Gerbera the Giraffe

Today I'm showing you another version of Gerbera Giraffe, one of the lovely patterns from Melly & Me.I really enjoyed putting this one together, even all the fiddly bits that make it so time consuming...this one is made in my favourite minty blues and greens, with touches of pink to make it feminine.It is quite exciting as the stuffing goes in, to see it coming to life, and taking on a personality of its own.

My version of this softie changes the pattern slightly. I reduced the size by about one third, but left the tail and ears and horns slightly larger, so the pieces were not so impossible to handle. If you are going to do this, remember that the seam allowance has also scaled down, so trace everything just a smidge larger so you can keep your 1/4 in seam allowance.Rather than attaching the ears, horn and tail afterwards, I sew them into the seams to hopefully make them a bit sturdier for a younger, chewing baby.

I just slash the top of the head, and sew the ears and horns using the tiniest of seams, but making sure to reinforce them well. It doesn't seem to change the shape of the head, and makes the assembly just that bit quicker...

Here's the tail sewn added into the back seam, without much change to the design at all. The stripy fabric and pink yarn add a really jaunty touch. I also sewed an extra stripe across the hooves, and love the little feature that it gives them.

The eyes are actually needle felted onto wool felt, and in the condundrum of how to do cute animal eyes, this was a new idea. I hadn't done any needle felting for about a year...I'd forgotten that it's so much fun :) and I think they turned pretty cute!And I'm really annoyed that I forgot to properly photograph the bottom of the hooves, as I fussy cut a tiny object for each of them, a butterfly, a bee, a cupcake, and a ladybird. They made it look sooo sweet, and I was thinking of how a child turns everything upside down and sees everything from different angles, they would be sure to notice them. You can see a glimpse of them in the unstuffed photo further up.

This giraffe is off to a sweet baby girl...I hope she enjoys it...