Make new friends, but keep the old!

We've got another gator, but this one was way easier to manage than the first one!  I learned so many things making this second gator. 
















 First, I turned to Pellon interfacing!  What a life saver!  In my opinion, this made a world of difference!

 


Pellon is sold in the fabric cutting area at your local craft store.  I got mine at Hobby Lobby, but I know you can get it at JoAnn's, too.  I have never used it before so I experimented first with just a little piece of it on a scrap of fabric from the first gator.  To use Pellon, you find the side with little bumpies and that will be ironed down onto your fabric.  (This pic shows the bumpies, but ignore the stripes!  It's from the light coming through the window.)  

 

The directions say to cut it just a little bit bigger than the pattern and use a wet cloth to iron it onto the back of the fabric.  You press the iron on it for 15 seconds, or until the wet cloth is dry.  I tried that method, but later decided I liked to just steam it directly on with the iron.  It made a much more secure bond.
























After ironing, I lined up the patterns again and re-cut it all out so it would be exact.  This adds a lot of preparation work, but it's totally worth it!  It saves so much time and heartache in the end!  I liked how much heartier the Pellon made the handwoven fabric feel.  It didn't disintegrate right before my eyes, and it also didn't seem as stretchy when I packed it with stuffing.  Sometimes the fabric of the first one would kind of split just a little bit and show stuffing. 

I still sewed around each end of each piece all the way around to really secure those end threads.  Even though the Pellon was there, it still wasn't enough to hold the edge fabric together.  But with the stitches, it made a great combination to strengthen the fabric.






Another change I made was the way I sewed the little claws.  Before, I just left it stretched out like this:

 

But... I lost 2 claws on each hand on the front paws.  So, I folded them up when I pinned it and the little claws didn't get caught in the stitches!  The substitution of felt seems sturdy enough.  I tested it by pulling on it, and nothing came apart... yet!

 

Another change I made was where I turned the alligator.  I decided to make the mouth as 2 pieces instead of one.  Being separated also made it made it easier to work with the jaw pieces individually and get all the details right.  It also made it much easier to sew the two sides together and get the matched up.  And it wasn't too hard at all to sew the seem closed in the end.  I used a strong black 10/2 perle cotton to sew it shut.


 




I also got the jaw stitches done better this time around!  I didn't understand the direction at first, so last time I just sewed the seem around the mouth, but this time I rolled the green over into the pink area and sewed it like she described.  It really does improve the look of the teeth!





 I noticed in the picture that there should have been a seem sewn down the back, and I forgot to do that on the first one, but nailed it on the second one!




 

Here are my new friends!

 I tried sewing on the eyes like Amy did, but my fabric is just so wild that you couldn't see them in the end.  So I cut them out and sewed on some little blue buttons like the first gator.  I do feel like I got the placement better, and I pulled them into the gator just a bit on this second one.  I'll just have to be careful about little ones playing with this gator... don't want any button biting happening!  I'm going to go back and redo the eyes on the first one.  They seemed to be placed a little high.

They almost look like they are laughing!

Now I just have to finish sewing 2 more gators in lighter fabric!

More alligator facts form Wikipedia:

• Alligators have a bone-crushing bite.
• Average adult alligators are about 800 lbs and 13 feet long, but can be as big as 100 lbs and 14.5 feet long!  Chinese alligators are smaller.
• Even though there is no average measured lifespan for alligators, some have amazingly lived to be 75 years old!

 L8R G8R!

New Kid on the Block

Meet the new kid on the block!  He turned out pretty comical.

And cute.

If he wasn't so cute, I would have trashed him hours ago.  I am hoping the following 3 will go so much easier!  He was a pain...

pain after pain after pain!
Yikes...

I accidentally sewed some pieces wrong... and forget getting THEM apart!  All those tiny stitches mixed with the disintegrating nature of the fabric just made it impossible to separate the two pieces without destroying them beyond repair!  

 To make a long story short, I was afraid I would run out of fabric.

But look at that ALLIGATOR attack action here...

Is this a viscous fight scene with Scout?? 

Look out!

Or maybe he's just a friend to hang out with...

Here are some facts from Wikipedia:

• There are only 2 species of alligators: the American Alligator and the Chinese Alligator.
• The name alligator came from the Early Spanish explorers word for lizard.
• They are good at adapting and have not changed much since the Cretaceous period.

L8R G8R!

Cutting and sewing

 

The fabric for the gator washed up really nicely!  And cutting it was kind of harder to do than I expected.  I mean, when you put so much work into making the fabric, it's really hard to take scissors to it!!!

But check out that great texture!

I stitched around each piece because the fabric is a bit delicate.  The long floats in back are not holding together very well and it almost disintegrates right before your eyes.  I think I will try some interfacing on the next ones.  Hopefully the interfacing will help hold it together when working with it.

 This is after working with the fabric:

 But it is fun to see it taking a familiar shape!

I can't wait to do more!  I am at a stopping point until I get some rickrack, stuffing, and felt for the claws.  Oh yeah, I decided to use felt for the claws because I just don't like the smell of leather... and the thickness of it, too.

Fabric is done, washed, and ready to cut!

 It's perfect!!!  

See for yourself:

 

Back of light fabric:

Need I say more?

More gator skins

 I have some more gator skins!

 This one is a little bit lighter than the last one because I used light green rather than brown between the cells.

 And this is for the inside of the mouth.  I used pink and red, but the warp is still green and yellow.

 And then there are 2 little show stealers....

  Zip thought I was trying to play with him so he reached up and grabbed onto the camera strap and it made a funny little picture!

Gator Skins

When I first saw the picture of the alligator, I wasn't sure I could make as cool of fabric as Amy did in her book.  But honestly, I didn't really like how she used pinks and blues.  For my gator skin, I wanted to stay true to the real thing by mostly using greens, yellows, and browns.  I also changed the treadling pattern just a smidgeon. 

Amy's gator with hard to beat skin:

What I do like about her book, she doesn't make you feel like you HAVE to use her yarn choices or colors.  She opens it up for you to do your own thing.

And... I think I like my choices better in the end!

 Gator skin's close up detail:
(stretched out on the loom - so the cells aren't forming quite yet)

 

8-shaft honeycomb fabric structure for alligator:

(Would it be called "gator-comb" for "Alligator Honeycomb"?)

Later Gator!

The Alligator

I really like all the animals in Weaving a Zoo, so the choice of which to start with is rather difficult.  But, I decided to start with the alligator, because "A" is for Alligator!

Amy includes a lot of colors in her gator, including blues and pinks, but I wanted to stick to more of a green and brown theme.  I have some really good muted greens I wanted to use in the skin, so I changed the colors just a little bit.  I'm warping with green and yellow, like the pattern suggests...

Here are the weft colors.  Dark green will be the heavy honeycomb cord.  

The light green and brown will fill the little cells.
I might also throw in some other random greens for the honeycomb pods.
And if the dark green runs out, I will find something else just as perfect!

 I can't wait until I have enough fabric to cut the pieces out and sew them together!  Amy suggests making the fabric 22x26" to get 1 gator.  I warped 5 yards at almost 26" across, minus some for shrinking, so I hope to get a few gators!

Super secret project

Right after Christmas, I worked on a quick super secret project for someone... kind of an after-Christmas holiday joy present that I couldn't get to sooner because of the Trellis towels on my 8-shaft loom!  But I can share this with you now with all the details because by the time the super secret project is revealed in this post, the person will have already received it in the mail!

 Remember the 10/2 perle cotton I bought on Girl's Day out in December?

Well, I had this houndstooth project in mind for my sister who lives in Utah.  And I knew that she would enjoy silky perle cotton for a scarf way more than scratchy wool.








She loves the houndstooth pattern that can be found in a lot of fashion lately.










I sett at 30 epi, since I was working with 10/2 cotton.  I used a #15 reed with 2 threads per dent.  I warped 2.5 yards, and made enough ends for 7.5 inches in width in order to account for any shrinking on the loom or after washing.


 

 It turned out just perfect... soft yet fashionable...

and semi-warm on cold days!

Check out that great trademark houndstooth print!  (It's still stretched out on the loom!)

 



This scarf wove up super fast...
a little over a days work of time!

 The fringe turned out nice and long, too!

 Hope my sister enjoys her new scarf!!!
PS.  When I was warping it on Christmas day, she called me on the phone... it was SO hard to keep it a secret!

Weaving a Zoo

I am SOOOO super excited to have my hands on this book called Weaving a Zoo!!!!














It's been really hard finding any information about this book, like what animals are in it, what loom would be best to use, etc.  In fact, I've searched the web and have only found 2 other weavers with pictures of what they have made from this book.  I want to change that!  This book was published in 2002, and being 10 years later, I would assume there would be more information about it on the web!  So... here's a small review to start with.  There will be plenty more along the way as I make these little guys!

The animals listed in this book and number of shafts required to weave their skins are:

1.  Turtles and Tortoises = 8-shafts
2.  Alligators = 8-shafts
3.  Frogs = 8-shafts (can be the same fabric as the alligator)
4.  Armadillos = 6-shafts & 8-shafts
5.  Elephants = 8-shafts
6.  Giraffes = 8-shafts
7.  The Zebra = 8-shafts
8.  The Lion = 8-shafts
9.  Three wild cats: Fighting Tigers (8-shafts), Snow Leopards (8-shafts), and The Cheetah (6-shafts)
10.  Polar Bears = 4-shafts
11.  Kangaroos = 8-shafts
12.  Wild, Wild Horses = 4-shafts
13.  The Donkey = 4-shafts
14.  The Shaggy Gray Wolf = 4-shafts

The patterns come with good stories from the author, great information about each animal, and very easy to understand patterns for weaving and for cutting out each animal.  Amy Preckshot also includes a good "how-to" guide in the beginning to make your animal assembling experience a little bit better.  She recommends weaving at least 3 yards of material to make a minimum of 3 animals, that yardage includes enough for the loom waste and by making 3 animals, one has a practice animal, one to keep, and one to pass along to a friend!

So... now the big question is, which animal shall I weave and sew first?

Trellis in yellow

I thought some yellow might be a fun change for the last two towels!

 

I'm so glad to be done!

I'm really glad I gave summer and winter another chance.  I feel like I've nailed it this time with such a perfect sett this time around!

This warp would have made 10 towels if I hadn't made an extra long towel for the bathroom!  I love this dark winter side against the white paint.

I'm glad I did an extra long warp (8 yards) this time because I definitely felt like I had enough weaving time vs. setting up time on this warp.  However, I got just a little tired of it by the end!  I am glad I kept going, because I really like this design.  It looks great hanging on this towel rack in my guest bathroom!