Meet Gordie!

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I have to say I am in hog heaven with this new craft room of mine! There's been a big pile up of personal and business-related ufo's for some time now, so I've been going down the list finishing one business and one personal at a time. Today I finished a special secret project for my etsy shop that's been in my head forever, and to celebrate I took a little me-time and made a gigantic owl!


I call him Gordie since he's so pudgy! He's made from some leftover felt and hand-me-down canvas material. Probably he will end up being a mascot at my craft booth. But! I made him for a very specific reason, namely this:


I know I've mentioned before that I try to run a no-waste sewing studio. This means that every scrap of fabric, felt, and thread ends up in this bin and will eventually end up as stuffing for plushies. Right around when I moved house I noticed that I was not keeping up with using my scraps and the bin was completely full. So I decided what better way to use up my stuffing than to make a giant plushie!


If you want to use fabric scraps for stuffing, be aware that they are much more dense than any fiber fill and can be really lumpy, so what I like to do is lay out a layer of batting and wrap piles of scraps into cuddly little burritos of stuffing (see the finished one at the top right of the photo above). That way they are cushioned and smoothed on the outside and your plushie will stay squishy. 
Is there anyone else out there who tries to run a no-waste studio? I'd love to hear your ideas!

On another note, the same day I made my biggest owl ever I also received the tiniest, cutest, teeniest gift from Johnny:


Goooooo the cuteness is killing me! It's hand-crocheted by an artist out of Vietnam and I can't believe how intricately detailed it is! He was saving it for me for Christmas but I needed a little cheering up (more on that Friday) so he brought it out early and now it lives on the edge of the shelf above my desk!

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