Katy Kitty for a Little Kiwi
It feels like it's been forever since I actually sat down and made something. Simple mending, sure (I became my son's hero when I patched his jeans a few weeks ago), but actual sewing had come to a veritable stand-still. I dismantled my beautiful cutting island before Christmas and gave the dresser half to my girls who are now sharing a room, and the desk half to my eldest who is an art-making machine and was sorely lacking a proper workspace. My worktop was pushed under the loveseat in my living room and there it sat for the better part of 3 months.
Yes, it was totally sad.
I'm sure I could have overcome this obstacle in and of itself, but the other more pressing issue was all of the storage I lost by removing the island. 11 DRAWERS LOST. And I was totally haphazard with the way I removed all of the stuff. My new sewing room (new to you because I've never really blogged about it, but kinda old to me at this point) has a closet which was swiftly jammed with all kinds of crafterphernalia in no sort of real order. Honestly, I just didn't even want to deal with it, and I kinda lost my sew-jo over it.
Thankfully, I was able to construct a new cutting table recently (more on that in another post), I got *some* of the stuff re-organized, and I started to feel the creative juices flowing again.
Allllllllll this to say, I'm back. I made something. And it feels good.
Kiwi's birthday is coming up soon-ish, so I decided to make her a stuffed friend to love. (I'm actually way on top of things this year, and I've got plenty of time to spare. Mr. Skooks chuckled a bit when I showed him my completed project. "Not going to wait until the night before?" Cheeky.)
In a completely unsurprising move, I selected an mmmcrafts pattern written by my pal, Larissa. Her patterns are top of the heap, excellent quality, easy to understand, and stinkin' adorable. I've completed 6 of her patterns now and I just cannot say enough good things about them. I had toyed with the idea of making another Molly Monkey this time around, but I always like to try something new, so I finally found my reason to purchase and make Katy Kitty.
I was so excited to begin that despite it being late at night with terrible lighting I snapped this little in progress shot to mark the occassion:
I actually took Kiwi with me to the fabric store. She charmed the pants off the old ladies discussing quilt sashing at the cutting counter when she slipped a spool of Gutterman thread over her finger and yelled, "OOOH!" while I wandered around looking for an appropriate body fabric. The pattern calls for corduroy, but I was wanting something much more soft. (There are probably some soft-ish corduroys available somewhere, but the shop I was in was not one of those places.) I landed on something in the suede section in a dusty turquoise. I think it was called "satin backed suedecloth" or something.
Anyway, it's nice and soft.
I had plenty of fabric sitting in my stash to finish this project off, but of course, I found a little something while I was wandering. :) Kate Spain's Daydreams Arcadia in Scarlet became the centerpiece for Katy's clothing. I picked up a little bit of the same line (Memory in Persimmon) for the sleeves. I had a small chunk of Nicey Jane laying around (Slim Dandy in Pink) which I ended up using for her fabulous stripey socks. An assortment of prints from Happy Zombie's Happy Mochi Yum Yum and Deb Strain's Fresh Flowers with a Michael Miller Ta Dot thrown in for good measure rounded out the collage and all appear in her patchwork skirt.
Larissa always includes such sweet details in her patterns. I adore the little wingtips:
I may or may not have let Kiwi peek at the doll earlier today. OOPS. She gave her a big hug after an appropriate shriek of delight, but I took the kitty back to hide away until her actual birthday.
At least I know that it was love at first sight. :)

3 Comments:
Um GORGEOUS. Can't pin it! Help! :-)
Wha?! I'll have to check out what's going on. It's been pinned here if you need a place to repin in the meantime! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/42080577742924088/
I LOVE IT!!!!
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