Dough Boy

Happy New Year!  I hit the ground running with ornaments in January and I'm making good progress.  I wanted to do some that I hadn't done or, in some cases, hadn't seen anyone else do, either.  Dough Boy was first in the list in the latter category.

I'm also trying some different techniques with how I put ornaments together.  When I made Woody, I experimented with stitching and stuffing the hands and boots before attaching them to the body.  Here's a pic to refresh your memory:

WHAT ... A ... PAIN!

I like the look of the outcome, but it was time-consuming and tedious trying to stitch through stuffing.  

When I started Dough Boy, I knew I wanted the legs to be separate from the apron.  In other words, I didn't want to stitch apron front to leg fronts, apron back to leg backs, and then put it all front-to-back and stitch all the way around.  The reason is because you wind up with this effect:

See how the skirt creeps down on the legs and then back up between them instead of having a nice, smooth, continuous curve?  Yeah . . . don't want that.  (Side note:  ever notice that Sofia looks like she's on steroids or something?)

I knew I wanted to have the legs inserted into the apron, but I didn't want to stitch through pre-stuffed legs.  What's a girl to do?  Leave the legs open at the bottom and insert them UNstuffed!  Let's give it a try, shall we??

I stitched the sides of the pants and across the top.  Then I stuck them between the two apron pieces and stitched the apron together.  Left the black stitching along the bottom of the shoes.  Then I stuffed the pants and feet and THEN stitched the shoes shut.  Worked like a charm!  If it worked for the legs, it'll surely work for the hat -- right?

How come it only took me about 5 years to figure this out???

And here's the finished product:

I added some icing to the cake just to make it more fancy and I added some stitching to the apron to make it less boring.  The pattern calls for his pants and shirt to be one piece, but I thought he was a bit old for a onesie, so I dressed him in separates.  He's really cute and colorful and I can't wait to hang him up.

Next up technique-wise is how to handle heads.  I hate how the head sometimes creeps down and creates a neck like this one did.  I changed how I did that on the next ornament and it looks great!  I'm going to try to post every other Sunday, so you'll only have to wait two weeks to see my next one.  I hope you're already busy stitching your 2015 collection!