One Pattern: So MANY Monsters!

Leslie and I are wrapping up our
Hungry Monster Nom Nom Swap over at craftster.org (see blog post of August 21 for free online pattern location).  The pattern is a simple one--a good one for even the beginningest of sewers.

As craftsters receive their swaps, they take photos and put them in a gallery devoted to that swap. The gallery for the Hungry Monster Nom Nom swap has been one of the most amazing I've ever seen. How people crafted around that pattern to create monsters so special for their partner is stunning.  You can feast your eyes on that gallery HERE

I made the yellow monster sitting on top of my sewing machine for Smmarrt who, like me, is a fan of the monster maker known as Junker Jane. This monster turned out to be one of my most favorite things I ever made. Her mouth pouch--which is designed to hold things like CANDY--was stitched up so close, that I could only fit a small roll of Smarties in the far right side. Her stringy hair is embroidery floss, the blush is real.

From the same pattern, but for a different partner I made a cat along with a mouse bookmark.

I had planned to put some fruity candy in the mouth pouch (one of the sweets that this partner--edenkitty--likes, but the monster had plans of her own...

The thing was, this cat looked suspicious as soon as those eyes were sewn on! I really should have known.


Susan
the sloppy sewer

The Magic of Inside Out

Inside out: Fabric is right sides together

The fabric is pulled through a 

small 

opening which is then sewn closed.

When evening winter weather reports say there's a chance of a snowstorm, New Jersey kids do something we didn't do in New York.

They go to sleep with their pajamas inside out.

In the chill of the night--which is difficult to remember at the moment--phone calls begin or end with reminders of what to do and kid after kid in house after house turn their PJs inside out before giving kisses goodnight. 

It's  meant to bring on the storm. Showing your seams to the sky somehow tilts the odds in favor of so much snow falling they have to cancel school.  Nobody knows how it works but, when it does, it's the magic of inside out.

Sewers have the magic of inside out, too. It starts with fabric RST--Right Sides Together--like this work in progress above. Then stitch, stitch, stitch almost all the way around, leaving just enough of an opening to reach in and pull all that fabric out.

It's a funny thing every time, to go from working on the wrong side of a project, to pulling it through, (which itself seems sometimes miraculous and, to me, reminiscent of childbirth) and then seeing that fabric, with its colors and markings, in the shape you stitched it into.I kept it unfinished for a couple of days before putting on the finishing touches--um, like a face. I really like the stage where something has formed but it still has the possibilities of looking like absolutely anything!

And this is what she ended up looking like!

Goodnight,
Susan

The Sloppy Sewer