Dinosaurs for birthday presents

As Liz's 4th birthday approached, I knew we didn't have a lot of money to spend on gifts. We had already purchased her one large gift, and that left very little for anything else.

Liz just loves pillows, of all sort. And of course, her favorite thing in the world are dinosaurs. I had a few patterns from Sheila that were dinosaurs, so I started planning.

My Mother-in-Law had sent me a yard of beautiful dark blue fleece. I debated on using it, and finally decided that it would be perfect to make Butterick 3721 (OOP), a really cool pillow cover in various animal shapes (Dinosaur, cow, bear and lion). I got a small amount of lavender and white fleece for the contrasting parts for about $5 at Jo-anns, and got to work.

I have to say, this was one of the more frustrating projects I've done. Sewing through multiple layers of fleece, often with tightly stuffed horn or claw pushing against the foot, was no cake-walk. IT took a few tries to get the ruff on the head properly, but finally, I finished.

Her old standard sized pillow was a perfect fit.

The coolest thing about this pillow (besides the fact that it's a triceratops), is the detachable head! Yes, the head is attached with a wide strip a velcro, and is perfect for a little car or travel pillow.

Isn't it just adorable???!! Liz loved this gift on her birthday, and it was certainly worth all the trouble.

My Pattern review is here.

Next, I had a great OOP pattern, Simplicity 8302. It includes 2 sizes of dinosaur dolls with a variety of clothes options.

I had a hard time figuring out what fabric to use for the bodies. I had some green felt, but was unsure if it would be suitable and sturdy enough when stuffed tightly.

It worked ok, but in hindsight, I wish I had used something else. The felt stretched a lot, and it also pills, lints and I don't think will be long lasting.

Still the dolls turned out cute. I made a big daddy doll, and a little girl doll. I made no alterations to the small dolls clothing except to make the elastic longer. I made quite a few changes to the Daddy doll clothes, including adding straps and functioning buttons to the overalls, and also designing my own tam (which turned out a perfect fit!).

Here is the Pattern review for the dolls.

Turns out she doesn't much want to play with these, even though the arms and legs move. She likes them better with the clothes off (argh, what a lot of work!!), because dinosaurs don't wear clothes. lol.

I have put the clothing away, and plan to make the dolls more decor than play sometime soon, once I find a good place in her room to put them.