Turtle turned tiny!

Before EJ was born I wanted to make her some wee dangling toys for her car seat or crib, like I'd done for DJ.  I was trying to think of an animal or something that would be relatively quick to make and have some sort of interactive quality (in other words, fun ;) )

Myrtle the Turtle

I came across two tutorials on making stuffed turtles, one was Myrtle the Turtle from Purl Bee (above) 

 and the other was Stuffed Fabric Turtles from Ashley at Make it & Love it.

Seeing as I was hoping to hang it from a bit of ribbon, I chose the Make it & Love it one as it seemed easier to put a ribbon in centrally.  Both these turtles are meant to be more teddy sized I think, but as I was wanting a dangly toy... I shrunk the pattern with a photocopier (I think it was 25-30%, can't remember now) and proceeded to pick my fabrics!

I didn't know whether EJ was going to be a boy or a girl (spoils the surprise!) so I went for more primary colours in high contrast and eye catching prints.  The higher the contrast the more stimulating for babies apparently!  So I went for big red spots, navy and white polka dots, a colourful vine pattern and a bold large blue paisley print for the shell and a kind of beige for legs, head and tails just to balance out the colorfulness.

And to continue with the contrast I used this fabric called doily dance by Michael Miller (I think! I got it a while ago) for it's tummy.  Theory being that if it's dangling she'd see the bottom as much as, if not more than, the shell :)

It looks like it's crawling towards you in this photo haha!  I used some cotton ribbon with an orange stitch detail for hanging and sewed Velcro to it so it could loop and hang on whatever it fit on.  

I was really pleased with how the shrunken version turned out though it was definitely not without problems!  It was mostly sewn on the machine, which was fine for the shell but the head/legs/tail were soo fiddly and three of them popped and ripped :( so I made some more and just cut longer bits of fabric so it wasn't so likely to break and put them in the turtle so they were the right length again.  And I added a wee bell to it's tummy so he'd jingle!

One happy EJ :) x

She seems to like it anyway... Have you any tales of improvisation to tell?  I have one or two more wee toys to show you over the next few weeks as well. 

Better go hang the washing, though I can't decide if it'll rain or not... typical! :)

Kathelle x