The shops are full to the brim with cuddly toys of every kind, from penguins and giraffes to kangaroos and polar bears. Never mind teddy bears and dogs.
But a homemade thing is still homemade. There is a scrap of heart in it, and a little creature like that certainly has a small soul of its own as well.
Carolin named the dog Krissu, in memory of our own dog.
In the picture, besides Carolin and Krissu, in the little red box is the small quilt Carolin sewed for her little brother.
That was the subject of the previous post.
Making the dog began with drawing the dog. Carolin drew it herself and cut it out of paper. The ears had to be made separately, which is why the dog is shown here without ears.
For fabric we chose chick yellow fleece. The eyes and ears of fleece too.
The dog is cut out of the fabric: 2 body pieces, 2 tail pieces, 4 ear pieces, the whites of the eyes and the black parts of the eyes. Threading the sewing machine already goes very smoothly for the little lady.
First I sewed the whites of the eyes onto the front piece, then the black dots of the eyes on top of them, the nose and the mouth. Then the pieces together. The larger pieces we sewed together jointly; the smaller ones I sewed myself. Fleece is a stretchy material and a little awkward for a beginner.
On every pair of pieces we left an opening when sewing them together, for turning them right side out.
Carolin cut notches into the sewn pieces. That way the seam is more even and neat after turning. In the picture you can see two tiny yellow sticks. Those were supposed to become the ears, but they came out too small. We made new, proper flaps as the drawing of the dog intended. From one stick we got a very good tail.
The dog is filled with scraps of wadding. We did not put filling into the ears.
I sewed the turning openings closed by hand.
The front paws were not separate pieces. Those I quilted onto the front piece, by hand, through both layers and the wadding.
The tail I sewed on by hand as well.
To finish, I embroidered KRISSU onto felt fabric, cut a collar out of it and fixed it round the dog's neck.
It was as simple as that.
Between the two of us we sewed this lovely cuddly toy in half a day.
