Sometimes you get to be part of something that is just plain fun! That’s what today’s sewing is about…Where The Wild Things Play. Warning: it’s a picture heavy post, but I think you’ll see why. And if you make it to the end, reward yourself by entering the giveaway!
Recently an Indie sewing company decided to change it’s name. The former Big Little pattern company changed their name to Twig + Tale. It perfectly describes what this company is about. Fun, nature, wild things, upcycling, and did I mention fun? You simply must go over and check them out.
To celebrate the name change, Twig + Tale decided to host a blog tour. We chose to use the Pathfinder Vest pattern and use the Wild Things upgrade to embellish the vest. You can buy these two pattens bundled here. We ended up sewing 4 Wild Thing vests.
There are 14 different animals you can make using the Wild Things pattern. Of the 3 different wild thing vests the kids chose, only 1 of them has specific instructions, so that gives you an idea of how good this pattern is! Only the panda is included, so we used the fox to create 2 wolves and the dinosaur to create a dragon. Let’s go over the dragon first.
There is a free dragon upgrade, but it wasn’t released yet when we made the dragon as part of our Sewing For Kindergarten mini wardrobe.
If you look at this photo, you can see the horns were originally made from heavier weight leather. But they flopped over, and so I changed them out for faux leather that matched the dragon’s spikes.
Then I added the wings, of course, as soon as they were released. Since I was adding them after the vest was already sewn, I added some pipe cleaners in the “bones” of the wings to give them structure. Then I turned under the part of the wings by the spikes and stitched them down there and at the shoulders.
When I showed David all the animal choices he wanted to be a dragon, so a dragon it was. The outside of this dragon vest is some green fuzzy fleece from our stash, and the lining is Luminaries Gold by Maureen Cracknell’s Nightfall line for Art Gallery Fabrics. This was a nod to the “Reach for the Stars” theme of the mini wardrobe. I added a zipper to this vest instead of using the button and loops at the top. There is a tutorial for how to do this here.
David had so much fun during the photo shoot playing the part of a dragon wild thing.
The original plan was to sew a wolf vest for Baby to go with David’s dragon vest.
These boys love the book “Where The Wild Things Are” and Max (the main character) puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief. So Baby had to be a wolf.
The outside of this wolf vest is Golden Husky Faux Fur from Cali Fabrics. In a nod to the line from the book, “That night in Max’s room a forest grew, and grew, and grew!” We used Mystical Woods fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics designed by Maureen Cracknell.
Every time Baby put on this vest for a fitting and then for the photo shoot, he would begin to howl like a wolf. A very cute, baby wolf. Serious cuteness to see Baby trying to act tough and scary like a wolf.
I used the fox ears and tail to create the wolf vest. I inserted pipe cleaners into the ears to try to make them stiffer and stand up better.
Also, the pockets were omitted from this vest, simply because the sewing with faux fur was complex enough without trying to figure out pockets!
Because I ordered a yard of the wolf fur, Thomas asked, and I acquiesced to making him wolf vest.
Simply because wolves travel in packs, I had enough to make them both, and making two was about as easy as making one.
This was not the original plan, so I didn’t have any fabric from Art Gallery Fabrics for the lining. But Thomas just wanted black anyway, so a black lining fabric from the stash (leftover from a skirt refasion!) it was.
Even though I put pipe cleaners inside the ears, they are larger than the small wolf ears and ended up a little floppy, probably due to the heavy weight of the faux fur. Thomas is cool with it, deciding at times to be a bear, a wolf, or various other creatures!
He’s just pleased to have gotten a vest out of the deal.
At his request, Thomas’s wolf tail is detachable. It attaches to the lining with a snap.
Also, he is much more realistic at playing the part of a scary wolf! I used a toggle button and some hair elastic to make closures for both the wolf wild thing vests. Buttons or zippers just weren’t an option with fur that has this long of a pile.
Sewing with faux fur was a learning experience for me, and I’m sharing 30+ tips (so you don’t have to make the mistakes I did!) over on the Cali Fabrics blog.
Probably because there were so many cute options, and I had the outer fabric in my stash, I decided to sew a 4th wild thing vest for Annie. She was overjoyed when she discovered she was getting a Wild Things vest too.
After looking for the options, she decided to be a panda. I knew there was only one possible fabric to use for the lining, so at the last minute, and relying on her notorious super fast shipping, I ordered some Pandalings Pod Shadow knit fabric (designed by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics) from Imagine Gnats.
The Wild Things add on (which by the way is meant to be added onto a coat, but it’s very easy to add onto a vest, obviously!) included instructions and all the pattern pieces for a panda. It was pretty easy to make. Annie made the pom pom tail herself by following the directions included in the pattern.
The pockets have a fun paw print detail on them. Using knit for the lining is not one of the recommended fabrics, but it worked out fine. I just made sure to keep the knit fabric against the feed dogs when sewing the lining to the vest, to help pull along the knit fabric. The knit fabric also makes this a very, very soft vest inside and out!
Instead of the button loops and buttons recommended in the pattern, I made actual buttonholes since the fur I was using has a low pile and isn’t too thick. For the photo shoot, Annie wore her Uptown Downtown maxi dress made from Art Gallery Fabrics.
She didn’t think panda bears are very vicious, so had fun playing the part of a more gentle wild thing.
Here is a closer look at each of the fun linings. It was really fun and rewarding to sew these Wild Things vests. The dragon and smaller wolf vests are the same size, and so the boys will be able to interchange them. Then when they outgrow them, they will have the opportunity to play panda, and wolf all over again!
As for me, I think it’s time to retire from the Wild Thing sewing business. For a while, anyway, at least until I get all the fur cleaned up out of my sewing room! Although there are still quite a few animal variations I haven’t sewn yet. Which one would you make?
What would a Blog Tour be without a giveaway!
Art Gallery Fabrics is kindly sponsoring 2 yards of Art Gallery fabric of your choice. To make the prize extra sweet, we are also adding a collection of 5 Twig + Tale patterns of your choice.
International entries are very welcome. Our bloggers come from every corner of the world to celebrate the global nature of Twig +Tale too.
Enter using the rafflecopter below.
(The winning entry will be checked to ensure all criteria are met).
a Rafflecopter giveaway
There were two displays that stopped me in my hasty exploration of Quilt Market and I had to photograph them. This flower wall made entirely of starched fabric by RJR Fabrics was fantastic.
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