A Pair of Strumpfs

Arthur Brough as Ernest Grainger, Are You Being Served?

 

Well, my week as reigning champion of the Epsteam Treasury Challenge has come to an end, and I've handed the baton over to this week's winner. I've clicked, "faved", and promoted over 70 treasuries (that's over 1000 items individually), and last night I made four "thank you" treasuries featuring most of the curators who supported my fifteen minutes of fame and made entries for this week's challenge. It's been interesting, exhausting, and--like so many things one yearns for and finally achieves--a bit of an anti-climax. I'm glad I've experienced it, but now I think I'll be happy to back off a bit. I've about exhausted my supply of superlatives and more than used my fair share of exclamation points...  One of these days I'll have fun writing something snide about the language of treasuries, but I'm on good behavior for the present.

In spite of all the treasuries made featuring my shop MelmacParadise, it was a slow sales week: I sold a pair of socks. (Or "strumpfs"--if you're a fan of Are You Being Served? you'll recognize Mr. Grainger's line from the episode "German Week".) Hopefully all the extra exposure will lead to increased sales down the road.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to having time again to load new items and to make stuff! I was too busy to do much of that with all the craziness last week.

This weekend, however, things began to wind down and I'm delighted to reveal my latest creations:

This is my first cat toy. She's constructed from a partially felted (shrunk!) angora sweater and stuffed with pure wool which I was delighted to find from a small Etsy shop, Suzanneartley for a very reasonable price. I'm so glad I went this route instead of polyfil--pure wool always has such a springy aliveness to it, whether it's yarn or stuffing. Much more satisfying to work with. Here's the lovely bag of wool I received, and my cat, before the final construction.

www.etsy.com/listing/121937293/8-oz-wool-all-natural-doll-stuffing

I'm rather pleased with the cat, though the next time I sew one, I plan to make some changes. I think the head is disproportionately large for the body. Also, the pattern is designed for the cat's head to be put on sideways, like she's sleeping, which I didn't do--I may have to play around to get the angle just right. And I want bigger, more pointed cat-like ears. This little cat looks rather more like a teddybear. She's cuddly and sweet, though, and I'll be putting her up for sale in Peppy's shop soon.

My latest poodle is bit of a departure from my others. I used different eyes this time, and I'm not entirely sure I prefer them. They make her look sleepy (or is that bombed?) I did enjoy making her glittery scarf, and the little Shrinky-Dink pendant she's wearing. Here's a close-up:

While out and about today doing a myriad of errands, I dashed into the local fabric store and was glad to find some terrific novelty animal print cloth on sale:

I can't wait to start making bags with this for MyPalPeppy. I like that it's both an animal theme and that it has autumn colors. I bought three yards, which ought to make a goodly number of gift bags for the items purchased from the shop. I also need to get cracking on sewing some Christmasy ones for MelmacParadise. Hopefully I can list some for sale, too.