Japanese Crafting with Mari: Stuffed Animal Kits
One of the many new items Joelle and Jen found at Quilt Market in October was a collection of adorable animal kits from Olympus. I had to immediately make one myself, and, after much deliberation, chose the Owl and Stump kit.
The kit comes with all the materials you need, including English instructions!
I liked that the kit can be adapted to your own skill level. The instructions call for machine sewing the main parts and gluing the felt pieces. However, I chose to use hand sew the eyes, leaves and feet with embroidery thread, to give more of a handmade look to the doll. I think the extra effort gives the owl just a bit more charm!
The animals are from one of my favorite Japanese craft books, Animal Mascot.
Even though the instructions are in Japanese, there are great step-by-step photo tutorials for creating the animals. Not only are the owl, kittens, mouse, pig and sheep in the book, but badgers, monkeys, alligators, penguins, seals, characters from Japanese folklore and many other patterns are in the book as well.
I hope some of you will venture into Japanese crafting with these animals.
Have fun! -- Mari
November 28, 2007 | purl bee | Print | Share | in Japanese Crafting with Mari, Sewing, Toys | 12 Comments
Reader Comments (12)
Meredith
http://www.bittycakes.wordpress.com
(I didn't see a way to ask you in hte store, so can you please email me the answer and remove the email address if you publish the comment?)
Just thought I'd mention that we just changed our format so that noone can see or find our reader's email addresses. We did this because a few readers who left comments recently received some spam. So I'm going to answer your question here.
I think the cat is about 6 inches long when its finished, though thats a guess (I can't seem to find the info either, but I remember it being about that size when I saw it finished at the trade show).
Maybe Mari can let us know how big her finished Owl is? Mari are you out there? --Joelle
And to answer Amy's question about Japanese craft books and being easy to follow, I think they are! I rely on the pictures and drawings when I make my projects versus reading any instructions. I will say that I wouldn't recommend this book to use as a first sewing project, as the animals are small in size and can be a little tricky for a novice sewer. I think a knowledge of sewing and construction is more important than a knowledge of Japanese. -- mari
I love the owl and stump
Do you sell the kit to make it? If not, how can one purchase it?
Thanks
Nancy
We do sell them, but since we posted this they are sold out! We have a few more coming tomorrow and then a lot more next week, probably towards the end of the week. You can find the page of these kits here:
http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/accessories_notions_list/100
Check back soon and hopefully we'll have more of the owl in stock!
You might find what you're looking for at this link, from Molly's Wool Blanket tutorial. She takes you through the steps for what she calls the "slip stitch" which is a type of blind stitch. Its a very tidy way to finish up you projects by hand.
http://www.purlbee.com/luxurious-wool-blanket/2007/11/8/finishing-the-binding-the-final-step.html