Soft Toy Pattern Review: Whale by DIY Fluffies

I was keeping a covetous eye on the soft toy patterns by DIY Fluffies on etsy for a while, and it was the Zombie Bear that finally spurred me into action. But since I was buying, I got a bundle of 3 patterns to "save money". The others were the whale and the elephant.

Mariska's patterns are beautifully set out with adorable illustrations. The whale is pretty straightforward in theory, but curvy, so a bit tricky. The recommended skill level is intermediate, and I would agree. Experience with clipping curved seams will help a lot.

Seam allowances are not included, which is not the best arrangement for me, as my skill at adding them in evenly is not great (the fins are most notably quite different sizes on mine!).

My eco-whale is made from an unwanted tie-dyed apron project that a student left behind at school to be thrown in the bin. The stuffing is a mix of Innergreen's corn fibre fill and fabric scraps, including the left-over apron. I'm finding that as long as you keep the ball of scraps in the centre and surround it with the regular fill, the cuddliness is not impaired (especially on a very round bosy like this one).

I love the shape of this whale, especially the curve up of the tail. Also, the shape at the front reminds me of a soft toy whale I had as a kid. He was yellow and white fur fabric and we got him at a school fete jumble sale. His name was Belly Whale. I feel like there was this period in my life when I let having no space to store soft toys get in the way of my love for them. I miss Belly Whale, and many others who went off to Vinnies. I hope they are still being loved somewhere.

Soft Toy Pattern Review: Naked Frog

 
Well, at the moment it is naked. And in the magazine it is called either "swimsuit frog" or "ballet frog" depending which version you make, so mine is clearly currently "naked frog".

The one on the right is a backpack. Apparently it's ok to be naked if you are a backpack.

It's the Australian Women's Weekly "Handmade" from November/December 1998.

I picked it up at an op-shop, drawn in by the Christmas delights it promised, but it was the frogs that sold me. 50 cents well spent.

So, with a need to motivate myself back into craft after my trip, and with miles of pale green fleece left over from the elephant, I got to it.

The pieces were confusing at first, and covered with markings that I largely ignored, but it came together pretty easily. Probably the only tricky bit was sewing the front and back together with those GIGANTIC and already stuffed legs attached and having to be kept inside and not caught in the seam. I basically had to squeeze them through the opening as I sewed. The instructions said, about leaving the opening for turning: You will need to pull the Legs out through this opening, so don't make it too small. What they needed to say was: Basically hardly sew any of this seam.

Want to know what a frog looks like without eyes? This is it.

I was tempted to skip the rather complicated-looking eye sockets and just make some googly eyes, but I had already cut out the pieces, so I gave them a go.

Worth it. I left off the embroidered smile, as its head/chin seam was already very smile-like and subtle.

So now we come to the issue. How am I going to dress it? The limb-to-body joins aren't very elegant and in any case my legs aren't in the same place on the body, so something's got to cover that all up.

I like the old-fashioned swimsuit idea, it reminds me of a Frog and Toad story, but I think I'd like to try something different.

 

What outfit should my little frog wear?