Stuffed alien guy
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I know, I know, you thought I only ever made quilts anymore!  Well that’s just not the case.  For her birthday, my friend, Helene, asked me to make my version of an UglyDoll.  This is he!  I actually drew out the pattern so I can recreate him if I decide to.  And I may…with some adjustments. 

He’s made from lime green terrycloth and some felt.  The terry cloth had a touch of stretch, so I pressed some woven interfacing onto the back before cutting it out.  That worked out nicely.  The eyes, horns, ”claws” and belly button (which you can’t see in this picture) are bits of felt.  He’s stuffed firmly but still soft.  The feet & belly button are needle-sculpted.

While i thought the head shape would be cool, I think it needs some adjustment.  More rounded would do it some good.  Also, the arms are stuff too firmly so they stick straight up all of the time, and I’d like him to have more than 2 claws.  I should have clipped the felt to make the claws AFTER sewing it into the end of the arms.  I’m not sure that would have worked either, but at least it would have given me more opportunity for adjustment later.

They’ve named him pearE because he looks like a pear.  H. has to fight with her kids to keep him as hers.  I guess that is something of a ringing endorsement!  She’s already got him guzzling booze and doing laundry for her like a real member of the family.

This was just a quickie project for myself that may end up turning into more. I bought one of those spiral bound calendar books this year in order to keep myself better organized. I immediately thought of covering it, but I didn’t have the time, the inclination or the material I wanted on hand. Luckily all of those things came to me about a week an a half ago.

The fabrics are 100% cotton, the prints are from Jay McCarroll’s line for Free Spirit: Woodland Wonderland, which I got from Fabricworm on Etsy. The cover was really simple, and I feel good about it because I designed it, start to finish, myself. Plus it only took me a couple of hours to put together, including designing and measuring, which really is half the battle. The only thing I’ll keep in mind for the future is to maybe add some of the stiff interfacing just to the front and back covers so that they will be even more protective of the flimsy little calendar. But either way, I <3 it.

You can see more pictures of it on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyson_olander/3339549097/