Stuffed Dinosaur

So one of my best friends is having a baby half way around the world from me. I think this is very inconsiderate. Obviously I'll be crafting like mad, but now I'll have to pay for my makings not only in sweat and blood (hand sewing is torture) but also in postal costs! The agony!

Anyhoo. Here is one of many baby related crafts I've been sinking into:

 A baby stuffed dinosaur! A green spotted, blue spiked baby dinosaur!
(Note: I BRIEFLY called him a brontosaur but after the ensuing wikipedia battle with my husband I came to realize it is only correct to call him a diplodocus. Who knew brontosaurus is no longer acceptable?- since about the turn of the century?!)

 I was incredibly surprised at how well he turned out (I freely admit he is not my first dino, but the last one was tried about a year ago and I still haven't emptied the bag that the resulting demented half-creature lives...)
I made him with some super cheap bits of cotton that I already had in my stash and I used shrink plastic for his eyes. I'm a bit amazed at how much I like his eyes- they even follow you around!

So! Do you think I should make a tutorial and a pattern for everyone to have their own precious dino? I'm sure my construction could be figured out from my photos but its sometimes nice to have some help at 2am!
Let me know in the comments below.

Reworked for Oxfam III

Can't believe its taken me so long to bounce back from the Christmas crafty madness! I felt so drained of creative energy. To get back in the swing of things here's a peek at some of the projects from the Reworked for Oxfam shop I volunteer at:

This was just a black heavy skirt that needed some creativity.
First- a crusty shot with flash: 

And a close up of one of the teapots:

Then one of my absolute favourites! A messenger bag made from men's neck ties.

 The cutest button in the world to close it:

 I even lined the magnificent thing :), so super proud of myself.

 Another shot for fun and adoration:

The rest are not things I made for Oxfam but they aren't important enough to get their own post. I made about a million (it felt like) zippered pouches for presents and for my shop. Each of these beauties is lined and has pleats and a lobster claw closure.

Shew! Time to work on a tutorial for the next installment! See you then :)

Super Hero Ninja Cape

My first commission! An adult sized super hero cape with a ninja logo and eye mask.
Look how tiny my satin stitch had to be to keep the detail on the ninja. 

You can't see them?- that's right! I think the width of his sword is only about 5ml so it was eye straining work. I should also add that I love interfacing to stabilize the fabric so it won't fray and also wonderful hem tape which I cut into tiny tiny bits to hold all of it together whilst sewing.
But even with all this help I could not do the letters, so I used the freezer paper method to make a stencil and paint them on.
The mask is made of cotton and rimmed in bias binding tape, mostly by hand.

I like how this turned out and I hope the buyer is happy, but most especially I hope they help a young hero kick some bad guy ass. :)

Reworked for Oxfam II

My newest reworkings for Oxfam:

This corset was stained and was a bright white underneath the muck. I stained it with tea and sewed on the front lace panel and sewed on the buttons.
Next was a grey skirt which just needed a little something so I made a removable brooch of Zipper flowers:

 

And finally, a little cupcake bag/tote, made from some place mats and a scrap of the sweetest cupcake fabric.

Hopefully these will give you some inspiration to look at you clothes in a different light :)