Elsie the elephant!

Today I received a book in the post from my mum and dad - Bobby Dazzler's Make Your Own Misfits by Fumie Kamijo and Rosie Short. It was a lovely surprise and when I opened it and flicked through the pages, I knew I was hooked! I had to make one right away but it was soooo difficult to choose which one! I decided on the one called Elsie the elephant. I then set about finding old clothes to set about with a pair of scissors! One grey sweatshirt and one patterned t-shirt material top later - chop, chop! It says to enlarge the pattern by 200%, which under normal circumstances would be easy....only trouble is my scanner is not set up with my laptop, so the only way to enlarge the pattern was the old fashioned way...pencil, ruler and a few pages of graph paper! Yes really! Lots of measurements later and much scratching of head, hey presto, re-sized templates at the ready!
There's something quite cathartic about chopping up a few tops that you never looked good in - revenge is sweet and all that! It seems Elsie took on her own unique style as I assembled her. Not only are the colours I made her in, different from her sister in the book but I also changed her ears and her mouth! I used the patterned material for the inside of her ears and then I gave her a bit of a cheeky smile! I also used ladder stitch to close all the gaps used for turning and not, overhand stitch as it says in the book, purely because I think it makes for a much neater finish.  

I absolutely love her and soon she will have some friends!