Giraffe

A few years ago, I bought this book "Cute Creatures to Knit and Crochet." It has many cute toys, but the one I absolutely loved was a giraffe which was a puppet. My niece was just born, and I thought making her a giraffe was a fantastic idea until I started the project. I decided not to make a puppet but just a soft toy. That was the easiest part. The most difficult part was the pattern for the giraffe which was in chart form. I had never followed a pattern like it, so it took me awhile to figure out how to read it. Once I had that settled, I realized that all the parts of the giraffe are made in individual pieces. Phew!!! It took a lot of time and patience. And, I don't usually have the latter when it comes to making things. It needs to be done NOW! :) 

Anyway, I finished the first giraffe for my niece, and she loved it. This summer while visiting my sister I looked at the giraffe again and decided it was time to make one for us, too. I guess I had forgotten how much I hated following the charts and how looooooooong it took to finish the first one. However, I was too excited about my new yellow and tan cotton yarn to remember any of that, and I couldn't wait to start. I started the giraffe in July. I finished in November. And, I still hated following the charts (although it was much easier the second time around), and it took me a very looooooong time to finish my second giraffe. I told myself multilpe times during the project, "never again." Give me a few more years in between, and I will probably make another one. ;)

The giraffe (still with no name) is SUPER cute and huge! I don't have the measurents but here she is sitting on O's arm chair and is basically filling the seat. 

Her face. I was supposed to make the nostrils and mouth, too, but decided not to do that. I didn't think she needed them. 

Side profile. 

Peeking to the other side of the chair. You can see that she is as big as the back of the chair. 

I'm happy I made the giraffe, but it will be a looooooooong time before I'll make another one. :) 

Monsters in jeans

Months ago, my friend showed me on Pinterest these monster patches for broken jeans. She has  4-and 2- year-old sons, and she tells me that they have many ripped jeans. Once I saw the picture of these patches, I was intrigued. I was ready for a challenge, and I was super excited to try something new. After months of patiently waiting, I got them done. And, my friend and her sons were all very excited about their "new" monster jeans which made me happy.


After I had said yes to the project and gotten the pants, I suddenly realized that 2T size pants won't be fitting into my sewing machine for me to be able to sew the patches on. And, even if they did fit, there was no way I was going to be able to turn the jeans to sew around the patch. Hmmmmm....so after discussing it with other sewing  friends, I came to the conclusion that I would need to open one of the seams of the pant leg. This worked well. I undid the seam on the outside because it does not have a decorative top stitch. And, I was able to sew it back together without anyone ever noticing that I had undone the seam.

The post that my friend showed me had used felt for the patch. I thought it would wear off quickly, so I decided to get red denim from Joann Fabrics. I also bought black and white flannel for the eyes and teeth because it was cheaper and seemed softer/nicer. But once I started working on the patches, I realized that felt would be a better option for the teeth and eyes. Reason for that is that flannel frays and felt does not. Next time, I am going to use felt.

I first cut the red denim to match the size of the hole. I made it a little bit bigger since the pants were worn out around the hole as well. I pinned it well and added the teeth.

I sewed around the patch (from the outside) multiple times. And, I also sewed around the hole so that it would not rip more. And, this also helped me to get the teeth in place. I kept sewing back and forth to add extra stitches around the teeth and the patch.

This is how it looks inside.

I then cut the eyes and pinned them on the pant. These jeans had a perfect hole that worked as a nose for the monster. :)

I zigzagged around the eyes (both white and black), and I also zigzagged around the teeth. I am hoping this will help them stay on for longer. I am not sure how the flannel is going last, but I guess we'll find out.

And, here is the patch again from the inside. Looks pretty cool, huh?

And, once I was finished with the patch, I sewed the seam back together. I made sure to zigzag the edge as well. I have a serger, but I did not want to change the thread, so I figured this would do.

I thought that two monsters in one pair of jeans would be too much, so I just added a red patch to the other side.

Below is another pair of pants. Instead of using the red denim, I used thicker cotton fabric with cars on it. I bought this fabric from Purl Soho this summer. It is super cute, and I thought would make a nice monster mouth for a little boy.

I did everything exactly the same with this patch as with the first one. I just added one eye to this monster, and I put his teeth on the outside.

To see more examples, you can go on Pinterest and type "monster jean patch" and bunch of pictures will show up. This is not my idea, but I did make these monsters for these two pairs of pants.

This was a super fun little project. The first pair of pants took me about 2 hours to complete, but the second one I did in 45 minutes. I think it will get faster once you made a few of them. I highly recommend trying this out if you find holes in your pants....or, somebody else's. Next I will be patching O's preschool teacher's jeans. :)