One day...

I began blogging and made an owl.  More and more softies followed until...

there was a whole book full of patterns!

Shoes, shoes, shoes,

It has been a long time since I posted here, but wanted to share this...,

I had an idea in my head to make a softie that was shoe shaped.  I've been thinking a lot lately about inanimate objects in fabric rather than dolls, animals or creatures.  The shoe was not easy to come up with a pattern for, but this is the closest I've got to how I imagined it to look, there are some more images here.

Toadstool tutorial...

I have been fiddling around with some new pattern ideas,

and have wanted to make a toadstool for what seems like ages!,

full tutorial is available on my blog, Lucykate Crafts...

Puppy love...

Made for a valentine swap.

If you have an old towel...

...you can do this, obviously, wash it first though!

This one has been made using the basic body pattern from this soft toy kit, which I designed a couple of years ago for Anchor, I'm changing all the fabrics and have updated the face a little, now she just needs a dress.

Todays wip...

Almost there...,

Voila!

Slightly adjusted hedgehog pattern, works much better than the first. I am now sulking though, I've bent my favorite sewing needle, oops!

Birth announcement..

Floyd, has become a Dad!

CLAIRE!

Can I ask everyone to give a huge (virtual!) round of applause for Claire please, this blog is growing at such a fast pace, nearly 60 members, and over 100 posts already.

Amazing!

Hey, I have a question,

There has been a little bit of discussion so far covering making plush and where this kind of craft fits in within the artistic community as a whole.  Are there any rules or guidelines when it comes to issues like health and safety with regard to selling what could be described as a soft 'toy'?

Here in the UK, the manufacturing industry is governed by Trading Standards requiring a CE mark and/or the Kite Mark, which basically means the toy has been tested to European Standard BS EN 71.

But, how far into all this as a designer, maker, and seller of handmade plush would you need to go?  

Is it too early...

...for a baby hedgehog to be out of hibernation?

Floyd the farm dog...

... most definitely comes under the 'cute craft' banner!

I would place what I do as craft and not art, at the moment anyway.

My husband is an artist of a different kind, he is a portrait painter (there is a link to his work in my blog sidebar), and he usually just laughs at everything I make in an 'ah, bless, isn't that cute' kind of way!, so I have a fair bit of competition at home as to what is 'art' and what is 'craft'.

When good softies, go bad!

In the process of making this...

...this happened!. I suppose, when designing your own patterns, it should be chalked down to design development, as it's not always a case of right first time is it?.

I liked the idea of joining this blog as I love making soft toys, but didn't want my own blog to become too softie orientated, I think it works better being quite varied. It is great to now have here to totally indulge the world of plush!

And whilst it's lovely to see comments posted like 'wow, thats nice...', I'm also just as happy to receive constructive suggestions, you know, like 'try doing the legs this way', or 'I don't think those eyes work like that, have you though about doing them like this instead' etc...

You know what I mean?, I hope!

Hello from the UK!

Hi, this is my first post on here. I am Amy from Lucykate Crafts..., and after working as a designer in the needlecraft kit industry here in the UK for many years, I am now freelance and am able to indulge my passion for making softies.

Everything I make is using my own, original pattern...

and I like to experiment in using the same body shape templates, and see the different animals I can create by altering the applique decoration.

I am really looking forward to posting more of my designs on here, and seeing what everyone else is up to.