The wolf isn’t a wolf anymore

 

Hey hey hey … i finished it ! :D

I decided the face looks best without ears, and so it is now : Drucilla !

If you missed the post about her, you find it HERE

I was so concentrating when i assembled her, i totally forgot to take pictures of the torture.
First the arms were to high – again ….. and i moved them about 1 cm lower.

Fitting the legs at about the same side on both sides …. with this fluff of hair ….
it was nearly impossible.

So i took an about spot on both sides, took the middle of them, and placed the legs, still open. Stuffed the body and had a good look … and it wasn’t to bad, just about 5mm higher i had to go. So i removed them, set the new spot, cut the hair, sewed the legs closed and mounted them :D

Stuffing with sheep wool in body and limbs was a first for me and i am not so sure if i like it.

In the end, i must say, such fluffy long hair are not easy to work with, I DO like the look of long fluffy fur.
I do like felted faces, i think even more then scissor sculpted ones.
I do like the creatures to be fantasy like.

All in all i am quite happy with the outcome of Drucilla and after a short break with thinking about what i want to do next, i will produce something new soon …. so stay tuned :)

Teddy - Drucilla

Hello there,  I am the beautiful Drucilla.

The wolf is sewn

 

The sewing is done
What a pile of fluff :D

And this should look like the finished wolf

I didn’t sew the ears yet, because I cut round ones, and I think, this fellow (or is it a girl ?) needs pointed ears.
Tomorrow i will do the wiring of arms and legs and the stuffing and then I need to try to find the right position for them on the body. It is the first time for me, NOT knowing ahead where i will place the arms or legs….
already wondering if it makes the placement better … usually my bears look a bit like they are shrugging.
Really hope it works out and is not toooooo difficult :D

A leg with wire and pellets, ready to felt on it

 

Yesterday i started with the sewing of the leg.
I told you i had an idea about making it possible to felt on the sole without breaking my needles on the wiring or pellets inside it.

I sewed the front and a tiny bit of the back seam, and put the pad in it.

I make the marks you can see here to make it easier to fit the paw inside, a mark all 10mm on the top part and the paw pad, and I just need to line them up and sew without further thinking.

Here you can see the sewing from the outside, before and after the brushing, no hair in the sewing line which i would need to painfully pull out.

The sole is not in perfect form when it is empty, i hate this look :D
And the whole thing looks like a moonboot, at least that was the name of them in Austria and Germany. what was the name of them in your country ?

Then i took a padding i had from a age-old project and cut the “shoe parts” out of them.

Sewn them together

And then i felted a bit wool into the size of the paw. Made 2 layers to keep it thick.

Then the whole thing came into the “shoe” and was sewn into it.

I still was able to fit a finger into it …. thought that’s ok, and made a little bag of a slippery material for the glass pellets.

The filled bag was soooo hard to put into the shoe, i had to put it on a string and pull it inside

After the first test i had to take it out again, to put in the wire.
The wire also got a shape like the paw-pattern inside of the shoe – forgot to make a picture.

And then the hardest part – fitting it inside the sewn leg …. The back side seam was just little, but it still was to much to let me fit the filled shoe inside, so i had to take it apart again.

But it went in finally, and i sewed the back seam from the outside close again.
Not all the way, because i still need to put stuffing around the wire and a disk into the top.
But the leg stands nice so far.

Preparing the body pieces and starting to sew

 

On Sunday i was starting to prepare the pieces, such a boring task, it makes my eyes burn.
I need to use the running stitch in a different colour all along the sewing line, then i have to find the – in this case – red stitches on the fury side, part the fur, and cut the seam allowance off.

And because the hair are not silky and smooth to the end, it really is a battle to part them where i want them to be parted. It for sure is no fun to do.

Yesterday I finished the preparing and started to sew a few parts.

I sewed the paw-pads to the arms

The darts on the body pieces – this time i tried to make the darts like Joanne Livingston tells on her blog here – wonder how it will work out on the finished bear :)

And i started with 1 leg. I need to sew a bit further up at the front side, I guess i will go right above the dot.

The back stays open so much, i need to try out something, so i can wire the foot, put pellets inside to make the whole animal able to stand, AND be able to felt on the sole without killing 100 needles in the process.

The idea i had kept me from sleeping for ages, so i got up Sunday night again and was sitting around till 4 am …. i really hate when this happens.