futuregirl craft blog

My First Granny Square Afghan

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:00 GMT

When I was three my mother taught me how to crochet. I picked a pattern out of a magazine and we went to the store together to pick out the yarn. I remember that I felt a huge sense of accomplishment when the blanket was finished.

(photo circa 1974)

HA! Not really. I totally couldn't crochet at three. In fact, from the state of my face and the front of my shirt, it appears I still had issues eating. It looks like I lost a fight with a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

Anyhoo. My mother was making this blanket. As she tells the story, I was fascinated by her crocheting. One afternoon, while she wasn't looking, I climbed up into the chair and sat there poking the crochet hook into the granny square and sort of wiggling it around.

It's hard to tell, but I'm holding the hook-end of the hook in my left hand and the shaft of the hook is hanging down and is peeking out from under the granny square just below. It's red.

When I was discovered, I looked up and said earnestly (and probably with my eyebrows raised), "It doesn't work." Then I held the crochet out to her as if she should fix it. I've always loved this story and this photo.

I've started scanning in all my childhood photos because they don't look like they are going to last much longer. This is one of the Polaroids in good shape, and it still has some bad cracking (see top right hand corner of the curtains).

The other issue with the photos, besides their age, is that our house burned down when I was 10 and all the photos were stacked willy nilly in the living room, so all the edges have smoke damage, as you can see at the top of the photo.

Someday I might do a post with all the childhood pictures of me with handmade items in the shot. I have a slew of photos where I'm sitting on a crochet-blanket-draped couch or wearing clothes my mother made for me.

There's one photo I didn't manage to sneak into my stash that I wish I had. It's my sisters and me in matching overalls that Mom made for us. The bibs were a lion's head with a crazy loopy mane all around the edges. So epic.

New Share This Post Buttons

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:17:05 GMT

(strictly techie today, so feel free to skip this post)

A bazillion years ago, I added a widget at the bottom of my posts to make it easy for people to share things. I picked AddThis.com's widget because you could do ANYTHING (almost) with it ... add to bookmarks, email it, facebook it, stumble it, etc. Looking at the stats on AddThis, I see that almost no one has used it.

Recently, I noticed that my traffic from Pinterest is rising steadily. I figured I'd make it even easier for people to pin my posts. When I looked into adding a Pinterest button, I discovered that it's not as easy as all the other social media buttons because it requires an image to be associated with the button. Makes sense, but it's not something I could just pop onto the page.

Monday night I made some database changes, admin changes, and display changes to add Pin It buttons to every post. Basically, I have a new field to fill in when I save a post ... the link to the image I want to use for the Pin It button. If you click the button for most of my posts, the associated image is my logo, but for the most recent posts, and some of the older popular posts, I've put in an appropriate image from that specific blog post for the Pin It button. Woo hoo!

It was so much fun to add that button, that I decided to upgrade my AddThis widget. I got rid of everything except the Facebook Like button ... because it was the only one with a count next to it. Then I found the code for the Tweet This button with a count next to it and added that one, too.

The reason I didn't use the AddThis tweet button with the count is because when you click the AddThis tweet button, it says "via @AddThis" at the end of the tweet text. If I created the button programatically myself, I could have it say "via @futuregirlcraft" instead. Of course, the tweeter can change the text that gets tweeted, but I didn't like AddThis inserting itself into my reader's experience.

I have no idea how the Facebook Like button works because I don't have a Facebook account. If you ever use it and it seems goofy, let me know.

I like having the counts because it gives me instant feedback about how people feel about my post. Not everyone comments because it takes time, etc, but it's super easy to click the Like/Tweet/Pin It buttons. It's also probably good that you (my readers) aren't presented with a block of 20 little icons to choose from; you can choose to do one of three things easily.

I will go back through my old posts and update them to use an appropriate image for the Pin It button, starting with the posts that are linked to most often, like the blanket stitch post (which I've already changed). I was thrilled to see that post already has 90 pins!

The other upside is that the purple stripe sweater post from Tuesday already has 8 pins. I think it is due to the new Pin It button, which is great! I love that people want to share something I've posted. :)

One little rant ... wtf is up with Pinterest making their share button taller than EVERYONE else's button? The whole rest of the world is playing nice and making their buttons the same damn height. I found the css that needed to change and I was all set to override their stylesheet (like I did with the twitter feed in the left sidebar) to make the button the standard height BUT they used IDs in an effing iFrame ... and at that point I'd already been programming for an hour past my bedtime, so I just gave up (I'm not even sure if it's possible to affect the styles in an page shown in an iFrame ...). But woe to you, Pinterest, if I ever *do* have the free time to look into this, because I'm going to cut your button down to size, you bunch of Egomaniacs.

Resources:
Tweet button details
Pin It button for websites details
AddThis.com details

Purple Stripe Sweater - Update 2

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Even with the stripes, this is a very quick knit on 5.0 mm needles. I sped through the body and did everything according to the pattern ...

... until ... haha, you knew there was an until, right?

I didn't make the sweater as long as the pattern suggested because I like my tops to hit at the widest part of my hips. I find that it's a great way to break up the bulk down there and having the shirt flare out accentuates my waist. It's probably against the rules, just like horizontal stripes, but that doesn't bother me.

(OMG, see how big that armhole looks? I'm trying to ignore how freaky big that hole is. Just keep knitting. Just keep knitting.)

The pattern suggested that you go down a needle size for the bottom ribbing. I thought that would pull in too much and make the cardigan balloon-ish. So I did two test swatches.

My suspicion was correct. 4.0 mm needles made the ribbing way too tight. Both of the swatches are exactly the same number of stitches across and down. The smaller needles also make a shorter row.

I was even tempted to go up a size to do the ribbing so it wouldn't pull at all. But the sweater is cotton, so I figure it'll stretch a little and loosen up. We'll see.

A super-happy consequence of swatching was that I noticed the problem with starting 2x2 ribbing in a new color. It reminded me of a striped ribbing trick I learned from Color Knitting The Easy Way:

The trick is, if you're knitting stripes and ribbing at the same time, to knit every stitch the first row, then go back to the ribbing on subsequent rows. Ta da! No dashes mucking up your stripey stripes.

Crafting In Public

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, January 23th from 5:00-7:00 at ING Cafe at 101 Post Street, San Francisco (at Kearny). Everyone welcome! Bring a project and hang out with us.

I hope to see you there!

Perrin's Starling - Part 2

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Embroidering the label for Perrin's Starling Handbag was a perfect craft night project. That means I can do it *and* listen/talk at the same time. I tried working on the blue knit lace scarf at craft night once and I ended up having to take out all three hours of work. Gah!

I have an Embroidery On Felt Tutorial if you're wondering how I make my labels. I forgot my trick of making sure the grain of the stabilizer goes top to bottom. That makes it easier to remove since most of the letters have vertical bits. Oh, well.

SOPA/PIPA

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:01:00 GMT

If you live in the USA, please take a moment to learn about SOPA/PIPA if you aren't already familiar with it.

Here is analysis from Google , Wikipedia, and the EFF. And you can alway do your own Google search to see what other people are saying.

Then please contact your elected officials to let them know what you think. Wikipedia has made it easy. Just go to Wikipedia and enter your zip code. They'll tell you who to contact to voice your opinion.

I did.

Purple Stripe Sweater - Picking Stripes

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

At the beginning of December I decided to start a couple of sweaters. Out of the blue, I suddenly HAD to cast on for both of them. One is slumbering now, but I'm still in the thick of the other, so I'm going to start blogging about it - Panoply of Purple Stripes using Stefanie Japel's knitting pattern Shapely Boyfriend.

What drew me to this pattern is:

Top down!!! So you can try it on as you go.
V-Neck. I'm usually warm, so having a v-neck helps me maintain a "just warm enough" temperature in the winter.
Free. So I could take a look at the pattern instructions and make sure I could handle it before starting.

Looking in my stash, I noticed the three purples I got in my yarn extravaganza Knit Picks order and thought I'd combine two of my favorite clothing design elements: purple and stripes.

When I mentioned I was making a striped sweater from three different purples to a co-worker, he said, "Do you think you can pull it off?" Ha! Of course I can! Although without seeing the three purples, I'm sure what someone would imagine is nutso. I think the mix I have is perfectly balanced.

The next step was to figure out what stripe pattern to use. I used Open Office Calc to test out stripe patterns because it had bunches of colors to pick from (as opposed to my ancient Excel which had 12 or something).

I looked at the knitting pattern and figured out how many rows were going to be in the back of the sweater. I made the OpenOffice file that many lines tall so I could get an idea of how each stripe pattern would actually look.

Here are the stripe patterns I made in order.

1. Totally random.

2. Totally ordered.

3. Each color blends into the next.

4. Same as before with less overlapping.

5. Thick dark stripes interspersed with thin medium and light stripes.

6. Kaleidoscopic pattern.

7. Now that I see this one, it looks like I made a copy/paste error in the rows because I pattern I *expect* to see here is not the one I see.

8. Orderly and neat.

9. Thick light stripes interspersed with thin medium and dark stripes.

10. Expanded version of above.

11. Medium stripes with alternating sets of light and dark stripes.

12. Light stripes with alternating sets of medium and dark stripes.

13. Dark stripes with alternating sets of light and medium stripes.

14. Overlapping sets of 3 stripes.

At this point I was feeling a little seasick from staring at stripes. I looked back through my sets and picked some of my favorites: 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, and 14. I asked Andrew what he liked and after hearing what he thought, ended up picking 6, the kaleidoscopic one.

I wanted to use about the same amount of each color, so I adjusted the thick medium-purple stripes to be only two stripes thick, instead of 3 stripes thick.

I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I did a stripe swatch to make sure I liked it. Of course I did, right? In what world do I not swatch every tiny thing?

Perrin's Starling - Part 1

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Now that I'm done with the Fennec Fox, I've picked my new featured craft project, Perrin's Starling Handbag.

I got to know Perrin through my site. She wrote a crazy-sweet post about me on her blog Paper Clips and Play Pens. After just a couple of emails, I could tell she was the kind of direct, open, and passionate person that I get along with perfectly. I just love Perrin. :)

When I got my annual burr behind my eye about not having a futuregirl logo, I emailed Perrin to see if she was interested in helping me out, since she's a freelance web designer. She was amazingly enthusiastic.

We exchanged several epic emails talking about my craft blog, my audience, my direction, my hopes for the site ... me me me. Ha! How could I *not* love it? She even sent me sheets of preliminary sketches from her brainstorming sessions.

Our conversations got the gears turning in my head. Eventually, I was inspired to create my own logo, but I believe I couldn't have done this without first consulting with Perrin. I'd spent 5 years trying to come up with logo on my own, with no luck.

I wanted to pay her back for all her help. She'd said something about wanting a Starling Handbag of her own, so, in secret, I crocheted one for her. And I bought the fabric for the lining. And tucked it away in my WIP drawer ... for at least a year ... sigh ...

I could have just taken this out of the WIP drawer, frogged it, and put the yarn back in my stash since Perrin didn't know I'd even started it. It's no fun admitting your shortcomings ... but as my Midwestern up bringing taught me, doing so probably builds character, so I'm sucking it up. As bad as I feel about letting this token of my appreciation languish, I still want Perrin have a special Starling Handbag made just for her.

As you can imagine, being tucked in a drawer for a year, her Starling had a couple of folds and creases. I needed to lightly block it.

It just so happens that these cartons of chicken stock are the perfect shape and size to create a blocking form ... bonus that they are waterproof, too!

I inverted the Starling over the cartons and lightly sprayed it with a water squirter. There was a little smoothing and pulling involved to work out the wrinkles.

In this photo you can see the nice crisp edge around the bottom of my Starling thanks to the innovation of Chicken Betty. She came up with the idea of crocheting in the interior-loops-only when you transition from the bottom of the bag to the sides. Brilliant!

After drying overnight, good as new!

This is the gorgeous fabric I bought for the lining. I love those flowers! I recently came across a great felt flower tutorial that I hope will work to make the outside embellishments for the bag. Oh! I'm looking forward to working on this handbag!

Crafting In Public

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, January 11th from 5:00-7:00 at ING Cafe at 101 Post Street, San Francisco (at Kearny). Everyone welcome! Bring a project and hang out with us.

I hope to see you there!

sniffle My New Swift and sniffle Ball Winder

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

I didn't post over Christmas because I holed up in my apartment and knitted my little heart out. I knew from years past that my blog traffic dips around the holidays so I gave myself a little time off. :) The plan was to write a couple amazing posts during the New Year's Eve 3-day weekend. Ha! I've been sick since 12/29, so that didn't happen.

I keep telling myself I'm feeling better and then I sneeze out a face-full of snot and fill my little trashcan with tissues blowing my nose. Boo hoo, poor me. :)

Here's a topic that lightens my sickly burden, though, my new swift and ball winder. Ahhhh. I had a gigantic hank of lace weight yarn to wind into a ball, thanks to Linda Permann, and I enjoyed every tiny second of the winding.

Imagine me sitting there turning the crank of my ball winder with bright shining eyes and the sparkliest of smiles ...

This is not a commercial/sponsor post, but you probably are wondering ... it's the KnitPicks Ball Winder and the Amish-Designed Swift. I picked the ball winder because you can mount it or snap on the handle and hold it while you wind your yarn ball. I picked the Amish-Designed swift because you can take it apart when you're not using it and store it away. It easily slips together when you want to use it again. They both worked wonderfully.

Whew! I've tired myself out. Here are a bunch of photos I took of the process. Enjoy! And send me some healthy juju. I've got some crafting to do! :)

Crafting In Public

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, December 28th from 5:15-8:00 at Samovar at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Everyone welcome! Bring a project and hang out with us.

I hope to see you there!

Grey Gloves - Crossing Stitches

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

You may remember that the mustard gloves were an experiment to not make little holes when the stitches split at the thumb/palm and in between the fingertubes. For these gloves, I'm trying the crossed stitch technique I found on TECHKnitting.

Yeeessss! It totally works. The only problem is REMEMBERING to do it. I did a lot of re-knitting on these. Thank goodness there isn't much knitting in these in the first place, right? :)

Here is a close-up of the thumb cross-over. I decided to have the palm-stitches be on the outside and the thumb stitches be on the inside.

Here is a close-up of the fingertube cross-over. You can see the un-highlighted cross-overs on the right and left, too. For the fingertubes, I put the stitches for the one I was knitting on the outside and the saved stitch was cross-under-ed.

This in my girl-hand in a boy-sized glove. You can see the little swish at the place where the fingertubes connect with the glove. Not a huge biggie.

This is a shot of the edge of the long tail tubular cast on for 1x1 rib that I love SO MUCH. Seriously, I love this cast on. If you look at the outside rib, then turn to the inside rib, there is no break in the stitches. They wrap around the cuff-edge flawlessly. It's like magic.

The Ads On My Blog

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

You may remember that I tried selling ads myself a couple months back. Well, that didn't work out like I hoped. I guess there's a reason that magazines and TV stations have teams of advertising sales reps ... and it's not just to answer the phone and take orders. :)

Long story short, I put the "ad network" ads are back. The money I make with the ads makes a significant difference to me. But, since I did all the set up work, I'm going to still sell ads directly at a significantly reduced rates (since they will display under the two skyscraper ads).

200x200 $35/month LARGE
200x150 $25/month MEDIUM
200x100 $15/month SMALL

For those of you that have something crafty to advertise, why not Zoidberg?

Me & The Fennec Fox

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Several people have asked about the fennec fox's size. I tried to make him tiny, like a real-life fennec fox. His body is 5.25" long and 2" tall. What a heart melter!

The Fennec Fox is Done!

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

It's been so nice to have you all along on this finishing-adventure for the fennec fox. Honestly, without the public oversight, I think he still might be languishing in the dark WIP drawer. He wasn't an easy project, by any stretch of the imagination.

Gah! So adorable. :) All the work and stitching and fiddling was worth it in the end, though. The best part is that I made him as a gift for my husband, so he gets to stay here at home with me!

Fennec Fox Tail

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

I tried lots of under-bumps. Even stacks of terraced felt that looked like a topographic map. No matter what I tried, the tail just didn't look right. Finally, I decided to try just cutting the fur ribbon into the 2-D shape I was trying to make in 3-D.

Success! Oh look at that luxurious fur tail!

The only issue on the flat shape is that the fur has a direction. Along the back edge of the curve the fur flows away from the edge and the under-grid to which the fur is attached is exposed.

I carefully curled under that edge of the fun ribbon and sewed the curl in place.

Here's what the back of the tail looks like. with the one edge curled and sewn.

Here's the tail from the front.

Strangely, just that tiny bit of work makes the tail look 3-D. The fur seems to grow from behind the fur ribbon and come to the nice foxy point near his little paws.

The next post is going to be the big reveal ... woohoo!

Crafting In Public

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, December 14th from 5:15-8:00 at Samovar at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Everyone welcome! Bring a project and hang out with us.

I hope to see you there!

Fennec Face Detail (or cutting tiny felt shapes)

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT

For most felt stuffie pieces, you use pattern pieces and trace them onto the felt. But for small details, that won't work. Felt is bumpy and fuzzy and any outlines you trace are imprecise. That just won't do when you're making circular eyes or curvy nose detailing.

For small shapes, I will lay the felt next to the shape to see where I should cut.

After I cut the felt to the right height, I lay it next to the shape to see what the width should be.

If I need two, I cut them at the same time to be sure they are the same shape.

Then carefully, with small sharp scissors, I start cutting bits away from my rectangle. I use manicure scissors with curved blades - they are perfect for small felt shapes!

I keep cutting away bits. Just a little at a time. This takes patience and a steady hand. And, of course, if I totally jack it up, it's no big deal! It's a tiny bit of felt, I just start again. :)

Here are my final nose curve pieces. Ta da!

This can be used for any shape, just start with the bounding rectangle and snip away until your shape is revealed. For circles, start with a square and trim away little curves at the corners - it works like a charm!

**Edit** Anne posted this link in the comments, but I don't want you to miss this amazing tutorial How To Cut Out Felt - REVISED from Wee Folk Art which shows you how to use a paper pattern piece and packing tape to cut out tiny shapes.

Review: Loomi, a crafty little light

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Review note: I was provided 3 sets of paper pieces and two light kits for review.

Last week I got a super-terrific email from Josh, one of the Loomi folks, which was so personalized, specific, and *human* that I was instantly curious and had my metaphorical fingers crossed that I could help him out with the Kickstarter project he mentioned in his email. I was not disappointed!

These are the lamps that *I* made with the kits he sent to me. Are they amazing or what? I know it looks like I photoshoped these or something. At least it does to me. I think our brains don't do well when the surface of something is lit from within. We are so used to seeing surfaces lit from outside. Anyway ... I nerdily diverge ... I find the the lamps mesmerizing. Don't you?

I got my kits on Saturday. They include 3 extra paper pieces in each kit, so I knew I could destroy one experimenting. I want to give a shout out to my friend Sonya for the inserted piece of crochet. I was totally inspired by her knitting project ordinary objects. I also punched some holes with my eyelet setter and stuck on some stickers.

When back lit, you can also see the word bubble sticky note and, my favorite office supply right now, white-out tape. I totally love the way the white out tape looks, but holy crap, that would have been labor intensive to "white out tape stripe" 30 of those paper pieces.

I considered sewing on the paper, but it's pretty thick and I didn't want to snap a needle (it probably would have worked). Multi-colored zigzag stitches down the center of each piece would have looked really cool. And the pin-prick holes from the sewing machine needle would have been nice when the light was on.

After doing my tests, I decided that I was going to leave the outside of the pieces untouched and that I would add opaque items on the inside that you could only see when you turn the lamp on.

Imagine the possibilities ... cute shapes like leaves, flowers or hearts... geometrics like squares, circles or stripes. .... creepy shapes like human heads, skulls, spiders Oh, the Halloween possibilities! Plastic spiders would probably took so amazing since the shadow would be dark where the feet touched and suggestive of the body. Eek! I'm on a time crunch though, so I decided to go for simple.

Monday, after work, I stopped at a couple of stores looking for stickers and/or tape. I totally wanted to get the "lace tape" at Daiso, but I would have needed a bazillion rolls for the whole lamp. I opted for tiny silver circle stickers and large white stickers. You can see above that the silver stickers are almost opaque and the white ones are kinda-opaque.

Crap! I just realized I could have layered the stickers ... put the silver dots on the bigger white circles ... and that would have looked SO AWESOME. I could take it apart ... ;)

Since all the pieces are catawampus to each other, I decided to do the stickers on each one the same and let the positioning of each piece dictate the pattern that was created overall.

Also, I was really concerned about being "random" and about how many to put on each piece and whether they were spaced nicely and .... gah! I just wanted to have fun. I like a good factory job, like putting a tons of stickers on paper in the same places. I didn't stress about the configuration I picked, though. :)

I love those silver circles! The inside of the lamp looks so cool as I was putting the lamp together. The process of building the lamp is very similar to constructing modular origami, which I love.

Here's another in-progress shot.

I put together one lamp without embellishment and one with my circles. Here they are hanging together. I think Loomi is pretty even when it's not on.

Gah! The spirals at the connection points are beautiful. My spots are very nice overall, though you can't see 6 of the stickers on each piece because of the overlap. Oops. Still love it, though. :)

They have 11 more days to reach their goal of $9K to fund this project via their Loomi Kickstarter. If you pledge an amount that includes a lamp (starting at $30), they plan to ship all USA orders for delivery by Christmas. I think these would make wonderful gifts for crafty friends, kids, or even yourself.

And, for what it's worth, Josh is a nice, thoughtful guy who really brightened up my week and I'd love to see him and his project succeed.

Fennec Fox Whiskers (or uses for thick thread)

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Someone asked whether I was using reference photos. Yes! Of course. :) These are the two main photos that I would stare at while I would stitch away:

cute fennec fox face
standing fennec fox

The top photo clearly shows the adorable whiskers that fennec foxes have. So I had to add some to my little guy.

Gah! I threaded a super-long piece of thread on a needle, then came through the head and out at the nose from the angle I wanted the whisker to sprout. I pulled the thread until the end was hidden (no knots in these whiskers) and then snipped the thread to the length I wanted.

This thread is crazy-thick and actually difficult to use for other applications. It was an accidental purchase that's been sitting in my thread box. But when I realized I needed some whiskers, I instantly thought of it. Woohoo!

Fennec Fox - Almost Done

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:00:00 GMT

I tried very hard to finish the fennec fox over Thanksgiving, but the tail stumped me. The first one wasn't quite the right shape. The puff at the top right is the right shape, but I need to make an under-bump to give it the right 3-D shape.

I tried making two different under-bumps and they were all wrong. I'm letting it sit until this weekend and I'll try again. The tail and the whiskers are the last little bits!

Six-Year Blogaversary

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:00:00 GMT

It's hard to believe I've been blogging here for six whole years! I love this space and I love how it's transformed my life and my sense of self.

I've always been a crafter. I've always been the friend/sister/co-worker that makes things. I've always been curious about the way things are constructed. But after 6 years of blogging about it, I have a much deeper understanding about my drive to create ... to build. Instead of mumbling, " ... sometimes I crochet and sew, it's my hobby ... " , now I can say, with all seriousness and much joy, "I'm a maker."

Fennec Fox Feet

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Not much to say except ... awwwwwww ...

Crafting In Public

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, November 23rd from 5:15-8:00 at Samovar at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Everyone welcome! Bring a project and hang out with us.

I can't make it this week because of the holiday. Is anyone planning on going? Leave a comment so others will know. :)

Furry Fennec Fox (or cutting fabulous fur ribbon)

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:00:00 GMT

When I found this ribbon on the notions wall at the local fabric store, I about died. This was about a year ago when I last had a bee in my bonnet to finish up the fox. I had worried about the tail. I've used feather boas for tails in the past, but I thought that might be too fluffy for the fox. This ribbon is perfect.

It's soft and silky and pet-able. Yes, I pet it. All the time. :)

When I bought my length of ribbon, the fabric store worker had to cut it from the roll. I noticed that she carefully parted the fur before she cut into it. I thought that was really smart.

I use the pointed end of my manicure scissors to make a precise part along the gridded base of the ribbon. You could use any pointed, but non-cutting edge to help you make a clean part in the fur before you cut.

This technique gave me an idea. Why not cut little strips to be the fur that peeks out of the fennec fox's ears and for their cute furry eyebrows? Here are the pieces I cut.

Yes, that's my knee in my velour lounge pants. Yes, that's a sewing needle stuck in the fabric of my lounge pants on the left. Yes, I totally hurt myself all the time using my pants as a pin cushion. ;)

Here's an in-progress shot of the fox's face with the fur bits tucked into the unfinished ear flaps and atop the eyes. The fur adds a creepy level of realness. The other night I saw the fox out of the corner of my eye where it sits tucked on the shelf in between craft sessions. For a heartbeat, I thought it was a real animal. Would that be terrifying or what?!

futuregirl craft blog

My First Granny Square Afghan

New *Share This* Post Buttons

Purple Stripe Sweater - Update 2

Crafting In Public

Perrin's Starling - Part 2

SOPA/PIPA

Purple Stripe Sweater - Picking Stripes

Perrin's Starling - Part 1

Crafting In Public

*sniffle* My New Swift and *sniffle* Ball Winder

Crafting In Public

Grey Gloves - Crossing Stitches

The Ads On My Blog

Me & The Fennec Fox

The Fennec Fox is Done!

Fennec Fox Tail

Crafting In Public

Fennec Face Detail (or cutting tiny felt shapes)

Review: Loomi, a crafty little light

Fennec Fox Whiskers (or uses for thick thread)

Fennec Fox - Almost Done

Six-Year Blogaversary

Fennec Fox Feet

Crafting In Public

Furry Fennec Fox (or cutting fabulous fur ribbon)

New Share This Post Buttons

sniffle My New Swift and sniffle Ball Winder