I made Babeleo a gift on Valentine's Day, the first of what will probably be many many stuffed toys that this little one will recieve from their Mama. I may not be great at making clothes, but I'm pretty handy when it comes to stuffed creatures. It's been a while since I took on a serious 3D project like this one. I'd almost forgotten how tricky it can be to get everything lined up just right.
Besides a few puckers here and there, I'm pretty proud of how little Chubsy Whale came out. I stuffed the heck out of him so that he'll be nice and huggable. (Tested that out a few times already.) I also installed three jingle bells inside of him to make him just a little bit more fun. I've been meaning to order some real noise makers for stuffies, like rattles and jingle balls.
For now, I've been making due with regular jingle bells and Easter eggs. By stashing the bell inside the egg, it keeps it ringing at full strength. If I were to put a naked bell inside the stuffy it would mute the sound quite a bit. Pro tip: tape the egg shut to help make sure it doesn't crack when it gets played with later.
I used a pattern from Akiko Kunst. You can find it here, but be warned that the pattern does not include directions. It took some head scratching for me to figure out exactly how to put this guy together. Luckily, the author has a few finished whales in her Etsy shop. I used these guys as clues, and with a little luck I managed pretty well.
I've been keeping the librarians busy lately by checking out copies of every cute baby sewing book I can find. This pretty little project came from Handmade Beginnings by Ana Maria Horner. I didn't go with a jingle ball for this stuffy. Instead, I filled the bottom of the chicken with bean-bag filler
, giving her a nice hefty seat. My favorite thing about this stuffed animal is that it's interactive. Lift the wings up, and you'll find six tiny chicks that attach with velcro wings.
Pretty darn cute, don't you think? I suppose a chicken isn't the cutest or most exotic animal out there, but they are plenty lovable in their own right. You could certainly make this pattern cuter by choosing more whimsical fabrics. I went with batik in an attempt to keep things gender neutral. The pattern itself was very easy to follow, which made what might seem like a daunting project relatively easy. I added the little red bit on top of her head myself. Like the wings, I quilted the piece with a piece of scrap batting to give it some sturdiness.
You can see a little peek of the nursery coming together in the background in these photos. We scored a big blue dresser off of Craigslist which fits our ever-growing collection of second hand baby clothes very nicely. We've got a ton of 0-3 month clothes, a good amount of 3-6, and then a sparse collection ranging from 6-18 months. After our shower next month I think we'll have pretty much everything we need.
As for everything we want, well that's easy: ten fingers, ten toes, health, happiness, and an easy delivery.