This is the first piece I made and the last one I finished! I had to figure out the best way to turn the donut inside out. I left it as a donut for a couple weeks and when I came back to it to sew it up and make additions I felt really uninspired. I liked the versatility and simplicity of just a donut and each modification I tried just seemed unnecessary or distracting, so I finally decided to see what it would be like to put a tie through the central seam. I really liked how the shape ended up and made this still a comfortable, useful cushion, but with the ability to change shape and be slightly more rigid than the unfurled donut.
This is the second one I made. I spent time trying to make the donut a donut and then didn’t know where to go, so I figured I would go with a more improvisational approach on this one. I started with the cylinder pattern and tried some darts and cone additions which ended up being more difficult than I thought it would be. It was especially hard to make sure the darts were evenly spaced but I also refused to get out a measuring tape or anything so I might try that next time. It was quicker and more fun to just see what it turned into rather than being frustrated when something doesn’t go according to plan.
This is the third one I made. I really wanted to try out some of the fun fabrics so I finally got to here. I modified half of the sphere pattern when making it so that the inside sphere would be smaller than the outside one, which kind of worked but it was hard to keep it symmetrical and to stuff it evenly. I like that it is a soft hat though. I put a lot of thought into how I was going to create this and I was able to follow the process I thought of pretty well, so that was nice, but it also took a longgggg time, especially because the cones were so small.
This is the last one I made. I also liked the fabric and I wanted to start with a cube this time since I had used a lot of more circular patterns for the other one. I also noticed that the cube was very un cube like after stuffing it, especially because the fabric was so stretchy, so I tried to experiment with putting a skeleton inside, but there was nothing to hold it together. So, I moved it to the outside. I wish the structure I hot glued had held its rectangular shape a bit better, as it kind of twisted, but overall I still had fun exploring the stretching of the soft shape to a more rigid body. I also liked the stitching I did on the outside – it kept breaking so I had to do it several times, but I got to try out different textures. I think it would have been fun to do it to the whole shape.
Overall, I really liked the assignment and would gladly keep doing assignments about sewing small stuffed things if that were what the class was about. 🙂 But I am excited to translate what I learned and practiced to inflatables!