the case for evolution (or why patterns are worth the money)

My first project when I returned to sewing nearly 2 years ago was a toy dinosaur for our girl - after drawing so many for her, it seemed a natural progression. Being the kind of person who prefers to do things herself rather than spend money, I decided I could make up the pattern on my own... and so began a long journey of learning (with moments of satisfaction, frustration and despair along the way).

Here is Dino (soon after being made)....Amazingly, Dino was made first go from the first pattern I made (with some help studying similar patterns for a felt horse online...), and I was incredibly proud of this fact, in spite of some major lump / pucker / dodgy stitching issues...

Most importantly, though, Dino was and is loved, and is still together 20 months later.
Here is Dino now (in all his stained, floppy and splay legged glory)...

Buoyed by my early "success", I decided that I could make more dinosaurs, but decided to take the pattern in a new direction, to make a more "recognisable" dinosaur (a stegosaurus of sorts), and to "fix" the early problems I'd found. I discovered this was easier said than done.

I discovered long skinny necks and tails are almost impossible to stuff well,
that big, close together spikes lead to floppiness and hard-to-stitch bodies ,


that giant ric-rac make a good and fast spike replacement (if only it came in more colours)

and that it takes me at least 4 goes, nearly 2 years, and many many hours to get a dinosaur I'm really happy with.
After all this, I take my hat off to the amazing people who produce patterns - not only have they gone through the process of working out how they can make something, they have worked out how to show other people how they can make it too.... definitely worth every cent.

Creative space time is calling - see you there!

PS: I still have a little giveaway open over here...