Baby Piggy Plushies

In the midst of making all of our Collaboration Bears, we've also been working on a small army of baby guinea pig plushies - 15 to be exact! We went with lots of pinks and purples this time - lots of long sparkly furs and funky coats.

A number of them have already found new homes, but you can see who/what's left on their listing in our furaddiction store.

Bubble, Clementine and Yue - plus some Piggy Panties!

This little sweetheart is our very latest bear 'Bubble' - finished about 3hrs ago this afternoon! She is something a little different, and a little anime/cartoon. Despite not really liking how she looked when I first finished her face, I'm actually quite proud of her now. All of her accessories and shading have pulled the look together.

She was made with a small piece of this stunning tipped mohair I had saved in my personal stash from some years ago. So she is most definitely a one off. We used our 'Booth' pattern, but reduced it by 50% (ie. print two pages of the pattern document onto one A4 page). You can check out all of her details in her etsy listing currently. 

And this fluffy boy was made yesterday. This is Clementine, so named due to his citrus coloured fur. I have used this fur some time ago for a trio of bears, but decided to use up the last of it for this big guy. He's made using our 'Booth' pattern, but we've placed the eyes a lot closer to the front of the face then is called for in the original design. The longer-pile fur helps give a more modern teddy look as well.

And lastly little 'Yue' - also made in the 'Booth' pattern reduced by 50%. He is made in our matted mohair range with a ribbon ruffle made from our new cross-grain spotted ribbons. 

Tiny Yue is currently available in our etsy store.

~ * ~

Amidst all of the bear making and general life, we adopted a new guinea pig that is just Chelsea's pet. She has been named 'Kobe' and is the most chilled out, relaxed little pig I've ever met. Chelsea was doing the whole 'watching TV while feeding Kobe grass on the couch' thing she likes to do most days, when we got the idea to see if one of her Cabbage Patch doll nappies would fit on Kobe.

This was the result!

So after posting this picture on our guinea pig facebook page, we got lots of questions about the possibility of making some of these for other people's pets. I set about drawing up a pattern that would fit a piggy a little better. The end result is shown below:

 We also made up some 'Ruffle' Piggy Panties for the more feminine pigs out there. These are especially cute! They are a little bizarre, but if you're interested you can also find cavy related goodies on our website too. 

Plush Piggies

Yesterday's activities included whipping up three more plush guinea pig mum-and-bub sets. I just love mixing and matching all the different colours and textures of the faux fur, and coordinating with all thew gorgeous cotton print fabric I have in my stash! This set (cream/brown) has already been claimed, but the black/white/pink set and the purple tone set below are currently on etsy.




I also made some improvements to the original design. These ones now have colour-matched velcro straps to help hold the bubs snuggly in place, and to give the mumma pig a more 'guinea pig' shape when her bubs are out and about!







The black, white and pink mum and bub set below can be found in my etsy store.


As can this purple set. (I really love the colours on this one actually).

An update on my 'critter' sewing adventures

I've been a bit slack with updating my bear blog lately. Between the two very active children in my life, the husband who is home for a few weeks over the christmas/new year period, 40+ guinea pigs in the backyard, a reasonably well behaved dog, giant fish and now two new baby cockatiels... we have a busy little world!

But here is a look at the last bunny I made in my newest rabbit pattern. This little lady is named 'Maple', and she has already been claimed. She was made from a mix of coffee and cream ratinee curly mohair - which I think worked quite well as something a little different.



Maple ended up sitting a lot straighter - which is what I originally wanted, after I changed the method of stuffing the tummy/legs (really firm, heavily weighted belly, firmly stuffed and weighted feet, and much softer top-part of the legs).







I've also been working on some quirky new guinea pig plushies (because I am a little guinea pig obsessed...).




(The belly of the mumma piggy is lined in 100% cotton quilting fabric, and padded so that the babies snuggle in well and stay in place while mumma sits over them - kind of like a guinea pig version of a babushka doll!).


Babies in the tummy...

...babies out! I think it's something a little different, and a little fun, and will appeal to those who loved those 'puppy surprise' toys from years ago. (or even those pregnant barbie dolls that used to be available... which was me! lol)

Turi the Polar Bear

*** Turi has been adopted ***


This is my latest little bundle of cuteness - meet Turi the Polar Bear.


He's made from a texture white mohair/or alpaca/ or mix of both - not quite sure which! He's fully jointed and stuffed well with stainless steel shot and a touch of polyfill. This means he's quite heavy for his size, and it means he can stand on his own despite being so floppy. I love stainless steel in bears! A little goes a LONG way too!

Turi is currently available on bearpile and my own available page.




(And I just thought I'd include a quick photo of some custom rainbow guinea pigs I made last week. I've been tweaking my pattern again to make it work better for baby-proportions, and added some new features (polymer clay sculptured eyelids/noses) for extra character. I think they turned out pretty well!)