Thursday, September 30, 2010

Bla bla bla bla

Meet Clementine. One of the Blabla dolls.

clementine-monkey-mini-blabla-doll

I bet you are wondering why I am showing you an orange sock monkey. One of our needlepoint customers has a 4 year old daughter who loves this monkey. She loves it so much that she takes it with her everywhere she goes. She even has a backup doll in case she can't find the original. She loves this monkey so much that when her mom asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she didn't hesitate.

This is where I come in.

The mother has commissioned me to make a costume for her daughter. A 4 year old sized Clementine.

I started with the easy part. The tail:

Monkey Tail

I cast on 18 stitches and magic looped it till I thought it will be long enough. It should be long enough that the child can twirl and move the tail, but not step on it when she walks (safety first!)

Then I made some cute little mittens:

Monkey Mitts 2

I used this pattern. I made the child's size, so I hope it fits. They were pretty fast too.

The hard part so far? The Monkey head. The mother and I both agreed that we didn't want to obstruct the child's face (again, I cite safety). My first thought was to make a balaclava. I started using this helmet pattern. But it wasn't quite right:

Monkey Head First Try

I started thinking about how to make the heart shaped portition of the monkey face. And then it hit me -- I need to make a cross between a traditional hat and a balacava! But I still had the issue of the heart shape. I knew the answer would include intartsia. So I Ravelry'd "Monkey." The very last pattern was the Punk Rock Backpack from the first Stitch 'n Bitch book. I was so excited that not only had someone else already done the chart for me...but I already owned the book.

Monkey Face

I am really happy with the result. I also finished the ears, but haven't sewn them on yet:

Monkey Head

I started the leg of the first pant...haven't gotten too far. I need to buckle down tomorrow and see how far I can get:

Monkey Leg

Keeping checking back to see my progress...and if I will make my deadline!

3 comments:

MUDNYC said...

OMG. You are a goddess.

kara said...

This is going to be AMAZING Claudine! I was wondering what you were working on at SnB on Tuesday. NOW I get it. Very cool.

blabla kids! said...

Blabla is having a Halloween Costume Contest! You are doing a great job! Can't wait to see :)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atlanta-GA/Blabla/69940800790?v=photos#!/event.php?eid=144109448966753