Kashira Heads

Since it is almost Halloween I thought these Kashira heads from the movie Spirited Away would be a fun make. These are three brothers that are simply big green heads that bounce and roll around the witch Yubaba's office. Although mine don't actually bounce, they do roll about and are an ideal size to be handled, tossed or juggled when not being set as decorations.

For these heads I resized the pattern to make them small and cute ,and easy to handle as mentioned above. The facial details are embroidered and the eyes are stitched to the face using needle turned appliqué. The pattern pieces for the ears are actually from this Garden Gnome pattern and their facial hair is stitched on using black wool.

These super cute Kashira heads were made using Choly Knight's Blob Plush sewing pattern that was found in her book Sew Kawaii! The Blob pattern is simply the body for these with add-ons to create a bunny or kitty, whereas I added on my own features to create these heads, as described above. Choly has a number of other patterns, many for FREE on her blog Sew Desu Ne?

Radish Spirit

I have a new little fiend to share with you. Those of you who have seen the movie Spirited Away will (hopefully) recognise this strange looking creature as a Radish Spirit. This gentle but large vegetable spirit is one of many spirits who visit the bathhouse owned by the witch Yubaba. The Radish Spirit is based on the japanese daikon radish or white radish.

I found the perfect pattern to use for this Radish Spirit, only having to edit the facial features and add the roots or hairs to the hands, mouth and facial features which I did using a silken cord. I also had to design and create his accessories, the apron tied around his waist and an upside-down soup bowl he wears as a hat.

The soup bowl, or hat as this Radish Spirit prefers, was a little tricky to design and then piece together. Once I had created a shape I liked, I decided to sew the fabric pieces over the same pieces cut from a plastic sheet in order to give the finished hat a more rigid bowl look and not just have a floppy fabric piece to place on his head.

The apron was easy enough to put together, just a bit time consuming as I only hand sew. The Radish Spirit would not be complete without his leafy greens on top of his head. This was made simply by hand cutting a piece of green fabric into a leafy shape and attaching to the top of his head by a few well placed stitches.

With black safety eyes this Radish Spirit is complete. Standing at just over 6.5 inches tall, this Radish Spirit is a gentle reminder to treasure the simple things in life, for even something as simple as a humble radish is worthy of reverence. He is also a welcome addition to my ever growing collection of hand-sewn plushies and dolls.

The pattern used to create this Radish Spirit was from Choly Knight, it was her FREE Cthulhu Plush pattern with a few alterations as described above that brought this unique plush to life. This pattern, and other FREE patterns, can be found on Choly's blog Sew Desu Ne? on the Free Patterns page link.

Baby Demiguise (inspired by the Harry Potter Series)

Some of you may be familiar with my quiet little companion who showed up a few months ago disappearing and reappearing as he wished, as a Demiguise will do. More recently he has been spotted with a little companion of his own. It seems my friend has become a father and along with other males of his species, it is he who is responsible for the care of his child. As a youngster the babies hair is still a snowy white colour with invisibility skills yet to fully develop, unlike his silvery haired father who can disappear at will.

This baby Demiguise was made in the same way as my original Demiguise, only on a smaller scale. The pattern I used provided the pieces to shape the body, arms and feet. After reducing the size of the pattern I then created pattern pieces for the whiskers and tail and edited the face shape and features. His eyes are blanket stitched, his nose is two french knots and his mouth is backstitched all in black as with my original Demiguise.

The small face whiskers were very tricky to turn once sewn, but he wouldn't be a Demiguise without those added features so the end result was well worth the trouble these pieces gave me. The foot pads were backstitched rather then appliqué as suggested in the instructions that accompanied the pattern used, as I liked the simple look the stitching gave to the finished Demiguise. As with all my sewn projects, this baby Demiguise was completely hand-sewn.

My magical creatures collection continues to grow with this new addition of a baby Demiguise and sitting at just 4 inches tall he is so far the smallest of my Fantastic Beasts, smaller even then my Mooncalf which is only 4.5 inches tall. The pattern used for these Demiguise is Choly Knight's Bigfoot Plush Sewing Pattern found HERE in her etsy store. Choly also has a lot of great FREE patterns available on her blog Sew Desu Ne?.

Disney Princess Art Doll - Rapunzel

I have a second set of art dolls I am working on for gifts. These dolls are based on Disney Princesses and first up is Rapunzel with her long golden hair and purple dress. Her long limbs are sewn into her body, her eyes are painted on and her rosy coloured cheeks are crayon. It was hard to get the pink cheeks look right but it turned out sweet looking enough I think.

This Rapunzel art doll was fully hand-sewn and finished with a cute pink flower in her hair to complete her look. I found an amazing image of Rapunzel online that I printed up as a tag to accompany this doll when I gifted her. Despite her limbs being sewn-in she is able to either sit or stand as desired. Although the finished doll is a little rough looking, I do love how this art doll turned out.