I wanted to make another fox based on this guy. I love that guy! I’d used up all the madras so I moved on to to 70’s plaids that I have in my stash (Thanks Mom!). I love this plaid. I made myself a shirt from it last summer so we might match when we get to Renegade Market in Brooklyn.
His vest is made from a shirt of my Dad’s- probably 60’s era.
Oh, What a handsome fellow!
All my favorite stops on my internet rounds are showing signs/hopes/projects of Spring. I am still stuck on something that I’ve been thinking about since last October. Finally-
Last Halloween, a lumberjack seemed to be the favorite last-minute costume. The whole lumberjack idea got stuck in my head. I cut out and sewed up a pile of Tattooed men last week (they are in the waiting to be stuffed stage) and decided I was not going to put the pattern away until I’d turned those ideas into something solid.
I’m all over the place these days.
At the beginning of last week I was working on little boys in plaid. Got frustrated. Went over to the robots in plaid. Finished 3 robots. Got frustrated with the 4th. Went back and finished this little cutie. Hopefully I will get robot #4 finished today… Then maybe some more of these little boys.
Here is the pair. The new robot is the dork robot. It is all about the plaid. The one on the left has plaid pants (uncool), high-waisted (hmm), bow-tie (dorky), pocket with pocket protector (oh please!), well, you know… Now the robot on the right, who looks as if he fears that by sitting too close he will catch something- he’s got a plaid jacket (so debonair), slim gray trousers to show-off his long roboty legs, brass buttons, a smirk, and a snazzy pocket square shaped pressure indicator on his chest… isn’t he so handsome.
Maybe I have been reading too much Mr. Peacock. Should a middle-aged, fashion challenged, Boston (frumpiest city in America) lady even be reading that blog!? There is a lot of fantastic plaid over there. But, the fascination with plaid started before I started reading a fashion site for men… There was the plaid blanket I finished in January. And my brother scanned a load of childhood photos and sent me a disc- I swear it was all plaid, all the time from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. All that input had to spill out somewhere!
So here is robot #2 in this series. The Dork.
long and spidery but not as much as robot 1.
I often redo faces. I make a doll, sit back, maybe even wait a day and then decide that I am not satisfied. Off with the old face and try something new. Yesterday’s face- right before I snipped it off-
I started out on one robot to confirm that my new hip and leg design would work. I got into doing the finish work and did what I always do when I only have one doll to work on- I completely overdid it! Step away from the robot… cut out 3 more, sew and stuff them. Once I have 4 going, I can think and see more clearly. Then it is always a surprise to see which one get done first.
I am slightly reluctant to post him because he is part of a pair (in my head anyway)- but, what the heck! Introducing, the robot version of Mr. Handsome–
It is always a challenge to get a sense of scale. I took a number of photos on objects that hopefully will give an idea of how big he is- almost 28″ tall with his long spidery legs.
His hip joints work beautifully and he is lots of fun to pose.
I will tell more of his story when I get the other robot done- it is all about the plaid.
It is another lap blanket for our cold house. This one is made of Ben’s old Pendleton shirts- which, of course, I could never throw away. They are all wool.
When I pulled them out of the closet, there were 9 of them in 8 plaids. They were discarded because of moths and worn elbows and various other issues that I needed to be aware of while I cut out the pieces.
I was going to use a pieces of plain wool fabric for the back but couldn’t find anything in my stash that seemed like a good match. Instead, I used large pieces of what I had left- which was still quite a bit! Most of the big pieces were from the backs of the shirts and were in excellent condition.
It is a 3 layer quilt- I used an old wool blanket for a batting and it is very heavy. I’m not sure how functional it is going to be but we’ll see. I did the minimal quilting by hand. I sewed 2 of the labels into the corners of the back. I have 7 more and thought about sewing them randomly all over the back but I controlled myself.
I made this quilt the same way I did this one. I am going to do another post about how it all went together- I remembered to take the pictures!