Pink Elephants

After all the fun of making the elephant family from last post, I decided to whip up a trip of pink elephants out of this fabric combo.

There was a reason I hadn't used this last piece of fairy-floss pink faux fur though.... as I was about to discover!

Drawing the mini elephant pieces was fine, cutting was a little tricky, but sewing was horrible!!! After quite a few hours I got there in the end though - and finally had sweet little elephant faces staring back at me!

These are the finished cuties. Three little 7" ladies in the same pattern - but each one has turned out with their own unique look.

Rosie-Belle is now SOLD 

Rosie-May is also now SOLD

but Rosie-Rue is the last pink elephant left available. 

Elephants EVERYWHERE!

Almost exactly a week ago my hubby Mark and I sat down with some pieces of mohair and had a brainstorming session. My plan was to create a couple of teds in various sizes out of the same fur, but Mark had the brilliant idea to make them elephants - specifically a whole family of elephants!

So we got to work printing out various sizes of our Elephant pattern to achieve this look. We ended up with two in the original 9" size, one in a 115% enlargement (ended up at 11"), one at a 130% enlargement (13"), one at 80% reduction (ended up at 7" tall) and two at a 55% reduction (ended up a petite 5" tall).

(This can be done with nearly all of our instant download e-patterns. Just play with the percentage settings before you print. The seam allowances will automatically decrease/increase with the pattern pieces. So as long as you follow the same proportions there the altered pattern will work just as well as the original)

This is how bizarre elephants look without eyes and ears!

But we quickly remedied that! It literally took ALL week, but slowly little elephant faces started to peer back at me...

(closing the last seams late this afternoon)

I had busted my butt to get all 7 of these guys done before the kindy pick up (so I could get photos before the kids got home and wanted to 'help'!), but I got outside to my photo-spot and the lighting was TERRIBLE! I nearly had a little tantrum. I'd worked so hard to get them ready in time. But I didn't. I vented to Mark in the car on the way to the kindy, and by the time we had the kids and were driving home I'd totally gotten over it. I decided to give it one more go, but if the light was still crappy - the photos would just have to wait until the next morning.

But the light was good again! And we managed to get these lovely photos of all the elephants.

From largest to smallest we have:

Estelle Elephant - 13" (SOLD)

Ella Elephant - 11"

Esme Elephant - 9"

Edgar Elephant - 9"

Evie Elephant - 7"

Elsie Elephant - 5" 

Elmo Elephant - 5"

Can I do it again!?

Byron is 8 months old now and just starting to figure out how to get what he wants. A lot of the time he wants what Chelsea has. And vice versa. Pretty normal behaviour, but pretty exhausting when it happens constantly, ALL day! His latest target has been Chelsea's most beloved 'Mr Elephant' that I made for her (exactly) a year ago. Every opportunity that Mr Elephant is left unattended, and within reach, Byron snatches him and starts munching away! Needless to say, Chelsea does not handle this very well at all!

Mr Elephant comes with us everywhere. Chelsea sleeps with him, travels with him, plays with him, and is comforted by him. In fact, there are some situations when only Mr Elephant will comfort her! Not even a mummy or daddy hug will do!







I don't know what it is/was about the home made elephant cushion that became so magical for Chelsea, but with the current squabbling over him, it is time to try to work the magic again for Byron.




This was attempt no. 1. An 'octopus'. Lets just say it kind of looks more like a mutant flower with eyes! :P Byron doesn't mind it. But's it's no 'Mr Elephant'.
So I'm going to try again with a less bulky design. Fingers crossed there's still a bit of magic left!

A new Panda, as promised

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I was working on a new panda. This is the finished product. I've named him Lyric. I have no idea why - it just jumped out at me as the right name for him!

He is made from the last of my stash of these two gorgeous pieces of mohair. I just love using this pattern for pandas. I know he doesn't have a very 'Panda-ish' shape, but I love the long arms and legs, and the fat little belly. I've made a few non-traditional pandas over the years from various versions of this pattern of mine.

I've just listed him on bearpile, and plan to list him on etsy and madeit too - later on today if I get a chance, or if he doesn't sell before then (I can hope! :P).


I also finished two more baby comforter elephant cushions too. This time in a gorgeous silky chocolate brown synthetic fur with skull and cross bone satin ears! Something a little more 'punk' for a more daring nursery!

Squishy elephants now on etsy

I have two golden rainbow boy elephant cushions, and two pink frosted girly elephant cushions now on etsy.

And I will say this - for a nice simple little idea/design/product - these guys were a pain in the butt to get good photos of! :P

Squishy elephants

Chelsea is a tummy sleeper. And she has been, probably since before she was born (if its even possible to 'sleep on your tummy' in utero!?). All medical advice is to ONLY sleep your baby on their back. On their side if you must, but tummy sleeping is a big bad no no. Puts your baby at risk of SIDS.

So after battling to get Chelsea to settle and sleep on her back for the first 8 weeks of her life, I relented, and let her tummy sleep. She was an amazing sleeper ever since, and still is.

The problem with this is that she tends to bunch her bedding up around her face while she sleeps. Two nights ago I went to check her and she had her comforter blanket totally covering her face and was really labouring to breathe. This freaked me out. So the comforter was removed. Which nearly broke my heart as its her favourite blanket in the whole world. You just have to show it to her and she wants to lay her head on it and suck her thumb!

So yesterday I decided to turn it into a nice flat cushion. I drew up a stylised elephant shape to give it a bit more interest, lightly stuffed it, then 'quilted' in the elephant features (eyes, ears, legs). This means that it won't bunch up around her face, and won't get all saggy when I need to wash it. I wasn't sure if she'd reject it now that it was a cushion not a blanket - but her reaction was more than I could have hoped for. She cuddled and stroked her elephant and got really upset when I put him back in the cot. She was actually wanting to get in there with him even thought it wasn't nap time!

I had a bit of fur left over so I thought I'd make a mini elephant comforter cuddle toy to take with us in the car/Nonna's house etc too. I'm really loving the look of them, and Chelsea's reaction to them, so plan to have a few available in my etsy store shortly.

A most generous package

A week or so ago I purchased the sweetest little elephant from JRB creations. Mimi arrived this morning. Along with a massive assortment of other goodies!

Chelsea 'had' to inspect Mimi. She was actually really gentle with her which was a surprise.

Then I gave her the twin care bears Jeannette had included especially for her. She has just started a really cute trick in the last few weeks of actually cuddling her toys/baby dolls. So the bears got tucked under her chin and patted on the back. I'm still trying to work out where she picked this up from...




AND, I also found some adorable baby boy clothes for Number 2. (as the poor little thing seems to be getting called! - Mark and I really need to hurry up and name him, or at least give him a more suitable nickname!). These are so perfect, the right size, the right season! And for boys clothes, they are actually really cute! (which can be hard to find sometimes!). The little overalls are exactly like a pair I was deciding to buy yesterday. In the end I left them in the shop cause they were too expensive. So thank you so so much Jeannette!


Mimi is now sitting in pride of place on my bear display, with a little crocheted friend I bought from the USA a few years ago. They look so sweet together!

Fizz the Kool Aid Elephant

This is Fizz - the elephant i made from the Kool Aid dyed mohair. His colouring is so sweet (and he has just the tiniest hint of strawberry scent to him too!). His currently listed on bearpile.

eBay again...

Grayer is on ebay at the moment. Starting price of $69! Click HERE for his listing.



Mystery is also on ebay. His starting price is down to $129. Click HERE for his listing.



And Bahari is also on ebay. His listing is HERE. And his price is currently at $99.