For my first object, I wanted to make a doll-like figure by combining a spherical and a rectangular shape. I first began making the patchwork body by laser cutting a bunch of little squares and sewing them to create the outline of the rectangular shape. Then, I combined one piece of the sphere with the body. There were a few holes in the patchwork rectangle and head, so I hand-sewed those. Since this was my first time sewing different primary forms together, I noticed that it was difficult visualizing how to sew the shapes together so the right side was only displayed before stuffing.
As an interactive feature of the stuffed doll, I added two baffles connecting the hair to the arms. In order to make the hair, I braided three pieces of fabric. When the hair is pulled, the arms cave inward. When the hand is pulled, the doll’s long arms are revealed and the hair looks like small little space buns.
For my second object, I wanted to explore sewing techniques like darting. I made a flower stem by making a green cylinder and hand-sewed two stuffed leaves on it. Then, to make the flower I put around 4-8 darts on multiple pieces of fabric circles. I used 5 fabric circles total, with each getting smaller and smaller. To combine them, I hand sewed them all one-by-one in their centers. Making this piece was super cool because it showed me how different ways of sewing (in a way that’s not just attaching two pieces of fabric) can resemble fun patterns and objects.
For my last item, I wanted to challenge myself by creating random primary forms and finding interesting ways to manipulate them. I had a cone and a cylinder, so I combined them to l first began by sewing them together. Next, I explored pushing the stuffing to look more rounded, so I added three fabric strips at different parts of the shape. Another thing I really wanted to experiment with was different types of fabric. The pink fur was a bit frustrating to work with because it kept getting caught in the sewing machine, but it was still a good learning experience. To me, this object resembles something from “The Lorax” 🙂
