Miss J's Stuffies--Sixth Finish 1st Quarter FAL (Finish-A-Long) 2018

Stitching progress at the end of the first session

Last month on a day that would have been spent at her house because it was an early release day for Miss K, Miss J asked her papa if she could visit with her gran. Papa said yes!

Much to my ABSOLUTE delight, she asked to stitch her "stuffies" that Santa had brought her for Christmas. I had been telling her that this was a project that would take a lot of time and that there were a lot of parts. We wouldn't be playing with it until it was finished!

She decided that she wanted to stitch the Mrs. Bunnikins stuffed toy first. On our first day, we were able to cut out and stitch the body of the doll. We started to stitch her skirt; but, it was time to go. Miss J decided that she wanted to stitch the daddy bunny next and then all the babies. I told her that was a good plan.

Using her pointer finger to guide the fabric

She did an excellent job of guiding the fabric with her pointer finger and her favorite part of running the sewing machine was when she got to raise and lower the foot around the tight curves! Using a turning tool to poke out the corners was a close second though!

I was impressed with her patience because the directions on the panel are not clear. Sometimes reviewing the printed examples didn't clear up my confusion. Sometimes I made mistakes and sometimes ripping happened!

Finished skirt with pockets for the baby bunnies

Miss J decided that we could get more done if I cut out the rest of the "parts" so we could spend more time sewing next time. At four years old, she shows signs of being a good project manager! As per her instructions, I cut out most of the remaining pieces.

On our second sewing day, J decided that we needed to stitch the mama bunny's dress and the babies. It is okay to alter THE plan!

We got to rip out the beautiful stitching she had done on the flower hem as I had misunderstood the directions. J didn't mind ripping!  She was tickled when the skirt was ready for the mama bunny to wear!

What made this day fun was that J selected the thread to use when we stitched on the pink and when we stitched on the orange fabrics. She doesn't spend a lot of time deciding and truth be told, she would probably just use the same color throughout the project if that was an option. In her world, changing the color is interesting because she is learning how to thread the machine; but, it is too time consuming!

Turning the baby bunny right side out

When we were stitching the pockets, J looked at me like I had lost some brain cells because she couldn't see how a line of stitching was a pocket! After we had stitched three lines, she could  put her hand in the space. Then, she understood how we made a pocket. It was fun to see the delight on her face when she figured out that we really did make pockets!

Total progress by the end of the second day.

Stitching and turning the baby bunnies was a chore. J did a great job around the tight corners of the ears. She made a stitch, lifted the foot, turned the fabric and repeated until we had the bunny stitched. She was able to use the "purple thang" and turn the bottom edges of babies; but, left it to me to turn the ears.

She was sad that the baby bunnies didn't have legs like the mama and daddy. She did notice that the babies all have tails and that they are different colors.

Using her index finger to guide the fabric

We next stitched the daddy bunny ears and prepared them to be stitched to the daddy bunny. J liked how much faster sewing bigger pieces went! We pinned the daddy bunny together.  She, however, wanted to make his shorts next. We did. His suspenders are pinned because we need to put them on the bunny to figure out the length we need. This is where we ended our second day. It was a great day!

Stuffing a baby bunny

On our third day, we stitched the daddy bunny and stuffed one baby bunny. J decided that pushing the stuffing into the ears of the babies, the legs and the arms of the mama and daddy was definitely a job for Gran!

She liked pulling the stuffing and fluffing it a bit before inserting it into the baby. We hand stitched the opening closed. She thought that the needle was too sharp when she stuck herself as she positioned the needle for a stitch.

Finished baby bunny

She can hardly wait for these projects to be finished. She plans to take them home so that they can have "adventures" at her house!

On our fourth day, we stuffed the bunnies and we dressed the bunnies. J is good at putting small pieces of stuffing into the bodies. She is also good at sensing if the body parts are stuffed evenly. Although towards the end of the process, she kept telling me the stuffing was "perfect." I think she was through with that process and ready to start playing with the bunny family! We did finish. Now her bunny family is complete!

This was goal number 8 on my 1st quarter Finish-A-Long list. It is the sixth finish of the quarter! No fabrics were used from my stash for this project. I'm still looking at stitching 4 3/4 yards from my stash and adding 3 1/2 yards to my stash for a net "loss" of 3/4 of a yard! (Only 49 1/4 yards to go to meet my goal!)

Since the bunnies have been "living" at J's house, she has kept me up on their adventures. For a time, they inhabited a drawer as their home. (I imagine her mama wasn't too pleased to find the drawer contents on J's bedroom floor and bunnies inside the drawer!) Recently, J reported, the bunnies have been vacationing in Canada where it is really cold; but, they are all fine and happy!

Finished bunny family