Making a pink elephant

You probably have seen some of the Stuffed animals I’ve made, two cats, a fox, and these are the only ones from Pauline at Funky Friends Factory. A few months ago I found out that Teressa Coates would be teaching a class at Sewing Arts Center. I immediately signed up. I’ve known Teressa for a while, she is the teacher for Shannon Fabrics, they make the wonderful Cuddle fabric.

Here we have the cat as caticorn and the fox made out of cuddle.

Julie bought a lot of cuddle for the shop, so we had a lot to choose from. Yes, I bought more fabric and will probably get even more… First step, enlarge the pattern, in this case, 120%, it makes it easier to work with the cuddle. Then we traced the pattern with a sharpie, using these heavy washers as pattern weights, I need to get some. These two fabrics are left over from my cat.

Yes indeed! I was determined to make a pink elephant. Yes this is a term for being so drunk one sees dancing pink elephants. Even Disney used this reference in Dumbo. (the original, something tells me that didn’t do this in the new release). Well, now in my house, one doesn’t need any alcohol to see a pink elephant.

I have to say I am impressed with the workshop space at Sewing Arts, there were nine students, we each had our own table and a very nice Bernina sewing machine. I didn’t take pictures while I was assembling the elephant. Well, except this one, when the head was finished. Pauline is very smart, she has you start with the head – in every one of her patterns. That way you see the personality of what you are creating and don’t get discouraged. Yes, I used the seam ripper, putting the body together had some challenges.

A limp elephant.

And here is Teressa holding him up. At this point she reminded me that I had to poke out his tusks.

All stuffed, just waiting for the final hand sewing up his back. One of the wonderful things about cuddle, aside from being so soft, is that you can’t see the seams at all.

And here he is!

Side by side with Teressa’s more traditional grey elephant.

Of course we took a picture each holding our own elephants.

Then Hillary finished hers. I couldn’t stay till the very end, so I didn’t see the other elephants. There were many colors, from grey, orange, green. I’m sure they all are great.

So why am I calling this pink elephant a he? Well, because once we got home, I introduced him to a Liberty Mouse that a friend brought me from London. So the elephant is now Ganesha and that is now a rat, the vehicle that Ganesha travels with.

I so want to make the lamb and the monkeys, but first I have a squirrel and a mouse to make.

Leah

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