Rag Pets

Storybooks and fairytales

I have a few fairytale print fabrics, and since fairytales are, along with plushies, some of my most favourite things, I thought I'd make a collection of fairytale themed Rag Pets. I have quite a few Storybook Rag Pet designs drawn up already and I'm looking for many more fairytale fabrics too.

I started off with "Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Andersen, using fabric from the "Far Far Away" collection by Heather Ross.
So, this is Princess the rag-elephant.

You might think that an elephant is a bit of a daft choice to be a most sensitive princess, what with elephants having such thick hides and all, but in fact elephants have a rather keen sense of touch. That is, they communicate in part seismically, "listening" to sound vibrations in the ground with their feet! I must say that I also really enjoy the dichotomy of having an elephant play the part of a delicate little princess. :)

(You can see more photos of Princess in my Flickr, here: Photos!)

Princess has a pea-green button on her collar, which is made from Marimekko's "Muija" fabric, just like her bow. Princess herself is made from soft grey wool flannel and she has a very fancy mother-of-pearl belly button that's fit any princess. She has safety eyes and pretty blushy cheeks.

You can read and learn more about the "Princess and the Pea" story over at Sur la Lune, here: Princess and the Pea.

love, love, love

Here in Finland Valentine's Day is called "Ystävänpäivä", Friend's Day, and we not only celebrate love, but friendship too. I love and cherish dearly all of my friends very much. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be who I am today and that my life would be a whole lot poorer and duller without them.
With that in mind, J. added a list of the blogs I follow to the sidebar over there on the right for me. The people behind these blogs are amazingly talented, endlessly inspiring and very friendly one and all, and I'm glad I have the chance to know them and to enjoy their wonderful work, and to count them as my online friends.

I've spent this day simply at home with J., who I love beyond measure and BooBoo Kitty, who is the apple of my eye (and a pain in the neck too on occasion!). We've had a lovely relaxing day just spending time together, eating yummy food and playing a game or two on our new PS3. I plan on watching some mushy movies later on and I also plan on eating lots of chocolate as well!

I wish you all a lovely Valentine's Day! :)

The making of a super hero

Edgar is coming along, slowly but surely.
I'm having great fun working on him, although Edgar-work is occasionally punctuated by other projects and things that need doing, so he's not progressing super quickly. Still, I get to be the comics geek I am and I'm trying out some new things while I'm at it!

Edgar is the first Rag Pet to get safety eyes. I'd been looking for little safety eyes for ages and was lucky enough to finally find some, measuring a tiny 4,5 mm, through 6060 on Etsy (who I thoroughly recommend to everyone needing safety eyes of any size). I like the, umh... well, professional look safety eyes give and how easy, if a bit of a pain in the fingers, they are to pop in.
I also got some new polyfill at my local fabric store, expecting it to be that kind of crunchy, rough sort since it was really cheap, but it turned out to be lovely and soft with a great loft instead! Edgar now has some of this new polyfill padding his rag innards a bit.

Mr Edwards, aka. Super Elephant, like all great super heroes from Spiderman to Batman, is of course making his own costume. :)

Stay tuned for more Edgar Edwards, mild mannered office worker by day, Super Elephant by night — same Rag-time, same Rag-channel!