Lately we have had some pretty horrible weather; lots of rain and cloud. It is meant to be summer, isn't it?

Anyway, I thought I'd try and cheer people up and bring them a little bit of sunshine, regardless of what the weather is doing outside.



He is made from poly/cotton and stuffed with polyester stuffing. He's very squishie: good for cuddles!

This sun is my first plushie to be sewn using my sewing machine. He started off as a project to practice using my machine, but once finished I couldn't resist stuffing him.

I then decided to add some sunglasses and a nice smile! His face is made from felt and sewn on my hand.

Hope you like him. He's also on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=311

This is one of my early plushies; a pin cushion hedgehog with the spikes made from pins



He is made from felt, stuffed with polyester filling, and was hand-sewn



Here he is without his spikes. He looks a bit bald, but he's much more cuddly!



I used my own pattern, which i later adapted to make my badger and pigs



Here's my badger on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=58
and on Craftster http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=409464.0

Here's my pigs on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=168
and on Craftster http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=408500.0

For more information and photos of my hedgehog please visit my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=295

I realise that he's not really a plaything as such, even though his new owner does play with him!

I think I might remake him, but with softer (and more cuddly) spikes. Any ideas on how to do this?

Meet Aliebub, or Bub for short.



He's a flat alien plushie based on an earlier round alien I made, called Alibum (pronounced Ay-lee-bum).



Here's links to Alibum on Craftster http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=407880.0 ... and on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=149

And here's some different versions I drew before choosing Bub's final design http://what-a-stitch-up.deviantart.com/gallery/37718095#/d53q53d

Bub is made from felt and lightly stuffed with polyester filling. He is one of my first toys to be machine sewn. I was a little nervous about using the machine, as I’m still learning how to use it and I tend to panic whenever something goes wrong! Luckily, everything went well and I’m really pleased with how he turned out.

I made Bub especially for a project called The Plushies Around the World Project or PAWP for short http://plushie-database.deviantart.com/journal/The-Plushies-Around-the-World-Project-PAWP-306902211, run by a group called the Plushie Database http://plushie-database.deviantart.com/ on Deviant art. This is an organised project in which group members make a plushie which they then send to other members in different countries all over the world. At each destination the plushie picks up a flag to show where it has been. There are only a few simple rules, including that the plushies must be fairly small and as flat as possible. This is why Bub is a 2-D plushie, unlike most of my creations which are 3-D.

Bub has become a little bored in our flat in Portsmouth, England. I don't blame him; we don't have much of a view.



So Bub was really excited by the project and made me sign up straight away. I started contacting other members and got 7 responses back pretty promptly. So far we can confirm that Bub will be travelling to Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. We are still waiting to hear from two other potential locations.

I made Bub a little England flag so he could show off where he was from. The other flags will be sewn onto his body as he collects them.



Now he’s all ready to explore the rest of the world and meet lots of new people!

I’m also very excited. Not only does my plushie get to travel the world, going to places that at the moment I can only dream of going to, I also get to meet other people’s plushies and add to their flag collections. It feels great to be part of a large project and make contact with other people from around the globe with similar interests.

I will be tracking Bub's progress around the world and showing off my plushie visitors on my blog. The first entry (similar to this post) is here http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=253 and future posts will be listed here http://www.whatastitchup.com/?cat=63. Let me know if you'd like me to track his journey here too.

If you live in a different country than those listed and you would like Bub to visit you, then let me know. I'm sure he'd be frilled to meet you  

Also... I know that people participate in swaps on Craftster and I wondered where I could get more information. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as well as any information on other cool projects.

Thanks for reading. I hope you like Bub! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he won't get lost in the post!  

EDIT:

PLUSHIE VISITORS

I've had a few plushie visitors!

A Bat from Germany http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=260

A Hot Air Balloon from Australia http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=334

A Birdie from Canada http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=346

They are pretty amazing! Hope you like them.
 
WHERE HAS BUB BEEN?

Belgium - where he met a Nightfury! http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=365

Hi everyone,

Just a quick little post to show you a small and simple little soft toy I made.

This is Schnaaakie



He's a mini snake who likes to help my husband with coding in a particular computer language called Python.



He is made from felt, hand-sewn and stuffed with polyester filling.

He measures 12.5cm long, from the tip of his tail to the end of his tongue.

Although he is very simple, I am quite pleased with him. I love his colour and shape, and he has perfect neat little stitches. 

I hope you like him. I'm planning on making a few more; maybe making them into key-rings.

http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=248

Here's a little cute round owl I made. He was for my Hubby, who decided to name him Hubu. 



He is completely hand-sewn and measures approxinately 6cm high. His body, wings, feet, beak and tail are all made from poly/cotton.
His big cute eyes are made from felt. I stuffed him with polyester filling.

I created his pattern from a different pattern of mine of a twitter/blue bird.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=406835.0
http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=139




I really love my twitter bird. I thought he was one of the cutest and best hand-sewn toy I've made, but he got no comments, which I found really disappointing and discouraging.   

Anyway... back to my little owl! Here's a side view.



I was in a bit of a rush to make Hubu as my Hubby wanted to use him as a mascot/lucky charm for a poker night he was playing at the next day.
I managed to make him in just one evening; all hand sewn!

Unfortunately when I cut the pieces of the pattern out I didn’t include enough seam allowance, resulting in a few places where the material has frayed. 
Oh well - give and learn! It gives the owl a bit of a tatty look - so he's a tatty owl!

My hubby still likes him and I think he's cute. He turned out to be lucky too, as he did help my Hubby win the poker!

I hope you like him too!

Twit-a-woooo!

Hubu appears on my blog along with lots of other cute critters!
http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=192

A while ago I made a pointy kitty called Sharpie and posted him on Craftster. I decided to make a few more, but this time smaller and in funky colours!



The photo above shows Sharpie, who can be found on Craftster here http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=407117.0 and on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=109, and Chirpy, one of my new kitties. I included this photo to demonstrate the size difference.

Here's Chirpy again...



And here's a photo of my other new kitty, Pusskin



Chirpy and Pusskin are made from the same pattern as Sharpie, but reduced in sized. The pattern is a Wee Wonderfuls original pattern http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/store/pointykitty.html, designed by Hillary Lang and is available for free.



The pattern suggests using buttons for eyes, but I like to give the kitties a funny face using felt. I designed these faces myself and since I knew that these kitties were not for children to play with, I glued them on with fabric glue rather than stitching them on.



The pattern has additional zigzag stripe markings that can be added to the body and head, but the fabric I used already gave the kitties interesting patterns, so I felt that the stripes were not needed here.

The material used for these two little kitties are made from quilting block fabric, designed by Ellen Luckett Baker, of The Long Thread http://thelongthread.com/.



I'm happy to announce that both Chirpy and Pusskin do not seem to have the same problem where they end up doing the splits (or is this a skill?). Also, I managed to attach their heads so they don't wobble around so much!



I had lots of fun making them. Apart from gluing on their faces, they were completely hand-sewn. I also experimented on giving them different silly faces. I won't include them here, but if you are interested they are on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=174

I hope you like them!

A few weeks a go I wrote a post about some little soft toy pigs I made, which were adapted from a pattern I made for a badger.
I said that I would upload the badger, so here he is... (I'm really sorry for the delay!)







This little badger was completely hand sewn. His body is made from black fleece.
His stripes, eyes, tail and the inside of his ears are made from black and white felt.
He is stuffed with polyester filling and is super soft and cuddly. 

He is quite a small badger, measuring just 6cm high, and less than 10cm long.

But that's not all.... Check out his (a-hem) pants!





  A bit bizarre, right? There is a story behind the pants, but it's a long one. If you're interested it's on my blog: http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=58

His pants are made from red and green poly/cotton and a include a badge made from felt. They were designed to resemble the Portuguese flag.

The new owner of this cute little badger named him Denmark. Denmark enjoys mash potato and playing (and winning at) poker.

Hope you like him!

If you're interested, the little pigs can be found here http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=408500.0 and here http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=168

Meet my cute, round little pink piggies.



They are hand-sewn and are made from felt and stuffed with polyester fibre stuffing.

First I made this pig, with the big ears and a cute curly tail.




The pattern I used for the pig was adapted from a pattern I created to make a hedgehog and a badger.
The badger can be found here http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=58
I will upload him on to Craftser hopefully sometime next week when I get the chance.
I'm not sure I have any good photos of the hedgehog He was one of the first things I made and was given away.

After making the first pig I decided that he needed a friend and so I made another pig, again made from felt, but this time in the colour ‘Hot Pink’!
I adjusted the pattern again to give this pig smaller ears and trotters.



I think they like each other! Kissy-kissy!



I hope you like them too! http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=168

Here is a Gnome doll that I recently made for one of my sisters.



You may be thinking ‘what a cute friendly little chap…’ but beware! Appearances can be deceiving and things are not what they first seem. This Gnome should not be trusted. As with all garden gnomes, he has a secret weapon stashed away and is just waiting for his chance to strike his unsuspecting victim. Hidden behind his back is a nasty surprise; an axe!



I caught the little guy and wrapped him up to keep him from mischief and stuck a warning label on the package.



Although he has an axe, as it’s made of felt, I wasn’t too worried about his chances of escape.



Unfortunately the package was mistaken for a present and he is now on the loose!



This doll was inspired by the book ‘How to survive a garden gnome attack’ by Chuck Sambuchino, which explains more about the dangers associated with garden gnomes, and how you can defend yourself against an attack. http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Garden-Gnome-Attack/dp/158008463X

This is my first doll. He’s not brilliant and uses a very simple pattern, but I think this idea has some real potential for future development. I also think that he looks like a dwarf rather than a gnome. Never mind!

His skin and clothing is made from poly/cotton and his beard made from fleece. His eyes, belt and axe are all made from felt. It’s not obvious from the photos, but I have sewn Velcro onto the handle of the axe and onto the back from the Gnome’s belt, for easy storage!



Here he is wielding his axe. He was trying to look menacing, but some silly person (i.e. me) posed him with him holding his axe the wrong way round, and now it looks like he is trying to have a shave with his axe!
http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=93

I made a few dragons using this pattern I found online http://www.wyrm.org.uk/cuddly/beanbag.pdf

First I made Bernie the Dragon. He was my first ever sewing project. Maybe a little ambitious, but I was determined to give it a go!



Bernie was completely hand-sewn and made from a white t-shirt. Unfortunately Bernie is a little too, err... ...round? This is because I was trying to stuff him so he was firm, but the fabric was quite stretchy.... But he's lovely!

Then I made Ernie by reducing the pattern size. Ernie is made from felt and is therefore less round!



I posted about Bernie and Ernie on my blog http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=102 and then my mother-in-law requested a red dragon.
It was her birthday last week, so I made her his bright red dragon. http://www.whatastitchup.com/?p=155



He is made from felt and stuffed with polyester filling and is completely hand-sewn. I had more success in following the pattern his time. I think the dragon's shape is more as was intended by the pattern. I also remembered to fold the ears before attaching them and was able to add the detail to the wings.



I also added some new details of my own, including facial features (big beautiful eyes, nostrils and long pink tongue),



yellow inside the ears,



and a stripy red and yellow belly.



Hope you like my dragons!