First installment!!

Dear Minions!

Here is the first little craft project installment I'm going to throw at you! We start with McCall's Craft Pattern M6484 (super cute eh?), I chose the smaller sized Hippo, and jazz it up into........

A Hullapotamus!!!!!

I chose to make the smaller Hippo ( she works up to be 7" height x 15" long!! The larger one ends up being about 12" height by 33" long, you've been warned!). I did the contrast belly in a crazy Turqoise hippy print ( my darling co-worker is making the larger size in the contrasting fabric, I'll post lots of pics when she's finished! We're putting these cuties up as a display in the Fabric Store :) ). 

The skirt is three layers of two different colours of green fringe, dark green for the first two under layers and one layer of yellow green on top ( I got .75m (3/4 yards) of each colour). Starting just under the belly on the right side ( with the Hippo facing away from you) of the Hippo's midriff I pinned the fringe around the full circumference then whip stitched the fringe in place. I then continued to wrap the dark green fringe around adjusting it to sit slightly higher above the first layer. Once again whip stitch this layer in place. With the lighter colour fringe use the same attachment method but only do one layer. 

To hide the bound edge of the fringe I used orange Ric Rac trim ( .75m (3/4 yards) though I ended up with more than I needed), starting on the center of the belly I simply lapped it over the edge of the fringe and hand sewed it down with orange thread. I then sewed individual blue sequins on every other peak of the Ric Rac ( it looked too busy and fussy if I did every peak :S ).

The only other adjustments I made to the pattern were to give her a pooka shell necklace instead of the suggested ribbon, a little sequined flower beside her left ear and instead of the eyes they suggest I used four hole buttons (5/8" size) and stitched them on with orange embroidery floss to bump up the creepy factor!

Other than these little adjustments the instructions provided are very easy to follow and my only other tip would the be very mindful when sewing around the bum area ( if you don't match the markings up exactly she can end up with a couple weird bumps that kind of look like a vagina lol).

I really enjoyed stitching this little baby up with my sister over a pot of tea. Even got my mom singing, " I want a Hullapotamus for Christmas, Only Hullapotamus will do.....". This is just the first example of some of the fun and wild stuff you'll see on here! I promise the next projects will have some step-by-step pictures, but what do you expect from a blog virgin like myself?? Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the Mother-Daughter photo shoot for these sweet little darlings in the very near future!

Keep kreepin'

Missa Deadlove xoxo