Hungry Hungry Hippo

As promised here is my second softie for Mirabel, more or less finished. Her name is Henrietta Hippo and I found the pattern for her in Sew Hip issue 3.

She is actually quite large at 40cm long and 18cm tall.

I may still add on some eyelashes so the eyes don't look so weird.

The pattern wasn't too hard to follow though I did have some difficulty around the head where the pieces didn't all meet up quite right but the bow hides most of that. All in all softies aren't my favourite thing to sew and I hate stuffing them even more, so back to garments sewing for me.

Wishlist Wednesday

It's my birthday soon so I'm window shopping...

Labyrinth Ring - Sterling Silver by Incalesco

Retro Drive Bag by missymaomao

 Small Yoshi Cotton Print Purse by plus1design

Handpainted RMK Black Leather Heels by mitsuijing

I want a prom dress made out of:

Pink Skulls by Voodoo Rabbit (available on Spoonflower)

Spoonflower Marketplace is Open

You can now buy all of Ky's fabric designs directly from Spoonflower!
Buying direct means you save money and you can order from an 8 x 8 inch sample up to a full 25 yard bolt. You can also choose what fabric type you want to put our prints on (bamboo, upholstery weight, quilting cotton, etc).

These designs are available for purchase now and they take approximately 2 weeks to ship to Australia. To find Ky's fabrics search for 'voodoorabbit". Let us know what you think!

This little bunny went to market

Ky & I are doing our very first market stall on Sunday 08 November!

Funky Friends

Last Sunday I decided that the activity for the day would be softies, which is the next challenge theme at Bulimba Belles. So while Cloud tried to design a voodoo rabbit softie with interesting mixed results, I decided to just make up a pattern I've had sitting in my cupboard since the last Stitches and Craft Show.

Meet Gertie gecko, from Funky Friends Factory and her twin sister Gertrude. Gertie (left) will be joining the Softies for Mirabel appeal and Gertrude (right) will be going to Polymonkey who proves that you are never too old for soft toys.

The pattern was easy to follow and mostly easy to assemble though I will admit to some frustration when it came to attaching the legs. They are attached once they have been stuffed and there isn't a lot of space in that narrow body to fit one stuffed leg while you are trying to fit it all under the sewing machine presser foot let alone all 4. Luckily the polar fleece stretches to give you a bit more room. The finished product is super cute though and I love the googly eyes and big feet.

The original pattern is for a wheat heat pack but for the Mirabel appeal I have filled Gertie with hobbyfill to make her child friendly. Gertrude, who doesn't need to be child friendly, has plastic pellets in her feet to give her some weight and hobbyfill in her body. I was going to make her a heat pack but Polymonkey didn't like the idea of microwaving a Gecko, even a toy one.

I have one more Softie for Mirabel half made, this one is made from cotton fabric and turning out to be a bit larger than expected. I will post about it soon.

We've been featured in a Treasury!

Some more Etsy Treasury love for Voodoo Rabbit.

Thank you Vicki at Redeem Designs (a fellow DUST member) for featuring our buttons!

Etsy's Dark Side Street Team: October 16th - 18th Etsy Dark Team Weekend Deals!

We're having a Halloween sale with the Etsy Dark Side Team and will be offering 5% off everything in our shop. Click the link below to check out some of the great shops offering discounts this coming weekend.

Etsy's Dark Side Street Team: October 16th - 18th Etsy Dark Team Weekend Deals!

Adventures in Toy Land

Further adventures in toy making by Cloud today.

Ky & I want to make a 3D soft toy version of our Voodoo Rabbit logo. Usually I make the weird toys so I was 'volunteered' to come up with a prototype / pattern. Let me just start with the disclaimer that I'm not good at visualising a finished product from a pattern, let alone knowing about construction of shapes from fabric. I've only been sewing for about 18 months & I do it sporadically at best. I usually do patchwork and there's no shape construction there -  the designs are flat.

OK, here goes....

I started off by cannibalising a pattern from a bunny rug for the head, scanned it in & reduced the size. Then I needed to come up with the shape for the body & legs. I drew it all out on scrap fabric and got ready to sew together the first attempt.

The pattern works (in theory) by creating the bunny in quarters and then joining all the bits together.

I figured unpicking would be necessary at some stage of the process so put in bright red thread & set the stitch length really long so it wouldn't be to feral to do when the time came. Good thing I did because...

...I sewed the bum of my rabbit to the rest of its body when I joined it all up! After fixing that little hiccup (much giggling from Ky & me before I could do that though) I started to turn him out to see what he looked like.

Here's the head - so far so good....

And now the rest of him....

Yup - that's right - I only gave him one leg. Told you I was bad with picturing how something will look just from a pattern. Ky & I nearly wet ourselves we were laughing so hard.

Ky has named him Stumpy but I think I'll call him Pogo (just picture how he'd jump & you'll understand why). Any other suggestions for names?

I'm still working on him - there will be more posts about this project but hopefully not so disastrous!

SOS - Please help us find our lost package!!!!

Ok so this is a long shot...

We have lost a package of 3 Space Invader cushions somewhere in the East Brisbane, Fortititude Valley area. Ky had them in her backpack to deliver to a customer at her day job and when she got there, the package was missing. Please if you find them (they will have black tissue paper, Voodoo Rabbit sticker & an invoice inside) can you PLEASE let us know.

Email us at sales@voodoorabbit.com.au & we will pick them up from you - or post them to PO Box 7216, East Brisbane Q 4169.

You can also help by tweeting / emailing this link to anyone you know in the area that may be out & about today.

Poor Ky is really upset about it & she really doesn't want to have to cut out another 243 squares of fabric, plus backs, & then we will have to sew them all together. They take about 2.5 hours to make each one so we'd really really really like to find them!

Gosu Rori Jacket - Under Construction

Construction has begun on my Gosu Rori Jacket which I am mostly making under the supervision of my sewing teacher, Alison Wheeler. I have spent 4 x 3 hour sewing sessions on it so far as well as a few miscellaneous hours at home. I have a list of things that I need to do before my next sewing lesson when I should hopefully get the jacket finished.

The lining is half made - I need to attach the sleeves and then sew it into the jacket. For the lining I am using Purple Lotus Fancy Lining. The sleeves and hem have been marked ready to be sewn in place.

The collar is now complete and even though I forgot to put the interfacing in I think that the fabric is thick enough on its own to hold its shape.

The jacket has princess seams and I have top stitched on each side of all of the seams . It looks good and also keeps the seams flat and in place. Hopefully I should have photos of the completed jacket in a few weeks after my next lesson.

It's quite heavy and will be perfect for my winter trip to Japan in February. I don't think it will be going in the suitcase though.

What have the bunnies been up to?

This will be a very quick post today, as we've been uber busy lately :)

• Ky & Cloud have both been making space invader cushions for new etsy customers (the best kind of busy!)
• Ky has been cracking the whip at Polymonkey to photograph our new stock (thanks Polymonkey!)
  
• Cloud is participating in Blogtoberfest over on Zombie Hare so will be attempting to post every day
  
• Cloud has challenged Ky to blog at least once a week on Not Dark Enough as her Blogtoberfest participation
  
• Ky has been designing fabrics on Spoonflower (see the below)