The only dog I can have in my apartment

I've been having trouble choosing my next project. I still need to post about my pregnant/bloated shirt (and no, I'm not pregnant, just bloated) but I need Rob to take photos for me, and I keep forgetting. I have all of this lovely fabric just aching to be used, but I want to make sure to match up the right patterns with them. So to ease my crafting jitters, I decided to make a stuffed animal from this super cute book.


Huggable Sewn Stuffed Animals, ISBN 4-14-187866-9

I've seen this book around the blogosphere, it was first printed in 2002 with a reprint last year. It's the perfect book to make stuffed animals for babies. There are 18 patterns, including a tapir (!), flogs (their misprint, not mine) and a flying squirrel. Here are some photos of the less exotic creatures.








Like the bag book, there are step by step instructions for one of the animals.

And since it was the dachshund, I had no choice but to make it (well, I did have a choice, but he's just so darn cute!)

Meet Dudley the Dachshund!


I just love him to pieces. I used a fabric that I bought in Japan, it was called, "Handy Household Fabric". I wish I could find more natural colored cotton fabric here, I think I just have to look harder.

With this project, I understood why the smaller sewn Japanese project patterns don't have seam allowances. You draw the pattern on the fabric, cut generously around, then sew on the drawn lines. Aftewards, you trim the seam. I still have problems dealing with clothing patterns that don't have seam allowances, but I'm learning.

On a slightly unrelated note, my friend Anna found the little animals that I made her baby-to-be cute, not scary. Phew!