A busy weekend . . .

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a week since I posted! A lot has happened in that time . . . Mr. Mojo and I went down to CubeSpace on Saturday for the Stuffed Misfit Stitchathon and Suzi Mayer's cool hat class.

Here's Mr. Mojo hanging out with Eva, one of the founders of CubeSpace.

There were lots of shrunken sweaters and cool fibers . . .

And people cutting up socks . . .

And people making wonderfully crazy hats!

Here's Suzi and her hubby, George, modeling some of their creations! Suzi doesn't have a website, but I'll be sure to let you know when she runs this class again . . .


And here's Mr. Mojo . . . flirting with a lovely sock and glove creature birthed at the event! Looks like one of the participants crafted Mr. Mojo a soulmate . . . after all, she's got rainbow eyes and ribbon wings . . . . what's not to love?

Stay Tuned: The winner of the 100th Post Flag Giveaway was randomly selected this weekend . . . madness is sure to ensue.

DEMO! Stuffed Misfits

Note to Those Watching for a Drawing a Day: I got completely bamboozled by the work The Other Side of My Brain was doing, and lapsed for several days. I like to think that the multiple drawings for this demo cover those days, but then, I also find it hard to get through the day without a good juicy rationalization.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Mr. Mojo!

As you can see, he's a bit harried by all the attention - even though he knows the ladies can barely resist his undeniable charms and the paparazzi will chase him. After all, nowhere else in all of sentient fiberdom is there a creature with such green and bushy eyebrows, such a pettable soul patch, or such snugly stuffed pants . . .


Need to make a little Mojo of your own in time for Valentine's Day? I've provided you here with the basic instructions - a great place to start. Or a great place to leap off from into the wild and woolly world of intuitive sock monster creation!

I highly recommend John Murphy's book Stupid Sock Creatures. Mr. Mojo utilizes several techniques from Mr. Murphy in his construction, but is ultimately his own creature. And I encourage you to approach your critter creation with the same sense of adventure! Have nothing but gloves? Try glove monsters - check out these samples from Sister Diane! She's also got a podcast interview with John Murphy, a great thing to listen to while you Frankenstuff. Just have old sweaters and towels? Take a peak at the latest issue of Craft (Volume 06, the one with all the monsters on the cover!) More interested in making dogs, cats, pigs, and elephants? Check out Sock and Glove from Miyako Kanamori for some great ideas on construction . . .

Or, just dive in.

DEMO!

To start, you'll need:

• A sock
• A stretchy glove
• Some stuffing material (you can use polyfil or old fiber scraps)
• A long needle (I actually like the ones that are labeled for soft sculpture or book arts)
• Embroidery floss, dental floss, or other heavy-duty polyester thread
• Scissors
• Buttons (for eyes)
• Scraps of old t-shirts, sweaters, or other fiber bits for hair or eyebrows
• Extra sock and/or glove for clothing items
• Chopstick (or other skinny tool to aid in stuffing)
  

Beginning with basic anatomy . . .

Just to get you oriented, and so that the drawings I've done make sense!

First, make about a 4" long cut in the sock, splitting the toe and foot part of the sock into two pieces. Cut down to about the arch of the foot - stop before you reach the heel. If you lay the sock down with the heel up, the toe and foot part of the sock should now look like two ears. Imagine that the heel will become the mouth or snout of the creature.

Cut the thumb and the two middle fingers off the glove.

Turn the sock and the glove inside out. Stitch along the cut in the sock, making two long ears. Then, if you want the creature to have a neck, stitch darts along the sides of the ankle of the sock, below the "snout."

The glove is going to become the legs. Stitch up the hole left by the thumb, and stitch up the hole left by the two missing fingers.

You can use a machine (I prefer a zig-zag stitch) or a long sewing needle threaded with three strands of colorful embroidery floss.

With the sock still inside out, cut two tiny slits (barely big enough to poke a finger through) in the ankle of the sock right under the "neck." This is where the arms will be attached. The cuts do not have to be big, and I don't recommend actually removing any material. The fabric will stretch, so a tiny hole is all you'll need.

Then, take one of the two middle fingers that you cut off of the glove and position it inside the sock so that the hole in the finger lines up with one of the holes in the sock. Now, stitch the edge of the finger to the edge of the slightly stretched hole. Repeat with the other finger. You've got arms!

Now, turn your sock and glove right-side-out again. Using a chopstick or your fingers, stuff stuffing into the ears, head, and arms of the former sock and into the legs of the former glove. Now, you're going to join the two parts of the body. There are a number of ways to approach this.

After some experimenting, for Mr. Mojo I decided to cut two tiny slits just under the cuff of the glove/legs so that the holes lined up with the arms.
I then pulled the little glove body up onto the neck, and poked the arms through the holes in the glove body. This made it so that the cuff of the glove became a kind of turtleneck or collar around the neck of the creature. I then tacked the cuff of the glove to the neck of the creature. I also stitched around the armholes to secure the arms.
Finally, I added the touches that really give the creature personality: button eyes; a mouth formed from the heel of the sock; and bits of felted sweater to make hair, eyebrows, and soul patch. Once I had the soul patch on, he clearly became Mr. Mojo, even though he also had that completely unconfident google-eyed stare. To give him a little more panache, I took the cuff from another sock and created a little pair of pants for Mr. Mojo.

Have fun! And while I don't have any flickr groups up yet, I still love to see pictures of your creations!

Pattern-Making Process: Stuffed Misfit

I'm going to be hosting a Stuffed Misfit Stitchathon* at CubeSpace here in Portland on Saturday, February 9th from 1-4. Suzi Mayer will be there, too, guiding participants in the creation of hats from felted sweaters. It's a re-use-a-palooza for all the misfit garments, the shrunken sweaters, the mateless gloves, the single socks that you've doubtless removed from your closet in a resolute frenzy of New Year's clutter-clearing. For $5, we supply what you need to make a hat or your very own Stuffed Misfit. Bringing your own shrunken sweater or singleton socks is highly encouraged; I'll have needles, thread, buttons, stuffing, etc. for the Stuffed Misfits.

I'm excited to do this, especially since I didn't have the New Year's Day Stuffed Misfits party I had been loosely planning (see "ennui"). And, since I'm also way behind on doing a January craft project DEMO! (rationalizations: post-holiday ennui and nasty post-ennui energy-zapping head cold) and want to have some kind of original pattern or guide to provide at the Stuffed Misfit Stitchathon and promised to do a drawing a day during January and really just wanted to make a Stuffed Misfit tonight while watching episodes of "The Closer", I thought I'd do a multiple-goal, one project kind of a thing.**

Meet Mr. Misfit in Progress:

Now, I tend to work pretty intuitively. I put stuff together, poke holes, add things on . . . I rarely work from patterns - or if I do, I use them primarily as a starting point. I use books for inspiration and to learn new, very specific techniques.

Mr. Misfit in Progress (he doesn't have a name yet, just an initial sense of maleness) began as an old sock and a cheap-o stretchy glove. Cutting, stitching, and stuffing ensued. There is still stitching - and possibly cutting and stuffing - to be done.

But it doesn't always work in a classroom setting to say, "Ok, just kind of cut things off until it looks right and then stitch it up and stuff it and stitch some more." I try to provide some basic techniques, and then encourage people to run wild. My thinking here is that I'll create this little creature intuitively, but will draw the pattern as I go along so that people have a starting point and can see how I've blended the techniques that I've picked up from different places.

Here's the pattern drawing so far, which I think subconsciously borrows pretty heavily from John Murphy's pattern style, minus the legibility:

Uh-huh. So, it's the first draft. I think it could benefit from some words. It's tough for me to break down what I'm doing into freeze frames, especially when it's still under development. It's a good exercise, though, because it's really forcing me to think about the construction and alternative ways of putting it together . . .

With any luck, I'll get it finished and up on the blog tomorrow. That way, I can post it as a finished drawing, and as a DEMO! and use it in the workshop on February 9th! Multi-tasking - it's all part of my process.

Footnotes:

* "Stuffed Misfit Stitchathon" is not the name under which CubeSpace will be promoting this event, as I just came up with it a few minutes ago. However, it's catchier than my original title (" Make Your Own Stuffed Misfit: Soft Monsters from Stranded Socks and Odd Gloves with Bridget Benton") so I'm going with it.

** Figuring out how to do exactly what you want while still meeting your personal goals and satisfying the obligations, needs and requirements of those within your chosen environment is a very particular application of creative skill, one that is present in abundance in young children, college students, lawyers, and professional mediators. I consider it a critical life skill, though when coupled with self-delusion, lies, and/or statistics (as it too often is in the case of college students and lawyers) it can get pretty ugly.

Sock Monsters! (aka Stuffed Misfits from the Eyes Aflame Frankenstuffed Studio)

The Sweetie and I went to Powell's this weekend, and I spotted a book. Well, actually a book and a kit. Now, normally, I resist "kits." But the book in this one was really good . . . and the pictures were really adorable . . . and The Sweetie, who could see I was waffling on the edge, pushed me right over.

And so I bought "Stupid Sock Creatures: Making Lovable, Quirky Figures from Cast-Off Socks" by John Murphy. Correction: I bought the book with the kit. Here is his website. I think he may be a genius.

I have been wanting to make Glove Monsters or some other sort of stuffed misfits since I saw Toby. Then the Glove Monster instructions from Sister Diane at Craftypod (another genius) came out and then there was Glove Monster day over at Church of Craft (which birthed Gregory, Toby's friend). Sadly, I couldn't make that event - perhaps this is why The Sweetie encouraged me to take the plunge and get the kit.

So, I have happily madly spent the last several nights working on Stupid Sock Creatures (with some Glove Monster elements). Here are some candid shots of Jane and Clawdaddy - the first two Stuffed Misfits to emerge from the Eyes Aflame Frankenstuffed Studio.



Jane's head and rabbit-like ears are made from a sock, while her stout body is made from a stretchy glove . . . her little dress and sweatband are also stretchy glove parts. Jane is slightly, er, paranoid . . . a bit stressed and obsessive. Clawdaddy, on the other, er, hand, is a lot more laid back and fun loving. He's got a full-on sock body, with sock/glove hybrid claw arms and a sturdy sock-part tail. His tongue is the finger of a glove - and his little fingerless gloves are, well, the fingers of gloves. He is trying to reassure Jane that it will all be ok after a little snuggle by the fire. Jane's not buying it.