it anyway. I cut the first ones larger than my paper pattern and then forgot which parts I enlarged, remaking them is going to be a challenge but this time I corrected the pattern.


These are a bit tricky to do, the face seam is in the center of the body fabric and you really have to know what you are doing when it comes to turning them right side out.



This is the stage my husband make fun of me about, the body parts laying around. Each piece is stuffed and hand stitched, the bottom of the body is weighted. Can you see I made a major foe-par I made from the first pair? I never wrote the color of the fabric on each pattern piece and I assumed the hands were white. They aren't, they're red.



I got my cheese box full of buttons and I hoped to find eight matching shanked, I did, all of them.



These ended up taller than the others but I'm pleased with them. Attaching the legs are hit or miss since the bottom has aquariums rocks in it, it tends to shift while inserting the 4 inch doll needle.

I had wanted to put bells on the shoes and this time I did, it works well.


One thing that has always bugged me about these is the shifting in stitching, since it needs to be partly stitched in the hat and fully in the face before sewing it to the body, the hat gets pushed while turning my stitch direction and the fabric ends up overlapping, try as I might I can't get this to stop in this small area.


Luckily I had my felt out (what a handy material!). The trim around the hat is perfect but would not be in any other place. I think it would take away from the primitive aspect of them.




So I tried to get a few photos for Etsy, I used stuffing instead of batting but it was windy on this day and some of it blew off, argh! I'll do them over on a calmer day.



This photo is nice, I think I'll use this one but that's it. When I looked at the original pair I discovered I forgot the eyebrows also.


Whoops. C&G Design


Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

6 comments:

Nancy said...

Dawn, I caught up! Always love your projects. So happy for you, that you have a new studio AND that you were able to take a mini-vacay!

It's just the usual moving tedium here. Lots of drama. No firm date. Boring to most, I suspect. :-)

Debbie said...

What a busy crafter you are still! I have been in the dumps lately with all the health scares I guess. I can't seem to do much. I did go get some material to finish hubby's lap blanket and yarn to continue my 4 year long afghan I am making! Nice stuff Dawn. It must be profitable to sell on Etsy...there are so many people doing it? I don't know the first thing about it. Is the cost high?

Jean Merriman said...

They are so cute, should sell fast.

tina said...

They should sell fast for sure! Handmade is the best!

Skeeter said...

I kind of like the white hands better but red would mean gloves I guess. I did not catch the oops on the hands or the eyebrows until you pointed it out. And here I think I have a good investigative eye, ha....

They are such fun things to make I bet...

Nukke said...

Oh elves already and those lovely little ornaments on table !!! And I liked that Halloween decoration a part of fence here earlyer !!!