Resolution Update and COVID-19 Thoughts

Like many people out there, we have joined the ranks of people who are staying home in an attempt to aid the "stop the spread" of COVID-19. The whole thing is unprecedented, at least in my life time. Everything is cancelled. We wash our hands much more than usual. I'm never sure if I'll get everything we need for the weekly shop when I go. In fact, I think I have to go to the shops more now days, simply because panic buying means with things being sold out, you can't get everything the first time. Kind of ironic really. 

Among all the turmoil and crazy, there is life going on though. Steve works from home, the girls still play, our neighbors share what they have, though we now drop it off 1.5m from the door. I'm still trying to keep up with my New Years Resolutions, which is unsurprisingly easier when you don't have anywhere to go on the weekend. 

I've made it two 2 Kings in my bible reading, which, I'll be honest, was pretty tough going. As hard as reading Joshua and Judges is normally, reading them in easy language made it all the more real. People are broken, in so many ways. I know that I've often reflected that without the bad, you don't celebrate the good. Like when you are reading a Roald Dahl book (Matilda, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are good examples) and the main character experiences some truly horrible stuff at the beginning, but that's what makes you love and cheer for them all the more when they do get to succeed.

So we need to see the state of the world in the Old Testament, the state of the human heart, to fully appreciate our need for Jesus when he shows up in the New Testament. Even so, it was a hard slog this year. Maybe I'm just more emotional as I get older, but it was tough. I am enjoying the Message Version though, and it is refreshing to read, so that's good. 

At the start of March I was in 1 Samuel, and I read this reaction of Samuel's to some pretty bad news:

"Samuel was angry when he heard this.
He prayed his anger and disappointment all through the night."

1 Sam 15:11+12

I love the reminder that we can come to God and share what is on our hearts, including our anger and disappointment. I'd encourage you to read the whole passage (the whole bible really!), because context is everything, but no where does it say that God didn't hear that prayer. No where does God tell people he only wants the "good" stuff. Samuel's prayer of anger and disappointment was just as heard as the times that he praised God, or thanked him. 

This is how I feel about COVID-19. There is anger and disappointment. There is grief and loss. There is confusion and heart break. There is uncertainty. And we don't have to carry it alone. We can be like Samuel and pray through the night, knowing that God is listening. 

I commented to a girlfriend the other day that there are so many people to pray for right now. I am taking heart that God is bigger than this problem, and though I might forget people in my long list, he never will. 

In February, when I was struggling though Judges, I read this verse:

"God took Israel's troubles to heart."

Judges 10:16

Again, context people, don't just take my word for it (although, also don't start in Judges, or at least, that's not my recommendation). I've written it on our white board to remind us daily that God is no only listening, but is feeling our struggle, just as he did in the times of Judges. 

So I'll keep reading, and washing my hands, and praying my heart to God. He is listening, and taking my troubles to heart. 

Unprecedented Organisation

Believe it or not, I actually finished both of the girls Easter dresses for this year in January. Given that I started Sophie's last year, you could say it's actually the longest it's taken me to make them something, but I'm still celebrating this as a success. Yes, the Easter dresses are done.

Sophie's was in the cupboard from last year, you may remember I did post about it, but when we got it out and she wore it, I found it was a strange length. Almost too long to be a shirt, but not long enough to be a dress. Here she is pretending that her hand is being eaten by the bunny pocket:

The solution was to add a ruffle to the bottom edge to give it length. Luckily, I had the prefect white material to match in my stash, some lovely embroidered stuff. Who knows where it came from.

I'm a little concerned about it's longevity, give that it's white and the girls have no care for their clothes, but nothing else matched half so well, so we are going with it.

Spotlight had a pretty decent Boxing Day sale at the end of last year, and I picked up this grey bunny print fabric there that I thought Rachel would love. It's perfect for Easter - bonus. I was a bit worried about all the grey though, so I picked up a matching pink for $2 that I figured I could use as a ruffle somewhere. I told Rachel my plan and boy did she have input suggestions about that ruffle.

I was informed that her favorite dresses were ones with ruffles running down the sides of the bodice over the sleeves because the ruffles felt like wings. "I want to fly like a butterfly Mum!" Who can argue with such a sentiment from a little bug lover like Rachel?

I took the Izzy Top pattern out again and did some more hacking to add places for the ruffles. I just used two strips of the pink fabric, at least a metre long, ruffled up and put into place. After they were pinned in, I asked Rachel what she thought. My initial thoughts were that it was too big and needed tapering, but Rachel loved it. The rather enormous ruffles were exactly what she wanted and I was not allowed to change any of it.

Again, what can you do but just run with it?

Ruffles in, and bodice sewn, I finished the dress in a day. It's so much easier when you don't have to deal with zippers or buttons and you've made the pattern several times before. Easter dresses done. I nearly had to hide them until Easter, because both girls were so keen on wearing them, but after some careful explanations, and the promise that they could start wearing them just before Easter, they were satisfied. Whew.

Too bad we are now experiencing social isolation and the girls probably won't get to wear these dresses to any Easter celebrations anyway. Maybe I should have let them wear them back in January when I finished them after all. Luckily, even though COVID-19 is a reality in our lives right now, the girls don't particularly care too much about Easter events, and still just want to wear their dresses. Small wins.

Stay safe in these turbulent times people of the internet. And wash your hands.

Vulpix: An Exercise in Creative Thinking

This post could otherwise be entitled: All the Tails. Or, if I were feeling particularly aggravated: All the Freaking Tails. You'll see why soon. 

Just a quick recap: the first installment of this Soft Toy Adventure is found here. The second, in which I detail making Rachel's Cow, is found here. If you don't want to read them, know I had three days to make two soft toys before Christmas. This is the second of those soft toys. 

Vulpix is a Pokemon. One which I have tried to make in soft toy form before and though Sophie loved the Original Vulpix, she was less than satisfied with how I realized the tail. Here was my source image:

Image from here

This time round Sophie had a lot of input into tail design. One of the perks of knowing what you were getting for Christmas I guess. For reference, if you can't tell from the above picture, Vulpix actually has five tails. She evolves into a Pokemon called Nine Tails, and you can probably guess why. I am thankful Sophie has not asked for a Nine Tails toy, and if she ever does, my answer will be a resolute no. But I digress. 

To tackle the problem of the tails, I did some research, mostly on the Menagerie Pattern which came with a variety of tail suggestions (for all the different animals) that I figured I could adjust or manipulate for a Vulpix tail. (On a side note, there is definite potential for a Menagerie Pattern based solely on Pokemon. Just saying). 

My initial attempt was something that looked like this:

And I hoped when I added elastic to the sides, that it would curl appropriately. Which it did. So far so good.

But when we stuffed it, things started to go down hill. 

After consultation with Sophie and a few more tries we ended up with something that looked more like this:

And worked fairly well. I think the elastic version could have been improved, but I was short on time.  Three days to Christmas remember? I post these photos here just in case anyone else is mad enough to attempt making a Vulpix soft toy for their small child and needs tail guidance. After messing around with prototypes for a day, it was time to cut into the real material. Which I had just enough of.

And the tails looked pretty good when all sewn up. They are flat in the below picture, but fluffed up nicely when stuffed.

Tada! Sophie was pretty insistent that the tails be able to move independently of each other, and also be as big as they were supposed to be proportionally to Vulpix's body. I'll be honest, making the tails the right size seems like an ok idea, but in reality, it's not very practical.

Anyway, tails on and everything else sewn up. I had to adjust how to put the whole thing together, because the pattern has you tuck the tail (yes, the usual one tail) inside and sew the base to the body first, and then pull everything the right way out of a small 15cm gap in the back of the creature. But, there was no way all of those tails were fitting inside the Vulpix to start with. So I sewed the back up and half of the base and then hand stitched the rest.

Did that make any sense? I dunno! Hopefully you are not making a Vulpix toy and thus don't need it to make sense anyway. Here is Vulpix in a mostly finished and an un-stuffed state. I was contemplating where to stitch on her facial features (nose and mouth).

Looking good right!? I ended up not being able to find any black embroidery thread, and it was Christmas Eve at this point, so I just went with dark brown. It's faint, but it's totally there (photo at the bottom of this post has the best shot of it). Here is Sophie being excited about stuffing her own Christmas Present.

I still can't get over it. Maybe they were just so excited that it was nearly Christmas? (You can read about Rachel's Cow here, if you haven't already.)

During the stuffing process, we noticed that the tails were a total nightmare acting all independently, so I stitched them together with a quick bit of embroidery thread.

Much better. Later on I also ended up stitching the tails to the back of her body too, but that's another story. The fur/hair/fluffy bits (?) on Vulpix's head were done with the elastic curling tail method, though I realize now if I had made them longer they would have curled more. Oh well. Lesson learnt. She still came together ok. You'll notice that they curl in the same direction as the tails. Just something else Sophie was very specific on.

One last shot of the tails from behind, this is right before I finished the hand sewing to pull the whole thing together. Can you see how BIG those tails are?! Is my alternative title to this blog post beginning to make sense to you!?

Anyway, Sophie loves her new Vulpix and I am still surprised that I was able to make two soft toys of this complexity in three days. No, I will not go into business and try to sell these on Etsy. It's not worth it. 

But I will continue to make these for my daughters, because though I may be a little nuts, that is totally worth it.

Making the Cow

You can read my preamble to this post here, if you want a full back story. If not, know that I was three days out to Christmas and about to make both girls a soft toy. Rachel asked for a cow. Here we go!

Why Rachel wanted a cow, I still do not really know. Maybe because she already had dog soft toys. Or perhaps a cow appealed to her love of obscure animals like bugs. Whatever the reason, she asked for a cow, and a cow she got. 

The first thing I did when thinking about how to make her cow was to check Ikat Bag's Menagerie pattern, to see if it had included a cow. It did. I have used her base pattern for numerous other soft toys thus far (Tiger, Lady bug, Pikachu and Original Vulpix) so it was probably high time I put my money where my mouth was. I was still hesitating about it though, wondering if I could just figure it out on my own when Steve spoke sense: I had three days to make these toys, just buy the pattern!

So glad I did, because not only was it very helpful in Udder Placement, but I also have the resources to make so many other soft toys. Oh how hilarious is that udder.

Here is the half made cow watching me from the shelf above the sewing nook as I contemplate how to sew Vulpix together. The ears look good here, but after we stuffed him (her?), I realized they were on a little low. Should have been higher. Oh well. The other thing I did notice and actually adjusted was one of the safety eyes. My original installation was less than symmetrical, but luck was in my favor because the one I moved happened to be on that lovely brown patch of fur, so you can hardly see the hole.

Here is Rachel doing the hard work of stuffing her Christmas Present.

Seriously though, the girls were so over the moon about this I feel like each year I should have them help create their own presents just to increase the excitement. Rachel has named her cow Mu Mu (or is it Moo Moo?) and she loves to jump over the moon.

One soft toy down, one to go. Stay tuned for the post all about Vulpix 2.0 coming soon!

A Cow and a Vulpix

I'm super practical, such that when it comes to Christmas presents, I always want to get people things they are going to use. Our daughters are no exception to this, but when Sophie told me just before Christmas that all she'd really love would be a Pokémon toy that she could play with, it really made me feel something. Guilty isn't the right word, but I was a little sad that they didn't have lots of toys coming. 

Of course, even as bad as my heart felt, I was still in no rush to go out and buy toys for them. We have so many toys already! But I did have another option. I mentally ran through what I had in the material stash already and realized I could finally make good on the promise I had made Sophie, over two years ago. Not sure if you remember but to recap (in case you don't want to bother reading the full post) I made Sophie and Rachel small Pokémon for our Big Travels in 2017, with the promise of making a full-size hug-able-like-Tiger version. I still had all the material for that in the stash. 

Speaking of Tiger, when I spontaneously purchased the material that would be Tiger, I also picked up a white and brown of the same kind of fabric. When Sophie got Tiger, the intention was that I would use the other fabric to make something for Rachel too. Time to make good on that intention. No idea what it would become, but it was destined to be a toy for Rachel, and a toy for Rachel it would be. 

Given that it was three days until Christmas, I knew there was no conceivable way that I would be able to sew these toys in secret. So I threw caution to the wind and told the girls up front. I was going to make them a toy each. They would be Christmas presents. They were about to watch me sew them and they would get them on Christmas day. 

Even with the surprise blown, the girls were over the moon about their toys. Sophie was delighted to be getting a full-size Vulpix and had a lot of things to say about how the tail should be this time round. It was cool to have her input and work with her through the process. I showed Rachel the white and brown and gave her two options: It could be a dog, or it could be a cow. Rachel asked for the cow. 

So, three days till Christmas, two toys to make. Can I do it? 

Come back tomorrow to find out!