Amigurumi Friday!-using felt

Remember this sweet face from earlier in the week? 

Well today we're going to talk about how to do it!

First off, thank you Harugurumi for the excellent pattern of the sleepy sheep, available free on her lovely blog! This is my version using felt for the face and embroidery. (Her sheep have a crocheted face and yarn features) 

Supplies you will need (for face only): Felt, scizzors, chalk or marker, embroidery thread, tapestry needle, and a little imagination!

I crocheted the head of the lamb, then traced onto the felt using white chalk the shape of the face I wanted...somewhat of an oval. You can get super particular here about having a true oval shape, but I prefer the home-made with imperfections look. I think it gives the animal character! 

Then you cut it out!
Next, trace onto the back of the oval the shape of the eyelids so you don't embroider blindly- and choose the color you want to embroider the eyes with. Begin!

I went one way with simple straight stitches and then back on the curve filling in the gaps left. 

Next add the eyelashes by beginning in the back of the felt, poking the needle through at the eyelid, and stitch out and down, always beginning at the back of the felt at the eyelid.

You getting the picture? good! Now do the other one :)

(Here's a view from the back, so you can see the mess is always on the wrong side of embroidery. That's why you do the face before attatching it to the head!) 

Right, now for the nose and mouth. Start at one central point and fan out your stitches to the left and right for the nose. I chose a peachy-pink :)

Ok, once your done with that, put your needle from the back, right into the bottom of the nose and do just 1 vertical stitch down for the mouth. 

(Make sure you tie everything off in the back! )

Now, to sew it onto the face, you can continue using a straight stitch as I did with the brown face, or you can choose to do a blanket stitch. That looks like this:

Here's how:

Enter your needle from back, and make sure before you put your needle back into the fabric that your needle passes above the thread left from your last stitch before you pull tight! 

I hope those images are actually helpful!

I find it's beneficial to safety pin on the face as your sewing so the features don't move around on you

But that's about all I have for you this week. I'd love for all of you to try your own lamby face, and share how it turned out! 

Amigurumi Friday! -features

My newest amigurumi, just finished yesterday was full of features and techniques I had yet to tackle. So today I would like to discuss how give our amigurumi features :)

Here she is! my lovely fuchsia lady bug.

Safety eyes with simple crocheted chains attached above the eyes in order to give her eyelids; yarn straight stitched for mouth; yarn knotted at both ends to secure antennae.

Embroidery thread straight stitched down the middle for wings; felt sown on with embroidery thread, and a simple chain-stitched heart- also with embroidery thread. (sewing done with tapestry needle instead of my usual plastic yarn needle)

Here is a clearer image of the chain stitched heart. I wanted her to look like she had a sweet tattoo :)

As you can see, I have incorporated a little embroidery, a little felt, some yarn, and also safety eyes. 

Throughout my process of learning and improving on my craft of making amigurumi, I have sought to make the features more interesting, more kid friendly, and more cute! The techniques of using embroidery floss, tapestry needles, safety eyes, and felt were all new to me this time around. Up until now I've only ever tried using yarn or simple sewing thread to embroider/stitch on facial features and other details. 

So now that I've tried all these techniques, what do I recommend? Anything and everything! It's all great. As long as you feel comfortable and happy using them!

A word on safety eyes:

Though they are pretty darn secure, safety eyes used in amigurumi can still pose a choking hazard to kids under the age of 3. 

If you would like to try them, check out your local craft store! I found mine next to the googly eyes :)

You can purchase them in different sizes. Mine are 9mm. 
They come with a front part (the black screw like thingy) that goes through your crocheted object from the front to the back, and a back (the circular, clear plastic thingy) that secures itself onto the post of the front part from the back of the crocheted object. It is important that if you want to use these that you plan ahead! You cannot attach safety eyes once the object is stuffed and closed up. You must do it before!

Well folks, before I leave you, I thought I'd look over some of the lovely faces I have made with these simple techniques throughout this blog:

Happy crocheting!

Favorite websites to visit

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on the internet researching and utilizing the many wonderful website that exist for crocheters. My obsession began around the time when I wanted to learn how to do stitches other than single crochet and chains, how to read crochet pattern abbreviations and how to find free crochet patterns. I went online and was absolutely shocked to discover an entire culture, a wealth of knowledge and lovely people that were just as (if not more) excited about crocheting as I was!

So, over the past couple years I have compiled this list of wonderful websites, blogs, and other resources on the web I visit almost daily for inspiration, learning, and just plain fun!

1. Lion Brand - it's simply an amazing resource with over 3000 free patterns to use (all you need to do is go through their free register process, and you can download all you want)! Not only that, but there are tips, explanations of stitches, a customer gallery where you can share what you've made and oggle at other's creations, and you can request their free catalog. Basically, I love this site. Almost any amigurumi I've ever made has been from a free pattern, from this site. Thank you people of Lion Brand, you are awesome!

2. Ravelry - equally amazing site. I doubt there is any other resource out there that could immediately connect such a large community of knitters and crocheters. Another quick and simple free registration, and you are ready to view all sorts of projects, ideas, yarns, patterns (many of them free and available for download!), links to excellent blogs, and it's all connected in this wonderful way! Any pattern that is in the ravelry data base that is added to someone's notebook as a "Project" is immediately added in a collection of other projects that were made from the same pattern. Why is this awesome you might be asking? Well, because if someone in Denmark has an amazing idea to modify the pattern, colors, yarns, etc. they will often display it, maybe tell you how they did it, and you can absorb so much creative juices that you just might explode! Can you tell I love this site?

3. Etsy - This site is all about buying, selling, and loving handmade goods. I love it not just because you can sell your crafts and find some really neat things here, but because, once again, it is a community of people that love what I love! One of my favorite things to do is to type in something that I'd like to make -say a giraffe amigurumi, and see what the sellers have listed. They are all artists with wonderful talent, so I love to just take a look around and be inspired by their creations. If you have never looked at, purchased from, or even talked with anyone who knows about Etsy, I urge you to do it! You will love it!

4. Crochet Pattern Central - They have an entire library of free patterns, all organized by category. They take any and all free patterns posted on the internet, and organize them into one central location. You can go there and then be redirected to other sites and blogs where the patterns were originally posted. This one is always a little more of a search for me to find good patterns from because 1. they don't have pictures of the posted patterns on the page where all the pattern names are listed, instead you have to go to the link, and then sometimes have to search for a link to a picture posted on yet another page.  2. They don't have "designers" for this site, they simply take what is available and post it. This means, sometimes you get really amateur pattern writers who simply wrote up a little diddy on their blog. They might be difficult to understand, they might not have a picture of the finished project, and sometimes the finished object just looks...weird. Though I love this site, you have to really want a certain type of pattern for free to really utilize it.

5. Crochet Me - their slogan, "Linking the crochet community" is quite accurate if you choose to really utilize this site. They have free patterns, links to great blog posts from their writers at Interweave crochet magazine, videos, photo galleries, forums to dicuss all things crochet, and even a glossary. They are a great group of people, and it is a wonderful place to get ideas, tips and more than enough information! All you have to do is become a member through their free membership sign-up.

6. Free Crochet.com tons of patterns, articles, tips, and more! The only downside to this free membership, is you are bombarded with lots of offers to purchase things and sign up for all these "deals" they offer. Otherwise, it is wonderfully useful!

7. Crochet Spot - an excellent blog by Rachel, a passionate crocheter. She also has a store with all her original patterns. I am signed up for her weekly newsletter, and I just love reading her ideas, tips, and general musings about crochet! If you ever download one of her patterns- know that she is the kind of person that just cares so much, I know she would offer her personal assistance if you ran into problems...not that you would! I have an earlier post where I linked to a free pattern for a rose from her site. She is awesome :)

There are many more lovely places to visit, but these are my top. I hope you enjoy, visit these sites, learn and most importantly, be inspired!

Amigurumi Friday! -sewing

I can't believe it's that time again! Yep folks, time for the second installment of "Amigurumi Friday"- the series that's all about our favorite crocheted toys!
For this installment, I wanted to talk about everyone's least favorite part of making amigurumi. The sewing together of all those little pieces. I want to offer a few tips that make it a little less arduous and a little more successful using a project I just finished: Lion Brand's Pond Friends Stacking Toy.

As you can see, this little toy, has a LOT of separate parts and pieces, even facial features and antennae to sew on! So, lets get started!

(I'll be using the bee ring as my example)

Here are the tools you will need:

That's right! Safety pins and a yarn needle (which you can find at a craft store in the same section as knitting needles and crochet hooks, normally right next to the stitch markers!) I recommend a round yarn needle because they seem to go in smoother than the square ones. If you have a knifty knitter, you'll have a square needle, and those just don't seem to work as well for such tight crocheting. 

Tip #1: Once you finish an individual part (say a wing for the bee), finish off the end by pulling the yarn completely through your last stitch, and leave a good amount (10-12inches) of yarn on the end to sew with. This way you don't have to attach any extra yarn (extra work!) and you already have the right color yarn to sew with ready to go! You will be left with only one end of your yarn to hide after sewing as well. 

As you can see here, I finished the white wing, then left a long tail to sew with.

Tip #2: Saftey pins are your friends! How many times have you crocheted up everything perfectly, but after sewing it all together the amigurumi just looks wonky? I know I've had that experience, so now I always safety pin on all my pieces and parts before sewing them on. This has several advantages, the first being that you get some idea of what it is going to look like after you sew it on. If you start sewing without holding things in place, the pieces can slip and adjust their position-ending up in a completely incorrect or weird place. That leads me to the second advantage- You don't have to struggle to readjust and hold the dang piece on while you're sewing! It's marvelous! Lastly, if you have a lot of pieces that need to be balanced out with each other -lets say an arm looking even with another arm and not to far from the neck, or in the case of the bumble bee- wings that are even and a head that is directly across from a stinger- then you can check the balance and get everything proportionate before it's too permanently affixed. 

Tip #3: Use the stitches you have to sew evenly. If you try to match up stitch for stitch in what you are sewing on (assuming that you've kept an even gauge in both pieces) you will have no problem in spacing out your stitches evenly and making sure that your piece is sewn on in a sturdy and even-looking manner. I normally go into the piece I'm attaching the new piece onto before picking up a stitch on the piece I'm attaching. (Sorry if that doesn't make sense) For example- here I went down into the bee ring with the white wing yarn, then up the wing. 

Tip #4: Hide your ends within the amigurumi! Once you've finished sewing, take the extra end, and pull it through the amigurumi to another side. Then just stuff in the extra yarn. No need to tie knots. Your piece is secured by the stuffing. 

Wa-la! You are done! There are no visible knots because one end came from the piece you just sewed on, and the other was hidden within the amigurumi!

Here are some more pictures of the process with the head of the bee: 

My last Tip #5: is that sometimes is best to stuff as you sew. In this case of the head, it was hard for the head to stay on, even while pinned with the stuffing in it. So I approached it as I would a pillow. I went around 3/4 of the way, then stuffed the head in the finger sized hole left to sew. 

I know that it can still be a rather tedious process, but hopefully with these tips your toys will come out marvelously! 

Happy crocheting!