Totoro Mini Figures

While browsing youtube I found a few cold porcelain recipes that I thought could be fun and decided to give one a go. Not knowing what to make I ended up playing around with a small amount of the clay until I ended up with a shape I thought could be a cute Totoro. After making two more smaller versions I set them aside to dry. Once completely dry I painted each one with acrylic paints, added a layer of mod podge to the completed pieces and was done.

Trying Something new I made these three tiny Totoro's from clay. These mini forest spirits measure only 4cm tall for the grey totoro (which I actually painted silver), 3cm tall for the middle sized blue totoro, and a tiny 2.5cm tall for the smallest white totoro. I had a lot of fun experimenting and playing with this new craft, it is definitely something I want to revisit in the future when I have a better idea planed out of what I wish to make.

Ponyo & Rilakkuma - Book Bags & Bag Tags

Something a little different are these book bags I made based on the characters Ponyo, a goldfish, and Rilakkuma, a bear. To accompany these book bags I also made matching bag tags using these same characters, and again gave these away as gifts. The book bags measure about 10 inches tall and roughly 9.5 inches wide, a comfortable size for most book sizes. The bag tags measure about 3.5 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide, not including the ribbon or 4 inch chain.

These book bags are made using curtain scraps. I liked the look of the colourful stripes for these bags so I measured, cut and sewed up the sides, folded over the top and sewed again to create the space for the drawstrings. I made these drawstrings from yarn, plaiting three pieces of yarn together for each drawstring, threading it through the tops of the bags then tying the ends together. I made two drawstrings for each bag so that when holding one in each hand and pulled, the bag is drawn closed in the centre.

These bag tags are made using fabric, paper templates for each character that I made from images found online, a plastic sheet cut to size for the clear window on the back, ribbon and handmade chains using a length of chain, jump rings and lobster clasps. Once stitched up the front and back pieces were blanket stitched together. A second front piece was made of each character using just the fabric and templates and were again blanket stitched to the front of each book bag.

Book bags are a handy thing for anyone to have, especially if your a reader which I always encourage. These book bags were simple enough to make and finished up looking fun, bright and very practicable, and not just for books. These bag tags were more complex to design and put together but they turned out very cute and usable. It was fun to branch out a in a way and make something a little different.

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.