GourmetAmigurumi

Drinking my favorite beer of the moment

Don’t you just love it when you think of something clever that makes your life easier?  The last time I made pants for one of my dolls I cut the pieces out and then struggled with embroidering the details.  Don’t know what made me think of it really, but this time I traced the pattern pieces on the fabric and embroidered the details and sewed on the knee patches before cutting the pieces out.

Here’s the fabric with the patterns and detail guides drawn on:

And here is a pic with the fabric in the embroidery hoop:

Everything went so much faster this way and the stitches are neater too.  The jeans are almost done now, and so in the lion who will be wearing them.  I should have pics in the next few days.

Well, they took the better part of 2 days, but the sneakers are done.

Top

Side

Back

Bottom

Although I generally avoid using glue, I found that I had to in this instance.  When I tried sewing the pieces to the foot they got all distorted.

Flexeril is kicking my ass.

The feet of my amigurumis have always been a problem.  First it was getting the shape right.  It has taken me quite a while to make the bottoms  relatively flat, to make them large without looking club-like and to give them some definition in the ankle area.  Now that have these issues fairly well solved (although not completely to my satisfaction)  I have to tackle the problem of adding details.  The proportions of the feet make it impossible to just copy details from shoes.  The distance from the toe to the ankle is too short for that.  But I have to find a way to add interest to balance out the details in the rest of the doll.  I want my new lion to wear sneakers.  So this morning I worked on a “sketch” cut from scraps of felt.  Here’s what I have so far:

The front

The side

And the back

I think I have a start of something that will work.  Keep in mind that I will not be using the green, I just picked one of my least favorite colors because I will just end up throwing these pieces away.  Also, the felt will look completely different when it is glued and sewn in place.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to a family reunion/holiday party with my dad’s side.  Well, the pics are finally up online, so here’s a glimpse of us all.

That’s me with all of my first cousins.  Yep, I said first cousins.  My dad is one of 12 children.  So including my four brothers and one sister, my my grandparents had almost 50 grandchildren.  We used name tags because there were about 200 hundred people including aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin’s spouses and second cousins.  I think the name tags were a good idea.  It gets tough, especially for the younger ones to remember who everybody is.

And here I am with my immediate family.  We are in order according to age.  From left to right there’s me (29), Claire (27), John (24), Mike (22), Gerry (20) and Pat (17).  I guess I am making a kind of funny face.  We all look so much alike.  The Doherty genes almost always dominate.  Only Claire and Gerry look a little bit like my mom’s side.

There was SO much beer and pizza.

(that’s my uncle Joe.  everyone loves Joe.  he’s a great guy, really sweet.  he was over at my house all summer painting and fixing stuff.  he is a bit OCD, so he does beautiful work)

We like our beer, as I guess you can tell from our bellies.  It was kind of funny.  Even with all of the little kids, there were about three coolers of soda and eight coolers of beer.  There were about 10 large tables for people to sit and hang out at.  There was a DJ who played all of the necessary cheesy party music.  And in the big room across the hall they had bags set up.  I guess some people call the game cornhole but here in Chicago it is always “bags”.  A few of my uncles have workshops, so we have a sorts of boards with different pictures on them, sports team logos especially.  But I think someone has a board with a simple version of our family crest.

It was great to see everybody and also to see how much the family has grown.  Bunches of my cousins are married with children of their own.  The party itself was sort of overwhelming.  I don’t do crowds very well, so I was a little put off by all of the noise.  And I am sort of shy, so it can be a bit hard for me to talk to people I don’t see very often.  But I took the time to talk to a few of my favorite cousins. 

Here’s Kevin.  He’s one of the favorite cousins.  He practically lives at my parents’ house when he isn’t away at college.  He is hilarious.  Extremely sarcastic in a dry way.  Just my type of humor.  Believe it or not, that skinny, dorky guy is a security guard at a night club.  I guess if you wear the jacket most people will listen to you…

And just to round things off, here is a pic of my husband Terry looking goofy with my dad and I.

And finally, here is my mom with my brother John who is smiling like an idiot.

Thanks to all of my readers,  I had the most views last week that I have ever had.  Fantastic XD

Thanks so much everyone for your thoughtfulness.  I took the muscles relaxers last night.  I got up at 7:30 which was before my alarm clock was set to go off.  I made a grocery list, went out for (decaf)coffee, did my shopping, and came home all before 9:30.  And then I got in bed again.  I was more tired then I thought I was.

Ali,the scans are a good suggestion.  But while I was getting diagnosed for epilepsy (which I have as well)  I had every possible scan and test my doctor could think of.  If there was anything to be found they would have found it.

Lupita, the rest is a good idea, too.  I try to remember to take it slow.  But it gets really frustrating when you have to lay down and ice your head a few times a day.  So mostly I just keep going.  I know I should take more breaks.  It is just that I feel like I could work in my studio for a lifetime and never get half of the things done that I would like to.

Sometimes I feel sort of bad when I talk about my headaches and people tell me they hope I feel better soon or ask me how I am doing.  It’s like, well, my head still hurts.  It has been hurting almost every day to some degree for a few years now and I worry that people will think I am giving them a sob story.  But then I say, well the problem with my headaches is that they are chronic,  they usually aren’t crippling to make me lie in beds for hours.  And I tell them that I am lucky to be able to work at home at my own pace.  I kind of hope this keeps people from being too sorry for me.

My headaches aren’t getting any better.  My doctor and I are still struggling to come up with a combination of drugs that works.  Tonight I am trying muscle relaxers for the first time.  I hope I’ll be able to get out of bed in the morning….

A few days ago I got a commission to make a new lion based on Brian, which I made a few years ago.

Here’s Brian.   

And here is the new guy.

Looking at them together is interesting.  Brian looks sweet and sort of sad while the new guy looks kind of blase.  A big development in my work this year has been a move towards more subtly in the toys’ emotions.  Not that I can control where the emotions go, they take on lives of their own.  (I know this makes me sounds like a total flake, but it is the truth).  I spent a lot of time over the last year working on embroidery and that has allowed me to stitch smaller, more subtle angles around their mouths’ and vary the widths of the lines.

I was using different materials a few years ago and this comparison really convinces me that switching to wool was a good choice.  It comes in lots more colors and I can dye m own if I can’t find the right one.  I think the matte surface is warmer, softer to the touch, which is more appropriate for a toy; whereas the shine of the acrylic looks cheap and uninviting next to it.  I’m using wool felt for the patches around the eyes and other details as well.  The perle cotton that I used in the first amigurumi looks clumsy and awkward in comparison.  I have been making a conscious effort to add more media to my amigurumis as well.  Brian is make solely of yarn with the exception of the button.  The new lion has sequins, beads, felt, needle felted eyebrows and eyes that are painted so as to be reflective.  And when he is done he will denim jeans with calico patches as well.

I haven’t made a boy amigurumi in awhile and it is fun figuring out ways to make the toy look a bit more masculine.  The new lion has thicker eyebrows, no blush or eyelashes.  I think I am going to give him a sweat band to go across his forehead as well.  That will be funny if it works out.