top of page
Search

The Illinois Memory Puppy's


Recently I received a big box of baby girl & boy clothes all the way from Rio, Illinois. It was stuffed full of the most gorgeous baby clothes & it has made my heart sing with all the colours & details on the little outfits. I've said many a time that clothing from the USA is way nicer than anything you see in the UK....well unless its something handcrafted that is....nudge nudge, wink wink! The poor parcel had been sat at my local sorting office for a whole week for various reasons only known by the Parcel Force gods ( frustrating for me/upsetting for my customer). After several calls to people at the sorting office who enjoy that game...you know the one....."pass the parcel' aka "pass the buck".....anyway, at last it is here with me in Plymouth UK & I can unpack it all with many an oooohhh & ahhhhh!!!

So, my customer would like two Memory Puppy's...one for her son Wyatt & one for her daughter Olivia...she has sent me lots of each of their baby clothes which is marvellous as the pattern pieces I use are pretty big. The finished Puppy end's up 16" tall sitting down & 29" measured head to toe.

As you can see theres going to be some personalisation with their names, birth dates & birth weights. Im happy to do this within the price which is £59 plus P&P.....I send worldwide too.

If you would like to see more details on how the Memory Puppy's look & how many pieces of clothing you need to send me then here is the link to my Etsy store CraftHillArtisans

Olivia"s clothes are just adorable......they made me so excited!!! Just look at all the little faces on the feet!!! Oh my...its a cuteness overload..... There a lovely range of colours & different prints...a perfect selection.

Here are Wyatt's precious baby clothing...again look at all those awesome colours & prints! I'm in heaven.

Now to prep the different puppy components ,this is the really time consuming part as its all about fussy cutting each pattern piece...thinking forward as to which will sit nicely with what & cutting out all the little details such as logos & labels. Also I unpick lace & frills & hang on to buttons & size labels for later in the process. It can feel a bit barbaric to cut the cute baby clothes up...it has to be done though so that you can make yourself some flat pieces of fabric to work with. I've learnt a lot over the years about toy making by trial & error basically. I have found that using a medium weight iron on interfacing really helps to stabilise the stretchy fabrics you get with baby clothes. If they are not lined then when you come to stuff the Memory Puppy or Memory Bear it will just keep stretching & growing...stretch & grow just like a baby does lol!!!! until you end up with something life-sized...whoooooaaaah there! I've also realised its way easier to cut all the pattern pieces out in the interfacing 1st & then ironing these onto the reverse of the fabrics...easier to fussy cut your favourite parts too.

This is my chance to really see how the different colours will work together...I find that the more the merrier to be honest, it gives it a real fun patchwork feel.

so.....now to the machine....here we go! First to sew on all those different cut out little details cut from the outfits onto my pattern pieces.

This takes quite a while but is so worth it because all my pieces now have a little extra fun added to them. I add the safety eyes at this point....the Puppy's are really starting to get their own personalities now.

Tadahhhhhh! Phew.....thats quite a task to sew these guys up as there's a lot of extra thick seams....but once the Puppy's are sewn together its stuffing time. Check out how cute the different body parts look already.

Olivia's Memory Puppy

I love how Olivia's Memory Puppy has turned out....she is super cuddly too. I was so pleased that I managed to get the little ballerina frill on her bum....oh how sweet!

Now for Wyatt's.....

Wyatt's Memory Puppy

I'm especially pleased that I was able to re use the Superman cape that came from one of Wyatt's tee shirts. I can tell you that my favourite part of Wyatt's Memory Puppy is the tiny reindeer pocket on one of its ears...I love teeny weeny pockets!

What do you think? id love to hear what your favourite details are.

BUT HANG ON!!!!!!!!!! there is more!!!!!!

Remember I mentioned that the parcel of clothes had been stuck in transit at my local postal sorting office? Well, it no doubt caused my lovely customers some considerable stress...I mean, imagine a box of your babies precious clothes went awol for 7 days...you would be pretty annoyed wouldn't you??

Well...I decided to make a small Memory Puppy just for her with a mix of Wyatt's & Olivia's clothing....I loved the results...I hope it can help to apologise for the problem that was beyond both our control.

MOM'S MEMORY PUPPY

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing the story of these two gorgeous Memory Puppy's. Its been such fun & I can't wait to hear what the recipients think of them.

Much Love Lizzy x

CraftHillArtisans

Commentaires

bottom of page