Addiction Complete

The girls started playing Pokémon Go with Steve. He took them for a walk one day and then showed them how to catch things on his phone. Suddenly it was a thing. They asked to go for Poké-walks. They started to know all the names of the Pokémon. They knew more than me. Granted, all I really knew about Pokémon was that they evolved and there was a small yellow one called Pikachu, but even so!

I was a little against it at first, but it has actually been really lovely to go out with the girls on the weekends and walk around together. They love it, and we get to spend lots of time together outside. When we found out Steve was going to be away for six weeks, I knew that the girls wouldn't survive that long without a Poké-walk of some kind, so I even got it on my phone so we could play. 

It's been fun and I have loved seeing the girls expand the Pokémon into their own imaginary play too. They don't have any Pokémon specific toys, so their own stuffed toys became their Pokémon. It's been lovely beyond words, they don't need a Pikachu toy to have a Pikachu. Jungle Bear became Pikachu. The blue cow was now Snorlax. Rachel's Lady Bug was now Ledybar The little blue bear was now Squirtle. A little hard to keep up with I'll admit, but beautiful none the less. 

Anyway, given that their love for Pokémon is only expanding, I decided it was time to make them a little something. Time for sewing! 

Originally I was going to make two Pikachu, because I didn't want fights over this most-prized-of-all Pokémon, but lately, Sophie has been really into the Vulpix (Jungle Bear has even been renamed!) so I went with that. The picture below was my reference point. Sophie was very insistent that her Vulpix have red tones, not just brown. 

Image from here.

Again, I used the Racoon Tutorial from Ikat Bag, who actually has a Menagerie pattern for this kind of thing (using a base pattern and manipulating it to make lots of different things), which I should totally buy, but just haven't yet for some reason. If you are interested in making soft toys though, it's a great place to start - some of the animals are amazing!

Rachel was pretty excited to be a part of the making process while Sophie was at kindy, but then they both got to help stuff them when Sophie got home. Sophie even held Vulpix's paw while I sewed up her back by hand and whispered things like: "It's ok Vulpix, it won't hurt for long" while I did it. 

I did want to make full size ones that are good and hugable for them (like Sophie's Tiger). Sophie especially likes to be able to give them hugs, but I rationalised that these would be coming with us on the long plane rides to the States in December, and a smaller size was much more travel appropriate. I did promise Sophie that I would make a larger one when we got back though. 

The girls are both over the moon excited about all of the Pokémon making potential and delighted at their first Pokémon. I think they want me to make them all. 

Pikachu looks a little out of proportion to me, I'm not sure why, and I know I should have put the ears on differently, but didn't realise that until it was finished. Oh well. I also regret assuming no one would see the stitching and using a dark coloured thread, because it's totally noticeable on the bright yellow Pikachu. So much regret! Rachel doesn't notice though.

I used safety eyes for the first time, and love how cool they look. Installation was not as scary as I thought. Looking forward to making bigger versions and more Pokémon in general. 

Hope you like them!