A Gift for Hailey Victoria

Here are some photos from an early foray into making stuffed animals.

First I did the small one:

Then I started on the bigger one.  The hardest part was picking out the fabric for the patches on the shell.  I wanted some that had a family connection; for example, the one with the tulips is from a skirt I made, the big polka dots are left over from a costume my sister Rachel wore, but I also wanted them to be fun and suitable for a baby.

The eyes were hand-drawn with non-toxic fabric markers.  I like to think they look soulful.

Below one from assembling the ruffles.  I couldn't resist using the ribbon somewhere because it matched the monkey print I used for the underside of the turtle.  (The monkey print fabric was the very last I had from a tooth pillow that Mom and I made for Hailey's cousins Alex and Conner.)

Here I'm sewing on the neck, which was quite a challenge.  Too much neck sticking out made it floppy.  Not enough was hard to sew.

Here she is with her turtles doing tummy time!

Isn't she just darling?