Week 4 Project Post

Another successful week. Yippee! 

First this week I had started out working on the dinosaur pattern, but looking at it closely and seeing the sample picture again I decided that this pattern was going to need some revamping, major revamping. And that was something I didn't want to work on at the hospital. My sister did great by the way. . . . Back to projects. So I finished the head for that but I might rip it out because I'm not totally happy with that pattern, like I said.  That is another project for another time.

So my first completed project for week four was Woodstock. You know Snoopy's little bird buddy. He came out great. I was worried that he might come out super big, but he doesn't. He thankfully past inspection from a big Peanuts fan so that makes me happy. I only have two problems with this pattern: A) his hair and tail aren't the easiest to do and B) attaching his legs. 

I feel there had to be a better way to do his hair. The instructions were a bit vague and I'm pretty sure I may have done it wrong. So thats something to think about doing a different way. The trail was the same way.  This will probably be the big thing to change in the future when I make one of these guys.

My issue with attaching the legs was that they needed to be sewed into the body, which is fine, but the body's hole wasn't quite large enough for both legs (so a little stretching was in order to make it work and it really wasn't all that easy. You had to sew on the legs and make sure everything lined up right since you already had the head on the body at this point). So that should be the easier fix of the two issues. But all in all Woodstock came together easily and quickly.  He turned into about a day project. Lots of things were going on throughout the day so I didn't get to work on him for a long block of time.

My next project is for the gamer geeks. This one was a big project being made of 21 pieces total (unfortunately 2 of them aren't pictured here until he's put together because I had to make them on the fly).

I made the beloved dino from the Mario world, Yoshi. I went with a purple Yoshi rather then the original green for something a little different.

As fun as he was to make, Yoshi was at times a pain. This was because of the pattern instructions. Most of this projects pattern was straight forward, but the arms and boots could have been done a little differently and quite a bit better in my opinion. 

I know there are better ways to make boots then what they had written for this pattern. There pattern requires you to fold and sew them in half to create the boots look. I also thought there might be a way to make the boot and leg pieces into one piece and save on assembly time.

My only issue with the arms is the thumbs. It was poorly explained and I think doing them with a bubble stitch like in the Rag Doll pattern may give it an easier and better look (something to try out next time).

Assembly was laborious but fun to finally see him coming together and actually look like something other than stuffed blobs of yarn.

Yoshi's head all sewn together, minus the whites that make his eyes look like eyes.

Body and tail.

The full leg/boot piece. Of course I had to resew these because I had guessed wrong on how they go together (It wasn't explained in the instructions).

Once I got on all the major important bits (head, legs, arms, tummy/mouth strip) together they forgot to say where exactly the other pieces (saddle and spikes) were to go. Not to mention there was no mention on finishing off his eyes. I managed the saddle and spikes with a few reference pictures and realized I should have tilted his head down just a little bit more to make putting on the spikes a tad easier. But the no mention of his eyes bugged me. Then after looking closer at their sample picture I noticed that they used felt pieces. But still there was no mention of this what so ever, Grrr! So I picked up my hook and grabbed my skein of white and guessed the best way to finish his eyes. I got lucky and got it on the first try, added some black, and attached them. FINISHED Yoshi!!

The finished Yoshi.

I do like most of this pattern though and he comes out pretty well. I just wished the instructions were more complete and better written. I will most likely put this in my shop but as a made to order item.

I want to start a rating system for these patterns, something that can clearly show my feelings for these patterns. So I'm going to use a scale of 1 to 5 yarn balls (icon to your left). 1 being not good to 5 being AMAZING. Possibly with several categories to rate on with an average rating over all. Something to work on for the next time.

Speaking of next time. Week 5/6 Project: I recently bough a pair of white canvas shoes in the plan to put my own design on them. I see it all the time on pintrest and had gotten a set of fabric sharpies for my birthday this past June. So I'm going to take the next two weeks to work on them, not wanting to rush through it. I don't want these to be something I work on and end up hating because I rushed it and thus never wear. I will still do a post next Sunday with progress pictures and probably a mile long list of pros and cons to doing this kind of project with no clearly laid out plan.
I might even work on a few other projects I have lying around and post about them as well. Along with all that I will work on my previously mentioned rating system.

Thats all for this weeks Project Post. As always . . . .

Happy Crafting!!