Spongebob softies by Thing 2

Summer making has been in full swing recently for my youngest daughter. She's 12. I'm in awe of her creative drive. Once she gets an idea in her head she powers forward and it's amazing how fast she designs and makes these softies.

This is the first Plankton she made. He is now MIA. I suspect the vacuum cleaner might know something.

She hand sewed them from felt, fleece, embroidery floss, and pipe cleaners. She just makes up her own patterns.

I despair of her craft organization skills though. She never keeps her patterns or supplies in any kind of order and the OCD portion of my brain goes into a tailspin as I'm constantly finding tiny pattern pieces on the carpet, her seam ripper in the couch cushions, her needles laying on the kitchen counter and fretting to myself 'this is an important piece, she is going to lose it'.

(Look at Mr Krab's nose!)

It doesn't seem to bother her at all to lose pattern pieces or parts. At least not enough to mend her ways. She just whips out another one. She's kind of like a crafting version of Pigpen. Only instead of a cloud of dirt around her it's a tangle of floss ends and bits of stuffing and tiny scraps of felt. She literally leaves a trail through the house.

(In fairness I have to add this is exactly why I was banned from the house as a preteen by my long suffering mother. She finally got smart and set up a crafting studio for me in our garage to save our living room carpet. So right now she's probably nodding and saying something like 'yes, it's exasperating, isn't it, dearest?' followed by the lighthearted chuckle of someone who no longer lives with Pigpen Sr.)

And lastly, some accessories to go with the softies: a spatula for Spongebob, a ray gun for Plankton (slightly angrier version 2.0 seen here), and of course Patrick's secret box that contains a picture of Spongebob at the office Christmas party.

A portrait of the artist with her big sister in the background there. I was looking at her earlier versions of Spongebob softies and she's come pretty far in three years.

I hope you are having some summer crafting fun! We are cherishing the days. How can it be almost August?

Crow softie by Thing 2

You've already seen her softie version of Tom Servo. In the afterglow of that success she informed me she was going to make Crow next. I have to admit I secretly thought she was fighting a losing battle because Crow just seemed really awkward to duplicate as a softie. (For those of you who may be wondering, Crow and Tom Servo are robot characters on a show from the 90s called Mystery Science Theater 3000.)

Well, shut my mouth. She whipped this out from scratch from fleece, felt, and pipe cleaners. I think it's fantastic! So proud.

Tom Servo softie by Thing 2

When my 11 yr old told me she was working on a secret softie design, I assumed it would be a puppy or a unikitty or something like that. Nope. It was Tom Servo. Because she is retro cool that way.

Well, Tom Servo after a crash diet. He's pretty skinny. I love it. She's been watching some MST3K with her Dad and has really been digging it. She says she wants to buy some gold fleece to make Crow next. I'm not sure how she's going to pull that off, but I have every confidence.

My favorite part is his mouth. So proud.

shown up by my kid

My 11 year old said, "Mom, I think I want a rabbit doll. I'm going to make one." And now I confess to something a little bit selfish and terrible. At that moment, instead of being happy that she is sharing my love of handcraft, I thought something like "errrrrrgh, I'm kind of busy and she's going to want to use my Katy Kitty pattern and then modify it and I don't have time to help her with all that right now".

Well, she didn't need my help. She came to me for nothing.
*Cat's In The Cradle is now playing softly in the background of this post.*

She drafted the whole bunny pattern from scratch, worked out how everything would go together and cut all the pieces from fleece. She designed the clothes, which are removable. Several nights in a row she was sitting in the living room floor hand sewing the whole thing together while her sister played Xbox. I actually kind of took over when she got to the very last part and showed her how to gather and hem the skirt because I was feeling, yes, a bit left out.

Serves me right.
Isn't her rabbit doll cute?

Thing 2's spongebob in felt

 Spongebob

 

 Sandy Cheeks

 Mr Krabs

 Karen

Plankton

 Patrick

The whole gang.

Made by the eight year old during Christmas break. It was a surprise attack by her creative muse. She'd been pining for a set of Spongebob beanies for Christmas, then she just decided suddenly that she wanted to make them instead of waiting. So she just did it.

Spongebob was first. I made a few suggestions and helped her sew a couple of things and showed her how to stuff him. Then she decided that the whole sewing thing was just slowing her down, so she disappeared with a tray of felt, scissors and glue and made the rest of them.

Then she asked me to feature them on my blog. Heck yeah, I'll do that.

 Mr Krabs' nose

I find it very refreshing that for her there was no planning or tracing or pattern making. She just cut them all out freehand and slapped them together and then very happily played with them after they were done. Total focus, quick follow-through and then satisfaction in her project.

Mommy could learn a thing or two from that.