a lone sock monkey

The monkeys I made for a friend's mission in Israel turned out super cute!  Unfortunately, the amazing photos that the hub took of them hanging in trees and sitting on top of fences before he shipped them were lost forever when my 5-year-old pressed the 'delete all' button on the camera.  Even the are-you-sure-you-want-to-delete-all-photos warning didn't stop him.  So I don't have any photos of my hard work.

But when a friend saw what I was doing, she asked me to make one for her daughter for Christmas.  I almost ran out of time, so I had to settle with these knee high, brown and creme striped socks from Walmart.  I was looking for something a little more colorful (it's not often I get to sew for girls), but I think this monkey looks a little more like a traditional sock monkey with these colors.

I used this tutorial for all the monkeys I made.  I just make the ears a little bigger.

For Pepper here, I gave her yarn eyes in the shape of an X.  I used buttons for the eyes on the other ones I made.  I also thought she could use a modern scarf/cowl to girl her up a little, so I wrapped some extra yarn around loosely around her neck.

and Lucy's present . . . a new bed pillow

This is Lucy's Christmas present.  A little late.  She needed a new pillow for her bed because the other pillow was scratched and worn.  I was hoping that the original bed pillow was an actual pillow with a cover so I could just make a new cover, but it wasn't.  It was a cover filled with fiber-fill.

So I scrapped that idea and made an actual pillow to allow me to just make a new case next time.  I used some extra sheeting (I used polyester/cotton blend white sheets that I picked up from Ikea...these are not very pretty and they feel rough to the touch but a twin set costs $5 and I use them as lining for my pillow covers).  I lined the pillow cover with batting and quilted the layers a little to ensure the batting does not shift.

My favorite part of this entire pillow is how I stuffed it.  I didn't have any foam and I didn't want to use fiber-fill.  So I dumped my entire tin full of waste fabric into the pillow instead!  I read a tip once to save those non-usuable selvedges and tiny thin scrap pieces as filling for boxes when shipping fragile goods.  So I have been saving for over a year . . . but I don't ship fragile goods.  So I decided to fill this pillow with them.  It's a little rougher and bumpier than I would like my pillows to be, but for a dog it works great.  Lucy's first choice for a place to sleep is bundled clothing, so this is like the next best thing.  And I got to use my entire tin!

I bought this dog print fleece as a remnant and, of course, it wasn't wide enough.  So I added these grey fleece stripes which ended up being more trouble and not really worth it.  Next time, I will just cut the fabric in half and let there be a seam down the middle.  This bed sits under an end table with at least 7 blankets, so I doubt anyone but me will notice the new cover.

My mom made Lucy this blanket when she was about one year old.  So we've had it for almost 8 years now. .See how it puts her right to sleep?  We both love it.  The flannel on the back is starting to wear but it shows how much Lucy uses it.  I will keep this blanket forever.