A New Week and a New Project
As I promised you, I am trying to stay consistent – new week, new article. If you are new here, I am Alyona 👋. I have been sewing and crafting for as long as I can remember, and I decided to start this new series about what I am working on each week ✂️.
In our last article, This Week I’m Making a Beautiful Felt French Bulldog Plushie, I shared my weekly pattern, what I worked on, a few backstage pictures, and what I still had left to do. So if you are curious where all these ideas are coming from, you can go and have a little peek there 😉.
If you are not new here, then welcome back to our new pattern 🎉. As I promised in the last article, this time we are making a calf. Also, just a small reminder – these articles were supposed to be part of a weekly newsletter. But newsletters come and go, and if you are not on the list, you will not receive them. That is why I decided to come back to my blog and turn them into articles, because articles stay here and do not disappear into inbox history 💌.
If you want updates all the time, then please subscribe to the newsletter on my website. Just scroll down and you will see the subscribe button. And if you have never tried one of my patterns before, you can also grab my Free Sewing Pattern and have a little look around ✂️.
Why This Calf Pattern Started in the Middle
This calf pattern is a bit different from last week’s French bulldog. That frenchy pattern started properly from day one 🐾. This one did not… I created this whole batch of patterns more than a year ago because one of my customers asked if I could make several patterns for her. So I made them. But I never had the chance to test them 🙈.
Because of that, these patterns never appeared in my Sewing Patterns Collection on the website. Now I finally decided to get back to them and start creating the way I used to back in the day. Most of the time, those old patterns were only printed and then left alone. I never did anything more with them.
Some of them, though, got a bit further. I cut a few out of the paper, then out of Soft Felt ✂️, and then stored them away without actually using them. So this calf was already sitting in that pre-cut stage. Later, when I started my first Tips weekly newsletter and needed quick visual examples for tips articles, I kept opening those old files, grabbing elements, showing a technique, and then tossing everything back into the folder without finishing the project 🙈😂.
So this is not really a project from scratch. It is more like an in-progress project. It was pre-cut more than a year ago, and some of the elements were already half stitched. I already had the body finished, one hand element finished, and the tail finished as well. I even have separate tips articles on those parts, but those are technique articles, not these what-am-I-working-on articles.
Finishing the Calf Step by Step
At this point, all I really had left to do was finish the remaining elements. I needed to finish the horns, place them into the head element, sew everything around, and add Stuffing/Filling. That was the main plan before I disappeared to do the actual work and come back with a few pictures and notes.
I do these articles a bit differently from my usual quick tips articles. And I write them in parts. I do some work, then I write down what I have done, then I stop, go back to the project, do a bit more, and return again. So I am really recording the process along the way, not writing everything in one go after it is finished.
For you, it is one quick scroll. For me, it was a couple of hours of joyful but very sweaty work. Why sweaty 💦? Because I work under a Photography Lighting and while I am creating 🙈, I also take pictures and record little tips 🎥. If you are more of a visual person, I keep those craft bits on my YouTube. So yes, I was creating, recording, taking pictures, and slowly melting under the light at the same time 😂.
Sweating Under the Lamp and Glueing the Pieces
That lamp is not some super professional dream setup. It is simply what I have been using for a few years. It does the job really well, but it gets very hot under there. I told myself years ago that I would only replace it when it finally broke and then buy a semi-professional light. Funny enough, the thing is still alive 😂. It is not a proper studio light, but honestly, it has been absolutely unkillable.
During that work session, I finished sewing all the elements and stuffed them. Then I made one more decision. I chose not to stitch all the parts together because this toy is not meant for children’s hands. It will probably end up more as a Key Pendant, but not actually for keys. I love hanging plush pendants on bags, especially soft tote bags. They look really cute wrapped around the handle.
So instead of stitching the elements together, I used a Glue Gun. If you want the full version of that discussion, I have a separate article called How to Attach Felt: Sewing vs Gluing Explained (Best Techniques). But the quick version is simple. If the toy is for a child, I would stitch and glue!!! If it is for home décor and nothing can put a child in danger, hot glue works perfectly, holds perfectly, and saves time ☝️.
Why I Still Have Not Done the Proper Photo Shoot
The next step should be a photo shoot, but I am not doing that yet. Just like with the French bulldog from last week, because I want to wait until I have at least 10 or 20 plushies ready. I simply do not have a big room, so setting everything up for one toy at a time feels like too much hassle 🙈.
What I usually do is build my own fake studio. I put up white boards on each side to make a kind of cube, almost like a fake Light Box. Then I place the plushie in the middle, put the lights in, set up the Camera Tripod, and use the light from my old setup with a Softbox Photography Lighting Kit. Then I take front and back pictures, cut them out in Photoshop, and place them on my brand background, which is that purpl-ish shade I like for the website covers.
Batch Things
That is why I batch things. I would rather make around 20 toys, photograph them all in one go, and then release them one by one. And today I also noticed I still have Christmas ornaments I made for my own tree two years ago. I never photographed them, and I never put those patterns online either. So they are going into the same box of projects that need pictures 📸.
Funny enough, I do actually own a real light box. It is just in storage 🙈. Keeping it at home would take too much space on my crafting table, and I do not exactly live in a castle 😂. Still, when I had a bigger flat and two tables, that setup was brilliant. One table was for crafting, and the other held the light box permanently. I could create one toy, test the pattern, photograph it straight away, and put it online. Create, test, shoot, post – that used to be my flow.
Maybe I Enjoy the Whole Shebang Even More
While I was recording this article, I started thinking that maybe I should bring the light box back and keep it somewhere near the window all the time 🤔. If I really want to stay consistent with these weekly updates, that would make my life easier. I could create the plushie and make proper pictures at the same time instead of waiting for a giant batch.
And over these last couple of weeks, I noticed something else too. I do not only enjoy creating. Sometimes I think I enjoy all the shebang around it even more. Last week, while I worked on the French bulldog, I kept sending pictures to my mum. We live in different countries, so I cannot bring my makes to her the way I used to. Now I can only show them through pictures online.
We are both big Frenchie fans, so of course she loved that project. All my life I had French bulldogs at home. When I lived with my mum, I had two Frenchies. Now I am here in the UK and I have a Frenchie again. I just love the breed. They are manageable, hilarious, adorable little creatures, and that grumpy dumpy face makes me laugh every single day.
During that chat with my mum, I told her that I had caught myself enjoying the content side almost more than the stitching itself 🙈. She laughed and said that I had always been like that. And she is right. Creating the project does not take me as much time as filming it, positioning the camera, keeping my hands in the middle of the shot, writing notes for the article, and planning what details I want to show.
Writing This Article While I Work
Because I write these articles while I create, I keep a piece of paper next to me and scribble little notes as I go. I cannot stop every two minutes, run off, and write a full paragraph. So I jot things down like, oh, mention this bit, or that would be nice to include, or I need a picture of that angle. Then later I sit down and turn all those notes into the article you are reading now.
That part also takes time. I think about which details would be useful to show, where I should place the camera, which angle would show the small pieces best, and how to give you that little backstage peek at how I organise patterns, cut things, and work through the process. So yes, all of that takes much longer than just sewing the toy and snapping one finished photo at the end.
And that is probably why this article is longer than my quick tips articles. I still have not fully wrapped my mind around how to structure these weekly ones. I do not always know what I should say first and what should come second. And I think it may take me five or ten articles before I settle into a better rhythm. Right now, it still feels a bit like blah blah blah while I am learning 🙈. So truly, thank you for your patience while I figure it out 🫶.
What I Am Making Next Week
Now for the most interesting part – what will I work on next week? After shuffling through my patterns, I decided that next week will be about cactuses 🌵. I actually have 3 cactus patterns I have never tested. And on top of that, I have a ready Llama pattern, plus another llama I still need to test ✂️.
I have this idea to make a cot mobile with llamas and cactuses floating around together. The cactuses would not be the main decor, but they would work as the secondary elements that make the whole cot mobile feel more thematic. So that is where I am heading next.
For now, that is it from me. I hope you enjoyed this week’s little backstage catch-up, and I will see you in the next article – this time with cactuses. Bye 👋.
