A different breed of dragon

After making the larger dragon, I was attempting to figure out a way to include more detail. One of my thoughts was to make the legs as separate parts, allowing the underbelly to be a different color.

I began with my miniature (4 inches tall) dragon pattern and made some changes. In addition, I liked the look of the gusset I used on the head of the large dragon and created that for this smaller size.

What you are seeing is the result of that experimental pattern. It's a lot more work than the original. Each leg has to be sewn separately and attached to the body. I chose to sew the legs first, then the belly gusset. Sewing the belly gusset became difficult working around the sewn on legs. If I continue this type of dragon, I'll experiment with sewing the legs on after the sewing the gusset.

However, I think this may have potential. It's currently residing with the large dragon on a shelf while I think about it.

Until next time...

Larger isn't better

The last couple of weeks I've been getting feedback from family members concerning my small felt stuffed animals. The feedback was that the 4 inch (100mm) critters were too small. So, I took the dragon pattern and enlarged it.

The first problem I ran across was that the wings with 2 layers of felt at the small size, did not translate well to the larger size. The wings weren't stiff enough to stand up. I cut out 3 layers of felt for each wing. The wing is better. It's certainly stiffer. However, the wings are too heavy for the rest of the dragon.

The picture to the left shows the comparison of the original size, in green, and the larger size, in white. I've got the white one sitting on a shelf while I process what I learned from the experiment. I know I'm not happy with it as is. The flaws, in addition to the wings, are that the head is tilted down too much, and I somehow managed to sew the ears misaligned. The ears are operator error. The head tilt, I'm not sure what happened. I also think the legs at the larger size can use more definition. What do you think?


Until next time...

Teeny tiny

Missed yesterday because I had family visiting. So, now, onto what's been happening this week. I've been trying to come up with a tiny doll the size of the bendy dolls to be in compliance with the toy law and utilizing only natural materials. My natural materials of choice being wool felt, and cotton embroidery floss. I've had a series of failures, but finally something resembling a success.

The doll is photographed against a 1 inch grid on a cutting board. Of course this is just a bare doll, not even a wig for hair. However, the experiment may stop here.

While visiting with family, I showed them this doll. There were exclamations of wonder at how tiny it was. But, also, everyone agreed, it was too small. And, they are correct. The doll is so small that a child would lose it easily. In addition, a medium to large pet might swallow it whole.

This caused me to pause for a bit. I've been thinking about what was said, and about potential customers commenting to a child who wanted one of my very small toys, that they would just lose the toy and it was a no. To that end, I am looking to make things a bit larger. I'd like the dolls to be a size that can ride on the animals I make. That means not only designing a new doll from scratch, but enlarging the critters. My concern is, as I enlarge the patterns, what is now cute at 4 inches will look primitive and lacking at a larger size. The only way to tell is to try it and see.

What is your opinion on the size of the toys I'm making?

Until next time...