Peanuts Gang

I've been working my way through the Peanuts gang for a couple of years now . . . adding one ornament each year.  My son played Schroeder in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in high school, so I figured he'd wind up with them one day.

Fun fact:  my husband and I are both musicians.  We perform together locally at wineries, festivals, and other events.  Additionally, I've been having an onstage midlife crisis that started in 2018 when I played my dream role of Miss Hannigan in Annie with a local community theater group.  I know it's a crime that I have yet to design a set of Annie ornaments, but it's on the to-do list.  This February, I played what will probably go down as the role of a lifetime for me when I was cast as Lucy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."  A full circle moment for our family!

The second the cast was announced, I got to work on ornaments for my castmates.  It was a true labor of love because, let me tell you, those particular ornaments are majorly time-consuming.  Schroeder's piano alone almost gave me a nervous breakdown.  Doing those eight ornaments back to back was truly a stitching marathon, but it was totally worth it.  (Seven for the cast and Lucy for the director.)  They were so touched and loved them.  Here's a pic of the finished set:

And here are my friends with their ornaments:

  I have no idea what my dress is doing there.  Incidentally, I made that, too!

I made the Sally ornament for myself this year.  I actually made two at a time.  Holy cow -- stitching on those polka dots.  Yikes.  And, no -- I did NOT put them on the back!  

If you would like to see my other ornaments from this series, look on the right side of this page where it says "labels" and you can search for "Peanuts."

Here are a few more pics from the show you might enjoy seeing:

Funny story:  I posted a picture on FB of the ornaments and IMMEDIATELY, people started wanting to order them.  Someone I only know casually asked if I could make "the whole gang" for her to give to a friend.  I read that to my son and he snorted and said, "For a million dollars!"  I just quietly took the picture down.  Lesson learned!

If you would like to make these ornaments yourself, click here to go straight to Etsy where you can buy the patterns.  

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link.  

Lucy

I don't know what it is about these Peanuts patterns, but they seem to be kicking my butt.  First, there was the Charlie Brown fiasco where my facial features turned out so bad, I had to take the whole head off and redo it:

Yikes.  I still cringe when I look at that first one.  Snoopy and Woodstock turned out great.  But then I had an issue with Lucy's skirt.  Here was the first round.  

Seriously -- what is wrong with me?  And it looked even worse from the back.  She looked like she was in a gang with her pants sagging.  I wound up taking the whole skirt off and then I had to glue it back on.  GLUE!!!  Oh, the shame.  I can live with it, though, because she looks so much better:

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Much better!  We'll see if it can get it in gear when I do the rest of the characters in this series.

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link.  

Woodstock

This is another one from the Peanuts series I purchased from Etsy.  This one is quite small.  I want to hang them all together on the tree and I didn't want Woodstock to be as big as the people, so I sized this one down.  He's a little unremarkable on his own, but he looks great hanging with Charlie Brown and Snoopy!

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link. 

Charlie Brown -- Part Two

If you remember, I told you about this great set of patterns for Peanuts characters I got from Etsy.  Click here for that post.  You might also remember that my Charlie Brown had some issues. 

Yikes.  I still cringe when I look at it.  His face is just all wrong.  I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a big deal, but I couldn't stand it.  I wound up taking the entire head off and trying again.  Much better results this round:

This just goes to show you:  proportion and placement are everything!  I still think there's too much leg showing, but I think I'll just have to deal with that.  Or maybe I'll fix that this year. 

Charlie Brown & Snoopy -- Patterns from Etsy

This is another one I'd saved on Pinterest.  How cute are these?  As a child of the 70's who grew up on the Charlie Brown cartoon specials, I had to make these.  Straight to Etsy for the pattern from a Brazilian designer.  It's interesting . . . a lot of the really cool things I pin lead to blogs that are from Brazil.  That must be the felt crafting capital of the world.  The pattern is a bargain at $18.90 because it includes pieces for all these ornaments you see here.  I thought I'd do two a year.  If you look in her Etsy shop, she has a couple more Peanuts characters you can buy if you finish all 10 of these and are still in the mood.  The only downside is that it's pieces only:  no real diagrams or instructions.  There are color photos, though.  If you'd like to order this pattern, click here. 

Now . . . my Snoopy turned out great.

My Charlie Brown, on the other hand . . . . not so much.

Oh, my.  Everything about him is bad.  I feel angry every time I look at this ornament.  I mean, I'm probably over-thinking it.  It's a Christmas ornament, for crying out loud.  And you CAN tell it's Charlie Brown.  Seriously, though . . . I'm embarrassed by him.  There's too much leg showing.  I don't really know what's griping me about the arms because they look like they do in the photo.  And that FACE!  The horror.  Somehow the proportion is wrong.  The eyes are too high.  Something.  I'm honestly toying with taking the whole head off and starting again.  It's a good lesson in how a few tiny things can really throw things off.  I've decided to not look at him again until later this year and then see if I feel like I need to redo that head.  Sorry, Charlie!

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link.