Fievel's Christmas Tail

Now that the overwhelming juggernaut known as the 'Holiday Season' has finally passed, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. Believe it or not, my revamped website is nearing completion (a few tweaks notwithstanding), I have some projects in the pipeline that I'm working on, and I have some new stuff to share with you guys!

Every Christmas I always try to make all of my gifts...but this year, I didn't manage to accomplish as much as I intended. I was also working on a commission (more on that in another post) simultaneously with my attempts at gift-making, so naturally most of my energy was concentrated on the commission. I'm actually still tweaking some things that were meant to be a Christmas gifts because, let's face it, I'm the worst friend ever.

Luckily, I did manage to finish my sister's gift in time: an ornament of Fievel Mousekewitz from An American Tail and Fievel Goes West, some of her favorite movies from her childhood.

I made Fievel the same way I made the stuffed versions of Vesuvius and friends -- I broke him down into simplified shapes, made patterns for the pieces, then constructed him out of felt, thread, and fiberfill. Since I was making this with very little turn-around time, I was constantly editing my patterns as I was making it. For example: he originally had a large open-mouthed smile with his large teeth showing, but to save time, I opted for the simple stitched mouth line you see in the image (which I think wound up being more effective anyway).

I'll be posting the commission I was working on and some other things on here as I finish them (and once my website is up and running, I might not even need to make a post -- I think you'll hear my huge sigh of relief all the way from Florida), in the meantime...what have you guys been working on? I'm always excited to see new work, so if you have anything to share, please do!

Super Post III -- Christmas in March

I was consolidating/deleting some files on my desktop when I found a folder containing a bunch of images I meant to post to the blog a while back. Since they are all gifts I made to give to people for Christmas, I decided to make it into another big fat super post!

It's become a yearly tradition for my mom to brew some variety of alcohol to give as gifts during the holidays. This year, she wanted the bottle to look a little more 'professional', so I designed a wine label using an updated version of the one I did for Vargo's class. For those of you who are wondering, 'Trois Amis' is French for 'Three Friends'. At least that's what my mom said. I have a limited knowledge of French (a.k.a. none whatsoever).

To further develop the sewing skills I discovered last year, I decided I wanted to try my hand at making hand-sewn ornaments. The moose was for my mom (she's crazy about moose) and the owl was for my good friend. Funny story: the design of the owl is actually based off of one of the designs I created for my application for the internship at Carter's. The difference is that this time, the recipient actually liked it.

Before my sister moved to California, she adopted a kitten from a litter one of her neighbors abandoned. For her gift, I decided to make something she could give to Florence (her kitten), so I made a handmade catnip-filled dead animal toy. My original idea was to make a set -- a bird, a fish, and a mouse -- but I ran out of time. Maybe next year!

When trying to figure out a gift for another one of my friends, I remembered how taken she was with Lizard Wizard, one of the abandoned toys in the Toy Story short that proceeded The Muppets. What's significant about this drawing is that I used markers over top of my rough pencil sketch, and then added stronger values with colored pencil. I didn't do any ink outlining -- which you all know I am so prone to do. You can scrape your jaws off the floor now.

In addition to moose, my mom has always been an avid collector of nutcrackers. So every Christmas, my sister and I make a custom nutcracker to add to her collection. This year, we decided to do a matched pair -- a tamborine player and a trumpet player that were supposed to be Salvation Army workers...but we lost the Salvation Army scarf and badge accessories, so we decided to made them into a police band. My sister knit mini-scarves for them to replace the ones we lost.

...And that's what kept me busy during the holidays. I'm currently working on some more projects now, so expect some updates in the near future!