Friday 27 June 2014

A Birthday Elephant

I've been getting the Simply Homemade magazine regularly, since issue 1.  A few issues back, there was a pattern for a lovely crochet elephant.  I decided to make it for my mum and adapted the pattern a little bit, to suit what I wanted.

The elephant is basically the same, except that I made the "arms" a bit thinner than the legs because I thought they would look neater that way.  However, the original pattern was just for an elephant, with no garments.  I thought it would be nicer to make a dressed doll, so I invented a dress, hat and bag - complete with little friend!
 Here she is! She's rather nice, I think...
 And she has a hand-made dress, hat and bag... and a little friend!  

See, the little mouse?  I invented him too - no pattern! 

The elephant and mouse are made in double-crochet (US single crochet!), using the circular technique popular for amigurumi style toys.

The bag is two granny squares slip-stitched together, with a narrow ribbon strap.  And the dress is a fab stitch I found in my crochet stitch bible, adapted slightly to make it flare; the bodice is double-crochet again, with some lace I had in my stash, to make it pretty. The yarn for the majority of the dress is one of those "self-striping" yarns, in cotton. It's produced a great patchwork effect which I'm very pleased with.  I used a plain lilac cotton for contrast, which I also used on the hat.

I didn't photograph the back of the elephant... probably should have, as she has a dear little tail and her dress fastens down the back, with narrow ribbon bows.

I'm really very pleased with how this has turned out!  It's taken me about five months to complete it all, as I don't have much spare time for crafting, but now it's ready for my mum's birthday at the beginning of July. She adores elephants, so she will love to have this as a gift.  Eeeeee.... I can hardly wait to give it to her and see her big smile! 

14 comments:

  1. It is perfect and she will just love it!! I have just had a very exciting and secret phone conversation with someone for her present :):) I cannot wait to see her face when she opens it! x

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    1. Oooo... sounds exciting! I will see it when I get home again...
      I want to give her the elephant next week - perhaps on Wednesday... maybe Friday, if I'm not in Cambridge.

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  2. What a lovely face she has..quite Babar!

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    1. Thank you Sian, I changed her eyes from the original too - they were just dots and the elephant looked rather miserable, so I made nice embroidered eyes with lashes, to make her look more benign and friendly.

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  3. This is absolutely adorable, Lizzie! And I LOVE the addition of that cute little mouse. Well done!!!

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  4. She's more than 'rather nice'.....she's gorgeous.

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  5. She is beautiful Lizzie. Does she have a name? I am so impressed with all the bits you did yourself. I'm sure your mum will love it.

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    1. Thanks everyone, I am so happy with the whole project.

      I thought I'd let my mum give her a name. Seems nice, as it's her present. She will be so excited - she loves elephants (and pandas - I bought her a lovely panda at Christmas and she was thrilled to bits! She called our Taiwanese friend, to ask her for an appropriate Chinese name!).

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  6. What a sweet elephant! And I adore her little friend.
    Rinda

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    1. Thanks Rinda!
      The mouse was James' idea - I thought it was a great suggestion, so I invented one (though amigurumi is v straightforward really - it's just deciding how big to make your beginning and when to stop making the work grow larger...)

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  7. Oh, she is just lovely, Lizzie! And so much better dressed in those pretty things you've invented for her. A brilliant project and you must be feeling very and rightly proud!

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  8. how cute, I'm sure she will be loved. I've just received your lovely postcard thanks xx

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