Hee hee. My daily comic, continued from yesterday. Did everyone figure out what I was talking about yesterday? Or did you think, what a weird comic. What’s with her and the alligator?

Well, here he is, the monster.

Run away! Run away!

Oh wait, he’s not that big.

Yes Mr. Alligator isn’t very big at all. He’s the same size as the sheep. In fact, he’s made out of the same bed sheet as Mr. Sheep. I imagined a whole menagerie of bed sheet animals. But I’m actually quite tuckered out, what with all the climbing of trees to get away from the monster that is Mr. Alligator. Wink wink.

Making this alligator friend was hard. Yes hard, hard, hard. See his mouth? It’s not quite right. The mouth on the alligator from the book looks different. It’s a straight mouth but then goes down as it gets closer to the body. Whereas mine is just straight. I couldn’t figure that part of the pattern out. The pieces didn’t match in that area so I didn’t know what to do. I think I’ll have to try it again, make a Ms. Alligator. That is after I’ve recovered from Mr. Alligator. Whoo making friends is hard.

Oh almost forgot. He’s from 978-4391624205. That’s the ISBN-13 number. The ISBN-10 number, which I’ve used before is 4391624206. Why the two numbers? I just learned about this right now. I was looking at the back of my book and realized that number wasn’t the same as what I’ve shared here before. Turns out the copied and pasted ISBN-10 that I got from Amazon is an old standard. I always wondered why Amazon Japan had an ISBN-10 and an ISBN-13. So I went looking up ISBN-13 vs ISBN-10. But it’s confusing because you can’t find this book on YesAsia using the ISBN-13. It uses ISBN 10. Yeah…confusing.

Trying to take pictures of soft cuddly toys while you have a toddler in the house is ummm…HARD. This drawing doesn’t even begin to show what happened.

I put the sheep down, in the kissing position, on the ottoman for pictures. Isabelle grabbed them and ran off making kissing noises. When I finally got them back, I put them down again and kept the ottoman away from Isabelle. But she thought this was a new game. She pushed the sheep off the ottoman and pushed it away like I did. Ha ha ha! Then I tried the stool, which she pushed away. Back to the ottoman, back to the stool, back and forth again and again! Aaaah!!! Finally, with Alan’s help, I got it done…barely…

Oh and I’m trying something new with my photos. I actually quite like it but you lose the details. Click on them if you want to see them like regular without out the photoshop action.

The introduction: Mr. Sheep meets Ms. Sheep.

Ms. Sheep tries to play coy but…

It’s love at first sight.

Hee hee. Ok sewing talk. Ms. Sheep’s face came out funny. It was pointy and weird and I smooshed it down, when I embroidered her face. But it still looks funny.

I also decided to use furry flannel for the body. And you can tell it made a difference in her size. The flannel has more give so she’s bigger.

Oh and as if I didn’t bombard you with enough pictures. Here’s the final one, where my little monkey just couldn’t be kept away any longer.

Oh and almost forgot…she’s from ISBN 4391624206. So you don’t have to go searching for it.

He’s a little rebel, a little rosy cheeked rebel.

Why is he a rebel, you ask? He bucks convention! He’s different! He stands alone! (Literally, since there are no other sheep, yet). What in the world am I talking about?

His big ears are backwards, the cheeky fellow.

And Isabelle’s reaction (as a daily comic)? Because he sure doesn’t look like a rabbit now!

Ok serious talk now, or I should say sewing talk. Mr. Sheep (from 4391624206) is made out of an old, too small, ripped bed sheet. What fitting material for a toy sheep. And he is stuffed with filling from a pillow I made. I was impatient to stuff him so didn’t wait to buy stuffing. I ripped open the pillow and used the stuffing instead. So he’s totally recycled! Isn’t that awesome? So anyhoo, the sewing I was going to talk about.

I screwed up his ears, well obviously since they are on backwards. But not only that, they’re also larger than the rest of him. What happened was, for his ears, I sewed on the pattern line. Then when I started making his head, and it went wrong, I changed over to a .5 cm seam allowance. So it’s only a teensy bit too large but I can see it. So what do you think? Does he look mostly like he’s supposed to?

I figured the sheep out I think. I just need to stuff him to see if he looks right. Yep, just need to stuff him…when I buy some more stuffing.

Last night I put Mr. Sheep on the television to remind me to get stuffing. When Isabelle woke up, she walked into the living room and immediately saw him sitting there. She pulled one of her chairs over and climbed up onto said chair and said, “rab-bit!” Then she grabbed him and… (more…)

Something is not quite right with Mr. Sheep here. We’ve gotten off to a bad start. His ears are NOT supposed to be on the top of his head. They’re supposed to be on the side! I’m a little lost with the seam allowances, it’s not like Japanese clothes. Must try again.

I said it might take me a month to take a picture of this shirt. But it only took me two weeks. At first I was only going to show the above picture. But then I thought it’d be nice to see it on me, to compare to the last one. I actually quite like this length, makes it easier to get into my pockets or to pull up my pants which seem to be constantly falling down (I need better fitting pants).

I used linen and I have to say I’m not used to the wrinklyness. I mean I’m not some neat freak, FAR FROM IT. I don’t obsessively iron or do much ironing at all to be honest. In fact I think the only ironing I do is in relation to my sewing. I am used to wearing fabrics that don’t wrinkle like this, cottons and knits. How come the 100% cotton I buy from the fabric store is so stiff unlike the 100% cotton clothes I buy from a clothing store? Ok off the subject. I’m easily distracted. Back to the shirt.

The length isn’t the only thing I changed. I didn’t put elastic in the sleeves. I’m not sure about it though. It’s a little floppy. The next time I make this, I won’t change the sleeves from the original pattern. Because yes, I quite like this pattern and I will be making it again.

Are you sick of seeing the incarnations of this shirt? Well if you are, prepare to hurl. Because I think I HAVE to make this at least two more times. I have two more alterations in mind and then I will be satisfied. I think.

So remember I mentioned the other Christmas present that was never made. Well this was the idea I had in my head, a dress.

It worked out mostly how I imagined it. Except of course the finishing before Christmas part. Oh and giving it to someone other then Isabelle. Oh and the sash part. It looks just how I imagined it but the construction of it is where it all went wrong.

Originally I was thinking a whole piece for the sash. Then I could make a different color and change it if I was in the mood (that’s because at first I couldn’t decide on a color.) But then I changed my mind, wishy washy aren’t I? I actually tied a test sash on Isabelle. She squirmed and fought it and then when I finally got it on her, she managed to get her hands under it so she was all tied up. That would have been a hilarious picture but Alan freed her before I could grab the camera.

So the sash ended up being purely decorative and doesn’t tie at all. It sounded so easy in my head. But then I couldn’t line it up evenly on the side seams because of the way I made the folds and it was just waaaaay harder than it needed to be.

With the sash trouble it took longer than expected to make but I finished it in time for the last get together of the year.

Hmmm…I didn’t expect her to be wearing so many different colors when I took a picture of the dress. A little crazy, no?

But you can see it fits! Finally!! Something that fits, just like I imagined!