Just like I promised, I'm here with my donation to our auction during Nancy's Notions Sewing Weekend. I had fun making her, and she turned out pretty cute! (and to my little 2 yr old cousin Hazel - don't worry, I didn't name her after you - you are WAY cuter!!! I just needed an "H" name to go with Hippo)
Originally, Hazel was supposed to be Elphaba of Wicked (or for those who haven't read the book - the Wicked Witch of the West), that's why she's green. But as I started to sew her up, put on her eyes, her pink ears and paws, well she was just so darn cute! Instead here is a cute little girl hippo named Hazel. I think she made herself. haha It was fun though to make the outfit, and of course the shoes. I love that they are big cylinders just like Cabbage Patch Kids shoes. Remember how awesome those were??
I used a vintage soft silk for her dress which happened to have that great pinkish-red selvedge, so I left that as the hem, added the sweet ribbon - which I also used for the straps of the dress, and a bow on her ear, and put a button in the back of the dress. So the dress can be taken off, as can the shoes, in case this ends up with a little girl who wants to change her hippo.
And, I decided Hazel needed a toy - something like a pull toy, then I remembered this pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. So that's what I used to create her piggy. The pattern actually has the pig on a box with buttons for wheels, but I thought empty spools would be better. Of course that meant I had to pull all the thread off of one spool because I had only one empty wooden spool! heehee...oh well, the piggy needed wheels!
When Joe got home from work on Sunday night, as I was working on her, I told him how I thought she was turning out so cute, and he said, "I was wondering how much I was going to have to go bid on her so you could have her!" hahaha, what a sweetie. There will be a live auction during one of the evenings of Sewing Weekend, and I just don't think I'll want to go to that after working a 10 hour day at the event... But, she may be part of the silent auction going on throughout the weekend, so, if she needs somebody to bid on her, well, I will happily oblige. Of course, if she goes to somebody else, I'm fine with that too.
It is SO much fun to see everyone's interpretation of the hippo pattern. We've had probably over 30 of them made by employees - and they are wonderful! Customers are sending their hippos in too and we've had some fantastic ones from them as well (I haven't gotten a chance to see them all) but it's such a fun event, and all the money is going to a local women's shelter, so it's a great cause. Two years ago, we did a similar auction with stuffed cows made by employees and the speakers at Sewing Weekend, or the "Sewing Celebrities" and one of the cows went for $400!!! Amazing!
During sewing weekend I will be in the Clover booth demonstrating these, these, and these. I'm pretty excited to do this, because I really do love these products. But first, I want to make myself some accessories and fun things to show off what to do with them. I'm curious, what would you make with the yo-yos, or the bow maker, or the rose makers? I'm thinking possibly some hair accessories, necklaces maybe, earrings... what do you think? I'd love to hear your ideas!
I'm off for now. I hope everyone is having a good week...we had snow this morning, and it's supposed to be 83 on Friday!!! WHAT?
