Haven't really wrote anything in a while.

Organizing things because I can not sew at the moment.  I thought I'd post a few pictures since I have neglected my blog.

I'm not sure where to start, random ones I guess.

End of the year craft fairs...  

Special horns.

One thing that I had in my sketch book for a while was a unicorn.  I finally figured out how to make a spiral horn.

The first horn I made(unfortunately I have no picture of the horn) was a big mess.  At first I though I could just cut a strip of material sew it up and *sparkle sparkle* a horn. That did not happen, I guess I did not say magical words.  I then tried to use a needle and thread to try and fix it.  Still did not work.

Broke out the seam ripper and used some other magical words since I forgot to use a temporary stitch.  Trimmed places that I marked.

My desk had several different types of horns. Long and skinny, short and fat, green, white, black, etc... I searched my trimmings bin for large sized pieces and they became horns.  I took a break from the horn pattern.  I might take it out again soon and see if I can fine tune it a bit more.

It gets added onto my list of hand stitched items.  Which has started to grow very large.

Just the other day I caught up with some hand stitch work.  Finishing of hats and sock animals.  My pointer finger needs a rest from holding the needle.  I also broke my thread trimmer the other week.  I on the hunt for a replacement.  I hope I can find one that is like the one I was using.

More pictures...

Here is one of my newer dino hats. I decided to give it orange spikes.

My apologies for not having my dot com updated with my new designs. I hope to get my Picasa albums updated soon. I've been only adding new designs to my San's FB albums.

What is this?

I frequently get the question "What is this?" "Is this a (fill in the blank)?"

But I must say the best one this year is from this hat. What is this...

Well I heard a few guesses. A bug. An alien. I even got someone asking me if it was one of the teletubbies. Which made me think what are the colors of teletubbies. Red and purple were the only colors I got correct before I started naming random colors. Also I for some reason thought there were 5 tubbies. So I was guessing blue, orange, yellow, pink...

If you really want to know there is a red one with a circle, the purple is the one with the triangle. I think the purple one got the most publicity. A yellow one with what looks like a miniature bayonet shaped thing. I had convinced myself there was no yellow at one point, since the sun that has the baby face is yellow, why would they have a repeat color. The last one is green with a single spike, antenna looking thing.

In the picture above is a fold style android. Which was requested in a custom order. The one I have on display at my booth was a no fold style.

There were a few people that didn't not know what an andriod was.

Brown cow.

As I was thinking if I had my portfolio updated, I realized there were pictures that I have not placed in it and things I've not blogged about it yet. I'm not a writer, so I do not know what I was thinking when I decided that I would do a blog. I should have known I would slowly find it to be more of a chore than some where I would just freely write my thoughts or stories.

Since it is late, or shall I say early morning... I will stop my rambles.

I think the reason I did not blog/ post this was because of the sign. I was debating on blurring the words.

Thanks Mark for ordering a brown cow, and for taking an interesting picture. I should wear a chicken hat and hold a sign saying eat more cow.

Custom panda

I have velcro on the customized cat and bunny eared hats.(Which can be seen in previous blogs labeled velcro.) I also add velcro upon request to any of my ear flap hat designs.

Here are pictures of a custom made medium sized panda with ear flaps.

For velcro orders, I add some extra length to the ear flaps. I sew on the velcro after cutting out the ear flap pieces. Then sew the flap pieces together. This way most of the stitches are concealed.

Flower

I'm not sure why I used pink and white when I made the original Flower hat. Especially since there are several combinations that would work. I got a request for a black hat with a white flower.

The thing with custom orders is, if I want to see a particular item in its completed form or if there it is something that requires making a new pattern or recalculating dimensions, I seem to forget for a moment that I have prioritized list of Things-to-do that I try to follow. The white flower on the black hat is quite striking.

Reindeer...

I'll be at Aliiolani this coming Saturday(12/5) in the cafeteria again.

I've sketched this over and over again. Pondering the color combination... the antler shape... etc... There are different shaped little antlers scattered in my work space. I had antlers pinned onto the mannequin head so that I could see how they would stand up.

The time in between the end of the year craft fairs that I attend leaves me little time to create and make new creations. But I really wanted to have these available this year.

Moo, moo, moo...

I finally took the time to make a black and white cow. I decided to use the stumpy horns. To make it different from the brown and white cow, I made one ear white and one ear black. Both ears have a inner ear color of black. The horns are an off white color.

I was at Aiea Elementary School this past Saturday. The day started off on the cooler side but soon became hot. There was a slight drizzling rain that made the day humid.

The next craft fair I will be at is in Kaimuki. There is a craft fair at the NBC this weekend, hopefully I will have time to go as a shopper.

Pock

Aliiolani this past Saturday was interesting. The weather was not as cold as I would like. It rained a bit but all that did was make it a little more humid. The cafeteria is on the cooler side and my table was close to the doors where occasionally there was a nice breeze.

I have two hats that I have not had the time to post about...

Mouse

A mouse in gray. The mouse was sitting in pieces as I was still debating on making it light brown or gray. Then there was the shape and size of the ears. I went big with the ears with a slight fold to give it some dimension.

Chicken

I had the same issues with the chicken, color of white or brown. And the shape and size of the comb. I went with white and a small red comb.

Monkey

This last picture is of the monkey hat. I've been using the picture of a small size monkey which does not fit on the mannequin, this will be the updated picture. I've also decide to change the look of the ears. It will no longer be dark in back and light in front. The ears will be all light colored on both sides.

*I almost forgot to explain my title. I grew up with chickens. And I have always thought they said pock pock. I know people will usually say cluck cluck or bwak bwak. If you have the chance listen to a chicken, and see what you think. *grin* *pock pock*

"...Toothy..."*

Custom dragon and shark

I received photos in my email inbox! Thank you Kelani and Kehanu for these pictures and for becoming Little frog hat owners. Hope you had a great time paint balling.

When people mention paint balling to me, all I can think of is the time I went paint balling and got shot on the palm side of my wrist. I had on long sleeves, but the impact was strong enough to break my skin. Which left me bleeding and with a fairly sore wrist. So please be careful out there.

* This blogs title is taken from a comment by Winky(I have assigned him a new nickname, we will see how long it will last or if it is rejected.) He called these hats toothy... which they are. When I hear the word toothy it makes me smile. Thanks Winky!

A horse of course...

Horse(front view)

I was looking through my hat photos and came across this. This horse was created after much pondering on which colors to use. I made it with brown, black and tan. It has been a while since I have seen a horse up close, so hopefully I have captured the shape of the ears correctly.

Horse (side view)

I went with a light color mane because I wanted it to stand out. This is the first one I made, and I am still not sure if I want to decrease the strands in the mane or not. It has been packed away for a while now. I think it is time to take it out and rethink the design, or maybe just create more like it in different sizes.

Custom dragon.

Sketch of spikes

I have had requests for dragons before. People seem to just ended up with Dino hats. So when I was presented with a finalized order for a dragon... I just could not resist the challenge and spent the last few days finishing it. I managed to cram in pattern making, cutting and sewing. Luckily during the order process I was already working on the patterns.

Custom Dragon(side view)

And although it is not completely finished I took the final pictures of it. The final hand stitching is of the lining. That will happen tonight or tomorrow morning.

This hat has a lot going on. It has custom spikes that have detailing stitches to create a web look. Two rows of spikes that form a V pattern. And teeth on the earflaps. Even though I thought it would be too much on the hat, I went with what was requested. In the end I really like how it looks.

Custom Dragon(back view)

I'm so happy how it turned out that I really wanted to blog it today!

Dino request

Teeth... I am debating on making this a regular item. I still remember when creating the original Dino hat I was conflicted of what to put on it. I recall going with a simple spike design. Recently I had a request for teeth to be added.

Custom Dino with teeth

I really like how it came out. I wanted the teeth to be a little more chunky, but I wanted to get it done by a deadline and did not feel I had time to redo the teeth. The teeth did get replaced once and I was happy with how it looked on the second time attached. I do not mark any angles for the teeth so each tooth has a different shape. I start with a large rectangle of material and run it through the machine moving it based on what I feel will be the right angle. The earflaps were done a little longer by request.

More sharks...

When I got the request for a great white hat, I envisioned a hat similar to the ear flap ones I make. But the creation(July 30, 2009 post) turned to be a cap with a visor. I recently got another inquiry of a shark hat. So I once again pulled out my sketches and what I had been working on and started to finish an idea that was set aside.

It is not what I had envisioned. Still when I look at it I feel that i see a shark.

I think I got the blog bug. Or maybe I just need a break from other things. I do have a back log of things I would like to write about. I just rather not place it all in a long blog.

Snowy slopes

Yay!  I really enjoy getting pictures of Little frog items being used. Out of the pictures sent to me, I narrowed it down to eight and then looking at how long this blog would get I finally settled on five.

Ears a flapping

Hopefully ears were kept warm while zooming down the slopes in Tahoe.  It makes me smile when I think of the Jack's ears flapping in the breeze.

Pink meow

Snow boarding looks fun.  Unfortunately I have never tried it myself.  The only snow I have ever encountered was up on Mauna Kea.

  

Dwight wearing the Jack

Claudia wearing Pink cat

If you are lucky enough to go up to Mauna Kea(elevation 13,803 ft) when there is snow, you will of course see guys shoveling snow into trucks, with their beverages chilling at their feet.  They will be wearing normal clothes(jeans and a shirt, possibly shorts) and they might have even taken off their jacket or shirt.  People put the snow into their yards and build snowmen that quickly melt in the warm day.  There are warning signs posted about the rocks that can be found at the bottoms of the hills.  Yet, people still ski and even slide down the slopes with their boogie boards.

Shadow of Jack and Cat

I think this is my favorite picture out of the ones sent to me.  If you look closely at the shadow you can see what I think is a single Jack ear flapping in the wind.

Thank you for the great pictures!

Adorable kittens.

I got some pictures sent to me tonight, and got the 'okay' to use them. Jordyn(2y 10m) and Jacie(~1 y-o) are so adorable wearing the Certain(one of my custom made hats.)

Jacie

I think out of the pictures I could choose from, this is my favorite picture.  Jacie is playing with her toy, but still posing for the camera.

Jacie

The hat was ordered for Jacie, but Jordyn is enjoying it also.

Jordyn

Jordyn

I hear there is a photo of Jordyn's and Jacie's dad in the hat.  Maybe he will send it in?  Thank you for the pictures and allowing me to use them.

It is nice to see this hat on a smaller head.  I designed it without a model and it has been changed each time I make one.  I am still looking for a child sized mannequin head to work with.

A small break from towels...

There will be more towels in the collection that I have created.  But an inspiration hit me to finish doing a two colored cow.  I have what might be called an obsession with seams.  I like hidden seams, with minimal details.  And I did not want to use a cow printed fabric.  Those are only two of many reasons why this cow has been just an idea and not a reality until now.  Originally in my mind it was a black and white cow.  What I produced was a white and brown cow in Large.

Calf (white and brown) Fd

It was then time to scale it down to a Medium.  The Medium hat did not turn out as I expected it to.  A white stripe down the center was not what I wanted.  And after pinning on the white ear flaps I decided I rather have it brown.  I reworked the Medium pattern and will have to see how it comes out when I make another one.  The next one will have a color change too.

Calf(white and brown) Fp

These I am calling Calf because of the stubby horns I gave them.  Moo moo moo.

Little frog

Today is actually January 10... I was told to update my blog and found I had this unpublished one from December. I deleted the content and am writing a shorten version of what I was going to post.

Happy Holidays!

I will be on a trip to Las Vegas.  Hoping it will snow again while I am there. 

Made a new hat for the trip.