Aino the rag-cat

Meet Aino. She's one of the special rag pets going to the Plush You show in Seattle this fall.
Aino likes to ride on her bike and to play house. She's really good at baking, even if she does like to eat the cookie dough more than actually make anything!

(The bike Aino is posing on is my old Helkama "Aino", which is where she got her name from too.)

Click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Aino is made from lovely undyed & untreated linen and she's filled with rags and organic cotton batting -her tail is stuffed with just the cotton batting. She has tiny little button eyes and a very old plastic button for a belly button. The surface of the button has crackled a bit with age, and it matches the linen's texture nicely. Her nose is embroidered and she has healthy blushy cheeks.

Aino is wearing a chocolate brown linen pinny, a brightly patterned green dress made from an old cotton pillowcase with a white cotton Peter Pan collar and pretty brown felt mary-jane shoes with little decorative buttons on them. The pinny and dress both fasten with a snap on the back. The green flower button on the back of the pinafore is a vintage button I found in a sweet little vintage shop here in Helsinki.

If you happen to buy her at the show, make sure to let her bake (and eat) cookies and to ride a bike when ever the weather is nice. :)

Comments

[Holly]

A pinny?! You're killing me here!

Hurry hurry and open your shop so I can whisk a rag pet away to hug, and in the meantime pretty please indulge my addiction with more lovely photos! Aino is too cute!

(Is "Aine" a Finnish name at all?)

Also I think a rag pets calander (saw you mention it on DA) would be a wonderful idea, especially if you can set them up in their own little scenes. Woodland teaparties for everyone!

[Kitty Vane]

Pinnies really are brilliant! :D

Shop will be put up as soon as J. can find the time to make it. Right now he's elbow deep in a big work project and I don't want to make demands on his work time until the project is done.

"Aine" is a real name, but not a finnish one; I think it might be Gaelic. It is a finnish word though, meaning matter or subject. :)