Three years ago, my daughter said the only thing she wanted for Christmas was a pink plush dinosaur. I started looking around, and I couldn’t find one that I could get in time for Christmas. In fact, I found exactly one, and it was shipping literallyon the slow boat from China and would not be here in time for Christmas.
The only answer I could come up with was to sew my own. I wasn’t super keen on this idea, because I’m not really great at sewing things that aren’t straight lines. You can read all about it here. I did finish it and it even turned out relatively ok, despite a couple of wonky legs.
For almost a whole year, my daughter has regularly and out-of-the-blue asked for Dino (I could never get her to call the other one Sadie like I wanted to name it) to have a purple friend. I kept putting her off because I really disliked making the other one. And because she has a zillion toys already. My default answer was, “Maybe for Christmas…”
So now we’re in crunch time for crafting for Christmas and I couldn’t put if off any longer. I know she’ll be surprised and thrilled to get it, and that was motivation enough to start it.
As I expected, I disliked pretty much the entire thing. From the cutting (I found the fleece to be so stretchy and difficult to cut in a nice shape) to the sewing (those foot pads are SO fiddly!), I muttered curses under my breath.
But finally, I finished it. YES!
He turned out pretty ok. I’m still not super happy with every bit of him, but I was never happy with every bit of Dino either and my daughter still loves him lots. I do love the extra heart I put on his foot.
And now, I’m hoping to retire from toy making. And that I can talk her into calling this one Sadie. 🙂
knitsnips 