Sammy the Seal

My sister's family took a vacation to the Pacific northwest this summer.  My nephew clearly had a great trip because his ornament request was for either a seal or a rainbow crab.  A rainbow crab doesn't exactly translate well in felt.  Now, if it had been my older nephew, Alex, who'd made this request, I would've made a crab with different colored legs to look like a rainbow.  Zach would NOT have appreciated that vein of humor, though.

I am not a fan of Carolyn DeAngelis' seal pattern.  (Sorry, Carolyn!)  Sometimes the ornaments turn out cuter than they look on paper, so I was debating give it a whirl.  I showed the drawing to my husband and asked him if he could tell what it was.  He said, "a weird-looking dog."  Decision made.  Time to design a new ornament.

I turned to Google for a search of seal clipart since I cannot draw.  Not even a little bit.  I found one that would work, but it was still boring.  Let's face it -- there isn't much to a seal.  I put a red scarf on him to jazz him up and made him show up better on the tree.  I made the mistake of not making the head a little bigger.  I always forget that once you stitch it and stuff it, the basic piece gets smaller.  The pieces that you stitch on to it do not.  The facial features are a little large, but it's nothing that a 12 year-old will be bothered by.