Last year, before I really got interested in sewing, my son asked me to make him a mega-mushroom stuffie. I explained to him that I really wasn’t that skilled yet, and that I didn’t have that much fabric to work with — all I really had was some leftovers from my first (and only) cosplay, plus some attempts at cute fleece anime hats and other randomness.
Instead of a giant mega-mushroom, I convinced him to let me hand-sew him a little blue mushroom — the kind that makes Mario into a little flea in New Super Mario Bros.
Connor loved his new fleece-and-felt mushroom, and named him Blue-White.
That was a year and a half ago. Now that I’ve gotten back into sewing, Connor asked me if I could finally make him that mega-mushroom he asked for so long ago. Luckily, he was OK with Mega being only a little bigger than Blue-White, so I was able to use some more fabric scraps — this time, the back half of an old yellow t-shirt and some red remnants I bought off of eBay, along with an old peach-colored woven fabric scrap — instead of taking my son on a Joann’s trip.
Of course, everything for a six-year-old has to be done NOW, so this project got done in a morning and part of an afternoon.
Skills practiced:
- making a pattern
- applique
- sewing “in the round”
Lessons learned:
- The pattern I found online wasn’t a great starting place. I should have just tried harder to figure it out myself.
- I really need to remember to add seam allowances when I’m making a pattern.
- It would have behooved me to keep referencing my sewing machine’s owner’s manual while threading until I was absolutely sure I had the path right. I kept threading it wrong around the tension disks/spring and messing up my project.
- Skipped stitches + issues with using different presser feet = probably time to change my needle.
- Straight-stitching applique instead of zig-zag or satin stitching is messier than I’d like.
- Some woven fabrics really need interfacing to keep from unraveling/ripping at the seams.
- If I’m going to be sewing more, I need more and bigger spools of thread. My hodge-podge collection of stuff from old hand-sewing kits and random thread from old projects just isn’t going to cut it. (ordered from Amazon!)
My son is really, REALLY into stuffed animals, so while the time spent on my crafting them isn’t exactly cost-effective (not yet, anyway), it’s extra fulfilling to see him playing and snuggling with something I made for him, instead of something I bought for fifteen bucks on Amazon or a plugged nickel on Wish.