When I first started sewing and reading sewing blogs, somehow, through extreme good fortune, I came across Heather and her blog Handmade by Heather B. I had so much fun reading her posts, seeing her amazing makes, and learning from her tutorials (plus she has an awesome first name, so yeah). She is incredibly funny and talented, and when I found her post about the PJ Eaters, I fell in love with them instantly. Every time they appear on her blog or on her Instagram account I can't help but smile. There is just something about their googgly eyes and their toothy grins. Plus it helps that Heather poses them in loads of funny ways too. Anyway, back in August, the Sewcialists had a Tribute month, of course I never got around to doing anything about it in August, but better late than never, right? Anyway, my tribute is to Heather B, as she inspires me every time I read her blog and every time I see her Instagram posts. So whenever you see my Monsters, think of Heather and her many sewing, fitting, blogging, and comedic talents and know that they are my ongoing tribute to her.
The pattern is by Sew Fearless, and I actually bought it months ago, but never got around to making it up. The pattern has very detailed, comic book like, illustrated instructions and is very straight forward. The pajama eaters are pretty easy to put together, and are a great way to use up scraps. The only really tricky part for me was hand sewing their bums together after they were stuffed (oh and sewing the soles onto the feet was a little tricky too, but Heather has a great tutorial about that too). I am really not a very good hand stitcher and if I could have figured out a way to use my machine to do it, I would have, but in the end it worked out okay.
I ended up following Heather's lead, and making my guys out of Robert Kaufman 21 wale corduroy from Fabric.com. Its super soft and comes in lots of great colours. I also bought my zippers, felt, lining fabric, and stuffing from Fabric.com too. It was so easy to just order everything I needed in one place. (Okay, that just sounded like an advertisement, but I promise you, I am only a customer and not affiliated with them in anyway.) I have a couple more colours of the cord, as I plan to make a whole army of monsters. And I want to tell you I will give them away, but right now I just want to keep them all to myself.
Of course, this wouldn't be much of a monster tribute post, if I didn't pose the monsters in funny situations ala Heather, so here we go. Once the monsters were born, they were very hungry and looking for food. First stop was John's chair, where they discovered his potato chip stash:
This did not satisfy their hunger, so it was off to the couch to find chocolate:
Still hungry, they headed to the pantry, where they decided to test out the dog food:
Quinice was not impressed, and promptly shooed them away:
Finally, they found what they were looking for:
FABRIC SCRAPS!! FEEEEED MEEEEEE!!
The pugs seem to approve of this nourishment decision:
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door:
The UPS man, whatever did he bring us?
MOAR FABRIC!! NOM NOM NOM!
Once their bellies were full, they hijacked my iPhone to listen to the latest episode of Serial. Have you listened to it yet? It is sooooo good and I am soooo addicted.
That was a lot of excitement for their first day at Casa Gibson, so it was time for a nap. The pugs' window side bed looked like a good spot.
Then Jackie Boy decided to get in for a cuddle:
So as you can see, I am having way to much fun with my monsters. They are currently sitting at the dining room table, aka my sewing table, and they make me soooo happy. I can't help but smile every time I look over at them, and don't be surprised to see more of them in my Instagram feed and possibly even here on my blog. Hopefully Heather knows that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Happy sewing my friends!