Toy making

Somewhere along the way I got it into my head that all commercially-purchased toys are toxic and I was going to learn how to make Z her own eco-friendly toys. Mind you, there are plenty of locally made, non-toxic toys right here in Asheville, but for the prices they charge I always find myself thinking, "I could make that!" Now the time and care put into these toys does justify the prices, so don't get me wrong, I do believe that they are WORTH every penny. However...the definition of being a Stay-at-Home-Mom is that you are indefinitely unemployed. And so I begin my not so professional career as a toy maker.

For my first experiment, I tried to make a block. It ended up being more like a ball since I stuffed it instead of using a foam cube inside. My real goal with this was to try out needle felting for the first time. The basic idea of needle felting is that you get some type of wool, roving, or felt, and stab it to death with these special felting needles that make the fibers all stick together. Essentially, you can attach 2 pieces of cloth, appliques, or small wool sculptures to each other without having to sew it together. Each side of this ball has one of the letters of baby Z's name attached using needle felting. No sewing required! It was kind of neat. The letters attached pretty well, but I used a synthetic felt attached to wool instead of wool on wool, so if she picks and tugs at the letters hard enough they will probably pull off over time. This project took forever...

For my second experiment, I made a fleece octopus. For some reason Tommy has been calling her "Octopussy", which conjures up images of Octomom as well as multiple female nether regions. Hmm...
Anyways. I learned a lot from this project. For instance, multiple thin legs are a pain in the booty to sew. I ended up cheaping out and just sewed around the outside edges without trying to turn them inside out to do it. Next time I will make the extra effort and sew the whole thing properly. I added some different colored ribbons to her head to make her a "taggie". Never bothered to finish the eyes, which makes her kind of mean and creepy looking, but Z doesn't seem to mind.