I decided to go ahead and work on my sister's birthday present after that last post. My mother-in-law got me this giraffe pattern quite awhile ago and I just love it. It is really versatile. I have made it with novelty cottons, batiks and upholstery fabrics and every single one has turned out gorgeous.
Shopping for a fabric for a 14 year old girl who hates anything and everything pink or girlie can be kind of tough. My usual way to select the fabric for a project is to walk all around the store taking mental note of things that might possibly work, then I go back and pick up whatever inspires me. In this case, I was sort of dreading the trip. I knew I needed it, I knew she wanted a giraffe but she can be so picky! And she is not even a little bit shy about telling you when you have disappointed her.
I stumbled upon this not very girlie zodiac print fabric with little gold accents and frantically called my mom to find out if my sister even reads her horoscope. She does! Yipee!
It's hard to tell in the photos, but the fabric I used for the horns and hooves has gold glitter outlining the scroll that coordinates awesomely with the metallic print used for some of the stars and the names of the signs on the main fabric. I even found some adorable clear plastic star buttons with gold glitter all through them. I love it when things come together so perfectly in only one trip to the fabric store!
I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The only thing I'm slightly apprehensive about is that her sign, Pisces, is only on the giraffe once. I hope she forgives me for that oversight!
This project was my first time ever using rayon embroidery floss. I saw the sheen on it and thought it was much better fitting for the mane and tail of such a sparkle laden animal than just plain floss. I kind of hated it. I should have known I would. It did not stay knotted very well as shiny stuff tends to be slippery stuff. Rayon floss might be great for some other project, but it was not a choice I'll soon repeat for giraffe hair.
Whoa, that's amazing. Very nice work! I still haven't done any stuffed creatures that have more than a front and back side to them. You did a great job on all the dimensions.
ReplyDeleteIt just has the appearance of dimension because you sew the legs on with buttons and you hand sew ears and horns to the head. Every piece in it is just a front and a back though. It's really simple.
ReplyDeleteHe's cute! I don't know why, but I thought you were making her one of the glove creatures. The giraffe is great :)
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